Is There A Double Standard In Your Choosing Of Movies/TV?

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Steven87

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The thing im wondering about is that I always read how people say that movies like say “Hotel Rwanda” are “amazing movies” because they tell a real story and that seems to justify the violence and all the other negative aspects involved.

But then when those same people watch a movie like “Saw” or a slasher movie like “Scream” they call it “garbage and an excuse for violence”… Now before you start rooling your eyes, the only thing i’m trying to get at are… Wouldn’t you think something like “Scream” would be the lesser of 2 evils when compared to something like “Hotel Rwanda” because in Scream it’s fiction, but when watching “Hotel Rwanda” you are getting the entertainment out of real life suffering and heart ache. This really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. (And please don’t think i’m comparing the quality of the movies, i’m just talking about the violence aspect)

Another thing would be how I’ve seen people on this board praise the movie “The Notebook” which if i’m not mistaken has pre-marital sex in it, but when premarital sex happens in a little show called “Desperate Housewives” (even when not glorifying it) it’s called trash and distgusting.

One of the things that has been bothering me is when I read someone saying that they like Desperate Housewives, 20 negative replies tackled them in the topic they made, but when a couple of people said how they liked “The Notebook” no one said anything, when it contains the same material that people are so angry with "Desperate Housewives"over (And I’m not advertising Desperate Housewives AT ALL, or the notebook for that matter)

This isn’t meant to judge anyone in anyway, I’m just curious how this happens so frequently, and how equally violent, or equally gory, or equally sexual movies don’t get the same praise or objection in the end, and one of them is somehow worse?
 
Well, as for Hotel Rwanda vs slasher movies, in Hotel Rwanda the violence wasn’t entertaining, where as in slasher movies the violence is supposed to be the entertainment.

(Show your average jaded teen a slasher movie: “Awww man! That guy totally got killed!” would be a average reaction. The teen is entertained.)

A double standard occurs when the same action performed by two groups is judged differently because of who the groups are.

But in this case the actions are different: Yes, it’s violence, but the violence is intended to have totally different effects for totally different audiences and thus are not the same.

In Hotel Rwanda, the average watcher probably did not want violence, but the violence had to be there because the story needed to be told in a way that would wake the audience up to the real tragedy of what happened.

In slasher movies, the average watcher WANTS violence, the violence has to be there because the viewer DEMANDS it.

You can see how the spiritual effect of the violence is different in each case.
 
But it’s the violence that makes the movie right, you couldn’t have Hotel Rwanda without people dying just like you can’t have a slasher film without people dying. And it is the tearjerking moments from when someone dies that make the movie so “Powerful” (Like the scene in “Crash” where the little girl was “shot”, it was a “powerful” moment because it was the potential murder of someone.)

The way people view, whether by crying or laughing I don’t think matters, the fact is hollywood jumps on the idea of turning real life heartache into entertainment, and I just don’t understand how when murder is involved in both cases, it doesn’t get the same treatment (maybe Scream wasn’t the greatest example lol)
 
When I watch something like Hotel Rwanda, I dont watch that type of movie (based on actual events that lead to death) for “entertainment vlaue” I watch that type of movie for “educational & historical” purposes. Movies fit into many molds and they arent all meant to “entertain” the viewer.
 
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Steven87:
But it’s the violence that makes the movie right, you couldn’t have Hotel Rwanda without people dying just like you can’t have a slasher film without people dying. And it is the tearjerking moments from when someone dies that make the movie so “Powerful” (Like the scene in “Crash” where the little girl was “shot”, it was a “powerful” moment because it was the potential murder of someone.)

The way people view, whether by crying or laughing I don’t think matters, the fact is hollywood jumps on the idea of turning real life heartache into entertainment, and I just don’t understand how when murder is involved in both cases, it doesn’t get the same treatment (maybe Scream wasn’t the greatest example lol)
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Violence for the sake of getting a thrill is gratuitous; watching it robs you of a bit of your innocence. A historical movie such as “Hotel Rwanda” reminds us of the depths that people can sink to without God, and how one person can make a difference. Movies like that keep us vigilant.
 
Yes. Not only is there a double standard, there is a real problem.

It’s all sick. I could not watch Hotel Rwanda, or Schindler’s List. I wish I hadn’t gone to Saving Private Ryan. That violence does not belong in that medium. We don’t need to be traumatized to understand, or desensitized to feel grown up. Save it for books, or tapes.

My Dad, a two tour vietnam vet, would not go to violent movies of any sort. He said it was simply not entertaining anymore. It is a sign of a disconnected way of life that people can go to these movies.

The only use I’ve seen this stuff put to that could be marginally supported: drivers education tapes meant to scare teens into more cautious driving. Maybe abortion movies should be shown for the same reason.
 
I personally like horror movies and I grew up watching Freddy Kruger and his ilk. I do understand why some people would see Hotel Rwanda in a different light then the slasher movies. Hotel Rwanda is depicting real events and forces us to see both the cruelness of man and his courage. So, I can understand why my friends who abhor horror movies would still watch Hotel Rwanda. I don’t think that they are being mentally dishonest with themselves.

I haven’t watched Hotel Rwanda yet, mainly because movies that depict actual people suffering bother me. Having heard so many good things about this movie, I really want to view it. But Schindler’s List bothered me and it wasn’t violent. Just knowing that humans can actually commit such atrocities to one another upsets me.

Horror movies don’t effect me the same way, because I realize that there is no actual Freddy Kruger or Jeepers Creepers monster waiting to attack unsuspecting teenagers. It is all just makebelieve.
This reasoning is probably why I enjoy CSI but really don’t like those true life Forensic Files that are shown late at night.
 
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soccerDad:
It’s all sick. I could not watch Hotel Rwanda, or Schindler’s List. I wish I hadn’t gone to Saving Private Ryan. That violence does not belong in that medium. We don’t need to be traumatized to understand, or desensitized to feel grown up. Save it for books, or tapes.
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I understand your feelings but not everyone is sensitive to the plight of others. A lot of people are content to carry on with their comfortable lifes and never worry about those outside their everyday sphere.

Movies personalize social issues and put us in the place of the victim. Helping us to be able to humanize events that happen far away or that we might never have to worry about.
 
The violence in movies like Hotel Rwanda is not gratuitous. In order to understand the horror of what happenned in modern times under the guise of revolutionary war a movie like Hotel Rwanda could not be made without that scene where he thinks he has driven off the road, and instead he is driving over a road strewn with bodies.

When a movie is made about the aftermath of Katrina, do you think it will be made without the violence against women that happened in New Orleans? Will it matter?

I have a tendency to pick movies that shy from gratuitous violence and yet I like ‘scary’ films…can a film impact us without being ‘gory’?
 
I totally agree with you that there is a double standard when it comes to extra-marital sex in movies and TV. Sometimes it offends me, and sometimes it doesn’t, but, I suppose, it always should. I guess, maybe there seems to be a different feeling when two people are serious about each other and really “in love” as opposed to taking sex lightly and having it not mean anything – just two people “hooking up”.
 
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