Firstoff, I have not seen the movie Kick-Ass (which, apparently, did not do well this weekend). Mind you, this might be one of those times in which I go see a superhero movie while it is still in the theaters. You'll know if I do indeed end up doing that. :-D
However, I do have to wonder something, and it's related to the title of this blog entry above. Is Kick-Ass starting a new, and not exactly good, trend in presenting a pre-adolescent child delivering bloody violence, and then receiving bloody violence? It's the "receiving bloody violence" parts in particular that bothers me - in essence, it seems to be making child abuse into entertainment. Child abuse is never entertaining, and I wonder if the movie industry really wants to go down that road.
If, as Bill Clinton recently said, "word really matter", then does that apply to movies that seem almost glorify abuse to a child? I know the likely response: "It's just a movie!", and it's why I will be trying to give the movie a chance by going to see it in the theater, but I was a bit disturbed by some of the reviews that seem to make a big deal out of the child character, named "Hit Girl", saying "the C word" and in her bloody beatings of the bad guys. It sounded like that was the main reason to go see the movie.
Movie trends tend to start this way, with one movie trying to take movie-making "in a new direction", and if enough intellectual types slobber all over it enough as being "ground-breaking", then other movie makers will follow suit by making a movie that "pushes the envelope" some more. Well, now we come to this, in which a child is bloodied by an adult for the sake of entertainment. So my question is, do we really want to "go there"?
Regular blog readers know that I make no secret of my political conservatism, and no doubt because I just said that, new readers will say that I am being "uptight" and "advocating censorship" over a movie's rights to free expression, even though I said nothing of the kind. But rather than shoot the person who is just making an observation, I instead invite those of you who have actually seen the movie to tell me - with as must honesty as possible - if you truly believe that this movie does not try to make child abuse into movie entertainment.
Remember, I'm going to try to see this movie myself so that I can make my own determination of whether the violence against a child is justified for the story, or if it's a movie trying to take movie-making into a new, and not necessarily good, direction.
Just so that this is covered, if you have not seen the movie and don't want what's in the movie spoiled for you, then don't read any possible comments below! You have been warned!
1 comment:
I would be upset if this starts a trend but as for Kick-Ass itself, having seen it (and it is MUCH better than the comic itself) the main reason to watch the film is to see Hit-Girl. She pretty much dominates every time she's on the screen (and I attribute this more to the performance of Chloe Moretz than the curse words which they could have done without and still not lose much). In-story one could attribute her foul mouth and uncaringly deadly ways to the wacked-up way she was raised by "Big Daddy" to be the perfect killing machine and out-of-story that stuff exists just to shock the audience. It's obvious - and it works. As any 11 year old actress used the "c" word in a major film before? For me that's the only danger - that other filmmakers will see this as daring and try to replicate it themselves using little kids. But as a one-time thing in a singular character (and the only real reason the movie exists- they might as well name it Hit-Girl) it's not too worrisome (yet).
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