Are movies too violent, or is cinema just evolving?

I got an interesting question in the mail:

"I am not very familiar with your website but I came across an article you wrote about the increase in violence in cinema while doing research for a paper I have to do. I found the article very interesting and was wondering if I may ask a question to you. I am a student at the University of Notre Dame and am writing a paper dealing with violence in movies. Specifically, if violence in movies is ruining the art form of cinema. I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Thanks."

This is a very interesting topic, and one that I've spent a lot of time thinking about.

The answer is easy, however: violence isn't ruining cinema, it's part of the evolution of cinema. The question instead, perhaps, is whether it's evolving in a good direction or not.

I think that if we review the last hundred years of cinema it's clear that things have become more and more overt, more and more graphic and less subtle. Film was the language of metaphor, of the nuance. Consider Nosferatu (1922) as a splendid example of an early film with a fairly violent theme (vampires) presented in a non-violent manner. Everything was off screen and the filmmakers were careful not to offend or upset the audience with anything graphic or intense.

Zoom forward to Gone with the Wind (1939) and, again, most of the actual violence is off-screen or is painted in such a sweeping manner that it's almost abstract (I'm thinking in particular of the scene where Selznick shows Atlanta burning). The film is intense, but not violent or graphic.

Rick's Cafe from "Casablanca"

Going further forward in time, consider Casablanca (1943) or A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), both intense movies that take place in violent environments, but are still not intensely violent as movies. Let's just consider the brilliant Casablanca: all the violence of World War II and the tension of Germany occupied Morocco, and yet what we see is a scene played out with the Nazi officers singing a German song and being drowned out at Rick's Cafe Americaine by the locals singing the French national anthem. Intense, but extraordinarily abstract, even as it's a clear metaphor for the tension and horror of the war and the occupation.

It's this era that Hitchcock produces his best works too, including the thrilling Rear Window (1954) and North by Northwest (1959), both of which deal with very violent situations in a way that has moments of undeniable tension, but without slapping you in the face or shoving the violence down your throat.

Let's move forward a bit further. West Side Story (1961) is a story about street gangs in New York and the problems that arise when the leader of one gang (Tony) falls for the sister of the leader of a rival gang (Maria). There are gang rumbles, run-ins with the cops (Officer Krupski, famously) but it's all set to music and is again played out with the film as a metaphor for what the viewer knows would otherwise be a scary, tension-filled situation.

A few more years forward, to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and we have the unimaginable horror of nuclear armageddon played out as a vicious satire, the most incredible violence as, again, a metaphor.

Alex and his mates having a drink in "A Clockwork Orange"

I think it's the early 1970s that begin the major change in the appearance of violence and loss of film-as-metaphor. Consider both The French Connection (1971) and A Clockwork Orange (1971). Both are aggressive, violent films and both are scary in a way that earlier films, even just two or three years earlier, weren't. Even given that, though, it's also true that there's a sense of morality, a comeuppance for criminal acts that still helped audiences have a sense of justice (although Kubrick clearly played with that idea in A Clockwork Orange, making the very ending rather ambiguous).

That's when I mark the turning point in modern cinema, and then it's a matter of degrees to watch cinema evolve to The Deer Hunter (1978), which I remember seeing while I was in High School and being quite affected by and The Killing Fields (1984), among many others.

I'll suggest that another line was crossed with the release of Pulp Fiction (1994), which I still think is one of the most graphically violent and aggressive films ever made. But then again, consider the first hour of Saving Private Ryan (1998), or the phenomenally aggressive (and frankly mediocre) Gangs of New York (2002).

Daniel Plainview watching a well burn in "There Will Be Blood"

And, finally, we come to the modern era, where dreck like There Will Be Blood (2007) is a self-fulfilling prophecy and films like Kill Bill (2003) parody themselves with the graphic violence and explicit, well, everything.

Have movies been ruined? No, I don't think so. But I do find myself enjoying the older films for their lack of ambiguity. Key Largo (1948) is intense and has scary bad guys, but in the end it resolves so that the bad guys are caught and justice is served. Compare that with the film Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) where the bad guys are celebrated as heroes by the end of the film.

But that's how I view the evolution of cinema. How about you?

The fun little pond rug I got for the kids room...

First off, fair disclosure: the rug I'm writing about was sent to me gratis by my friend Ed Shapiro who runs the attractive online children's store Sensory Edge.com.

