There's a certain sect of people who always harp on about excessive violence in film and the effect it has on society. Those who preach the safety tune are so in excess themselves they have their own parody on The Simpsons ('won't somebody please think of the children!'), a TV show that is as good a reflection of our world as we can get really. Film is always the culprit when it comes to pointing the blame for society gone awry, just like music. But can you really level any blame at film or any of the arts for reimagining what already exists, or are they just easy scapegoats? Kids have always had violent storytelling in their midst, or aimed right directly for them, haven't they? The Grimm's Fairytales was no Disney tale of happy bunnies feeling sleepy in the sun now, was it? Plus, violence is real so what does hiding it away really solve? Nowadays, blockbuster films with large family and young audiences (irrespective of the rating) have as much violence as ever if not more, and are often sharply called out on it by their critics, but does a little violence in storytelling really hurt anyone and if so why do so many very young audiences flock to films like The Dark Knight, The Hunger Games, Iron Man and Dredd and end up, scarred, dysfunctional wrecks?
Even Walt Disney knew that Bambi's mother needed to be shot, the princess needed to eat the poison and Mufasa needed to be trampled by the herd. Why? Because that's life and that's the movies. The movies are a blown up, if you'll excuse the word choice, version of reality. The most obvious outlets for violence in family-friendly (in terms of who actually goes to see it) are superhero, action and fantasy films that explore complete alternate worlds to ours. The fantasy sci-fi The Hunger Games sees Katniss is one of the most interesting stand out cases recently made. Children forced to fight to the death in a post-apocalyptic state...Yes, that's pretty violent.
As any fans of The Hunger Games will know, the entire point of the film is to portray the desensitisation, or really to go further even the complete immunity, of audiences to unnecessary violence. Unecessary being a key word there. OK, so the violence in The Hunger Games has a purpose, but what about the countless others? How about, the Christopher Nolan Batman franchise, fellow comic book hero flicks such as Iron Man, The Avengers or robo films like Dredd and more 'classic favourites' like Total Recall (recently remade), Robocop and The Terminator?
The latest in the Iron Man franchise, Iron Man 3, was heavily criticised by many for its focus on terrorism, exploding veterans and point blank shootings. The Avengers was less viscerally violent but weapons are as common as butter knives in the series, you just don't see as many physical effects from them as you do the former. Similarly, sci-fi robo films like The Terminator and Robocop focus a lot on the gadgetry of violence, which is obviously not so good, but also more importantly knit it into the moral tale of the plot. At the base of it all, these genres are not only action tales but modern parables of a sort, especially the superhero adaptations for obvious reasons. You could argue with cycnicism that there is no need to see the baddie Bane pummel Batman to the brink of death, and you do see every flinchingly intense hit, but isn't drama- the type that has a message- meant to be strikingly intense? It's the violence that illicits little reaction in film and media that should be cause for concern, or violence for violence's sake.
It may not be a get-out clause but after all, the story these films follow of darkness versus light is not as easily drawn without the depiction of violence. Not only does it use violence to implore for some greater good but it is often, strangely, used for another differing reason- escapism. It might sound strange that confronting death and violence could be form form of release for anyone other than an utter psychopath but films like the Tim Burton brand revel in messing around with the body, our fears about it and all of our myths and in doing so is both communal and belittles the fear that lies beneath. Look at The Nightmare Before Christmas or Sweeney Todd and you find a myriad of gorey jokes.
Film should never exploit violence just for shock factor alone, but take away all the violence and you're left with something quite banal and meaningless.