When my kids were quite young, they each enjoyed playing with small toys in a constrained area of their own making. Whether it was a corner behind the couch, a "fort" made of towels or blankets thrown over chairs and other objects, or even somewhere in the yard, they had a clear preference for small spaces for their imaginative play. Probably had something to do with the fact that they were small. :-)

My 4yo K- still does this and it's quite common for her to make remarkably elaborate fortresses out of every pillow off the bed, every cushion off the couch and just about all the blankets in the house. I've also found that a camera tripod is a splendid prop for building forts too (instant teepee!)

When my friend Ed of sensoryedge.com told me about some of the cute area rugs he sold, I was definitely interested, and when I showed the pictures to K-, she was interested too, specifically in the design that looked like a little pond with a bridge and some lily pads!

When we got the rug, it fit perfectly in the kids room at my place and it's a really nice little oval shape too, with a fun graphic design on it.

As Ed tells me, "The cool, calming colors and simple, broad design create the perfect place in homes and classrooms for story time, quiet time and all of your group gatherings. Available in multiple sizes and shapes, this unique learning carpet will brighten up any room."

He points out that it's designed specifically for the rough and tumble world of kids play and that the rug is treated with "Carpet Guard" which is comparable to Stainmaster® and has an anti-microbial treatment which is a durable "locked-in chemistry" that is incorporated into the backing composite to minimize product deterioration and odors caused by microbial activity.

Now I don't really care about the anti-microbial treatment and try to minimize my kids taking food into their rooms, but with a cat in the house and the occasional visit from a family dog or two, it's nice to know that if anything "happened" we'd be good.

Anyway, the rug is cute and K- does occasionally like to play with her toys on its cheery little pond surface. I have a feeling that a year ago she'd love it more, so maybe the target age is 2-3 years old or thereabouts, but even just as an area rug, there's a certain magic to it that's great fun.

What's with streamers being thrown at MLS soccer games?

My son and I had a rare evening to ourselves tonight and flipped on Fox Soccer Channel to watch a US Major League Soccer (MLS) game between The New York Red Bulls and Real Salt Lake. The game was pretty good and the play was exciting but it's the first time in watching a lot of soccer that I've ever seen streamers thrown on the playing field by fans and it sucked.

I'm not a hardcore fan of any sport or team though if I had to pick a sport, it'd be European soccer and specifically the World Cup (indeed, the single biggest sticker on my laptop is a World Cup 2010 South Africa sticker. Ask me to see it next time we meet up. it's cool).

But I just don't think I have what it takes to be a fan in these offensive and unpleasant modern times...

Continue reading What's with streamers being thrown at MLS soccer games?

Attachment parenting and Waldorf school helps keep your kids slim?

Among the waves of email I get from my blogging efforts are some that are targeted to this parenting / daddy blog, which is definitely cool. In fact, sometimes the messages are from vendors or PR agencies who are hoping that I'll write about their product or service. Some are cool (I have some samples of a new product from the company that makes Emergen-C, for example, coming in the mail) but some, like this release from MealpayPlus help me realize just how far we are from the normal day-to-day childhoods of typical American children...

Here are their five key points related to their product...

Continue reading Attachment parenting and Waldorf school helps keep your kids slim?

What will Halloween look like in twenty years?

I know, I know, this is going to be a bit of a rant. Hey, it's my blog and you've been warned. :-)

I remember when I was a kid our Halloween costumes tended to be more improvised than purchased at the local Halloween costume store and the entire holiday had a rather underground "harvest festival" sort of feel to it, with benign scares and very little that was truly frightening.

That picture on the left? That's me, dressed as a pirate. Cute, eh?

I also have memories of borrowing one of my Dad's dress shirts and working with my Dad to build a little "shoulders" platform that rested on my head: I was the headless horseman. No picture's available for me to post online, however, sorry!

By contrast, this Halloween we decided that we didn't really even want to take any of our kids into the ubiquitous no-name Halloween costume stores because the imagery is so darn violent and gory.

What's happened to Halloween?

Continue reading What will Halloween look like in twenty years?

How you can really help eradicate global poverty

Today is Blog Action Day with a focus on poverty, but I have to admit right up front that I'm not a big fan of these "action day" events because they mostly feel like a way to alleviate guilt rather than an avenue to really help anyone. I think having hundreds of people write about the same topic on the same day is just overwhelming, not particularly effective. Nonetheless, since there are lots of bloggers writing about poverty, I thought I'd share a little bit about the excellent work to eradicate global poverty that the United Nations has been doing for years and hopefully bring a few worthy organizations to your consciousness.

I'm going to start by quoting the UN's Social Perspectives on Economic Development: "poverty eradication is an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of mankind and [we call] on governments to address the root causes of poverty, provide for basic needs for all and ensure that the poor have access to productive resources, including credit, education and training."

A big task, but that's the path out of poverty. To further illustrate...

Continue reading How you can really help eradicate global poverty

My son gets his tonsils removed, and it's a success!

Today was a momentous day in my son's life: he went under the knife and got both his tonsils and adenoids removed. Why? Because his tonsils had become infected and swollen and a source of infection in his body, making him have a never-ending level of ill health.

Me, I also had my tonsils removed when I was 8, and have almost no memories of it other than how cool it was to be in a hospital, have new books to read (and, doubtless, some comic books too) and be able to eat as much ice cream and drink as much soda as I wanted. Nice! Pain? Drugs? No memories of that stuff. Probably just as well.

Continue reading My son gets his tonsils removed, and it's a success!

Film Review: "Eagle Eye"

I know, this is a parenting blog and I'm supposed to just write about parenting, but I'm a film buff -- I run @FilmBuzz on Twitter, among other things -- and I want somewhere to publish so, with your indulgence, I'll go ahead and write this film review here on the Attachment Parenting blog. And if there's something parenting-related in the movie, well, I'll be sure to talk about that too. Deal?

This afternoon I watched the latest release from Dreamworks, Eagle Eye. Directed by D. J. Caruso and starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Moaghan and Rosario Dawson, it's an exciting film that's clearly inspired by Enemy of the State, Star Wars (specifically The Empire Strikes Back), and a veritable screening room of modern surveillance films.

Problem is, while the story is pulled together very well and it's exciting, it's also a few minutes too long, a few minutes that really adversely impact the film and leave you...

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Review: Cirque du Soleil: The Beatles LOVE, Las Vegas

While attending Blogworld Expo last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, I had a wonderful Twitter experience that resulted in my friend Klaus and I being given free tickets to see the hottest show on the Las Vegas strip: Cirque du Soleil The Beatles LOVE.

I'm going to go into the show in depth, but let me start by giving you a one word summary: fabulous!

Having said that, let me also say that prior to LOVE I had never attended a Cirque du Soleil show, either in Las Vegas, Orlando, Florida or anywhere else. I've certainly heard quite a bit about the performing group and the various shows (they have about twenty five active shows, some of which tour and others that are in fixed locations, like LOVE). The general buzz is that it's fun, amazing, and trippy. I'd agree with all three.

Before we jump in though, let me just say that I was on Twitter chatting with a few other folk about how I really wanted to see a Cirque show, specifically The Beatles LOVE, while in Vegas this time. To my surprise, one of the marketing team at Cirque reads Twitter and sent me a message asking "which show, when?" Long story short, I had two tickets compliments of the marketing team, which was an unequivocal home run for my Twitter experience. Another one, actually.

But back to LOVE...

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I don't want to meet Candace Bushnell's Sex And The City women as teens

I bumped into this article a few days ago: Sex and the City' gets teen spin in Variety.com and have been thinking about it every since.

Now, I'm a guy, but I want to say that, at least in the first season or two, I thought that HBO's Sex and the City was edgy, funny as heck and sexy. Linda and I both enjoyed watching it and were occasionally shocked by what they addresses but mostly found it good modern TV, far away from the heavy hand of the FCC.

Over time, however, it got tiring and each episode seemed to end with a morbid or depressing twist, leaving me far less entertained than had been the case earlier. Ironically, I bumped into the last few minutes of an episode just last night and it was perhaps exactly able to express the problem with the series over the long run...

Continue reading I don't want to meet Candace Bushnell's Sex And The City women as teens

How did my 4yo learn how to do this stuff?

Maybe this is just me being a proud papa or something, but I'm pretty blown away by what my 4yo has been doing lately. I know that younger siblings tend to learn faster because of the influence of their older siblings, but still...

Today while we were driving around, K-, my 4yo, wanted to write a letter to a little pal of hers. So she took a pad of paper and a pen and, as we drove, asked me how to spell the words in the sentences she wanted to write.

"I love you. You are my best friend. I want to play with you soon."

Continue reading How did my 4yo learn how to do this stuff?

My visit to the Democratic National Convention in Denver

Since it was just a few miles down the road, I took the afternoon off and went with a good friend to the Democratic National Convention in downtown Denver, Colorado. We didn't have any sort of pass or ticket to get into any events, but we figured, ah, what the heck, let's see what we can see. And see we did...

The following are the pictures I took on our afternoon of wandering around, starting with us scoring free tickets to the Panel on Combating Global Poverty and listening to two hours of very interesting discussion and commentary on the global crisis in poverty. Here's a peek:

Going left to right is Ben Affleck, actor/advocate; Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development; Obiageli "Oby" Ezekwesili, vice president of the African Region of the World Bank; Donald Payne, U.S. Representative, New Jersey; and program moderator Gayle Smith, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Continue reading My visit to the Democratic National Convention in Denver

How to ensure safety while letting my daughter get her own email address?

The tempest has come home: my 11yo daughter A- has begun communicating via email with her out of state cousin. Nothing amazingly new, except we've kept our children off the computer completely so it is a brave new world. To date, email from the cousin is sent to Linda, who then shows it to A-, who then uses Linda's account to compose a response or new message.

Alright, I say begrudgingly, maybe, just maybe it's time to let her have an email account of her own, as a step towards being an autonomous young adult on the Internet.

But the Internet is a scary place, she's 11 and used to us protecting her and shielding her from the rough edges of life. I'm concerned.

Here's what I've proposed...

Continue reading How to ensure safety while letting my daughter get her own email address?

When you need to keep track of your nursing schedule

A few days ago, I was surprised and intrigued to see an application show up at the Apple iPhone Application Store that helped women keep track of when they were nursing their baby. I communicated with the program author and found out that it was actually a team: a woman who had the need for the application and a man who actually wrote the program itself. A bit of discussion and I ended up with two short interviews, one with each person. The more techie interview with the programmer I'll be putting online elsewhere (and will link to it here once it's online).

Mostly I think I was just a bit confused why women would need to track their nursing in the first place, so I asked Heather for some background. Please read on...

Q: When Linda nursed our children, I don't recall us tracking anything. They just free nursed. Why would women have to track their nursing?

A: After I delivered my son, the hospital sent me home with a breastfeeding chart so that I could log my times and track my feedings. As a first time mom who had no idea what she was doing the chart was a helpful guide. Tracking allowed me to see if I had nursed the recommended number of times (8-12 times in a 24-hour period).

I was sleep deprived and overwhelmed, it was hard to remember what day it was let alone when the last time I nursed. I realized that if I was able to get in all my feedings during the day, the result was a well fed happy baby that slept the entire night! When you look back at the log, it is inspirational and tells you how well you are doing.

Continues...

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Why do people divorce, and how can you heal from a divorce?

I recently had a chance to interview Jeannine Lee, facilitator for Fisher Rebuilding divorce recovery seminars, about divorce and why the workshop can be so valuable for people who are getting a divorce or already divorced. Fair disclosure: I have gone through this course myself and am now a volunteer for the Fisher Rebuilding Divorce Recovery Seminars. This article is long, but I think it's well worth reading.

Q: Based on my own personal experience, there are a distressing number of people going through divorces. Why do you think there are so many divorces?

That’s a big question, but I can think of several reasons...

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Hey Dads, don't give up on your kids!

I don't know if it's just complete coincidence or something more curious, but in the last ten days or so I have had three conversations with men about how some men who leave a relationship leave not just their wife or partner, but their children too.

Most recently, someone named "David" left a comment elsewhere on this blog saying:

"She took her rings off over two and a half years ago. I haven't given up yet. I don't know how much longer I can deal with it though. Once it's over I'll have to leave the state. My boys are grown, but my daughter is still only 11."

My earlier conversation with another Dad had quite the opposite skew, and yet...

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The dangers of going off-schedule: The day from Hell

One thing I am learning as a separated / divorcing parent of younger children is the consequence - the really bad consequence - of going off schedule after finally establishing a routine. Today, I'm sorry to say, was the poster example of how family dynamics can add up to drive everyone crazy rather than establish harmony when things get too far off track.

And yet, somehow this is the inevitable result of summer activity, with travel that perforce can't be with both parents. Ten days ago we were all in a good routine and, at my house at least, everyone was happy, calm, pleasant and we had a good time and fun weekends. Not idyllic, but not too bad, all in all. Made me feel like I was doing pretty well as a single dad.

This week I wanted to take my kids to visit my folks out of state, however, so that ended up where the littlest (4) stayed home with Mom while the two older kids (8 and 11) flew out to LA with me for Sunday-Thursday. Our routine, however, has all three with Mom Monday-Thursday evenings for the summer.

Continue reading The dangers of going off-schedule: The day from Hell