Violence and Sex in Movies

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French in his book "Screen Violent" stated that "since the turn of the century, violence closely followed by sex has been the most controversial and emotive aspect of the movies" (French 1996, p.4). In fact, they are the subjects of attacks and occasionally defenses in the media. A lot of people believe that sex and violence are overused in movies and their effects are mostly negative. As a result, they jump into the conclusion that there are more criminals because the young audiences were influenced by violence images from movies. In addition, they claim that scenes which show the women's body on the screen are disregarding of women. However, some other arguments state that limiting the sex and violence scenes in movies not only reduces the creativeness of filmmakers but also hides the truth. Therefore, the roles of sex and violence in movies have to be clarified and understood clearly. This essay will firstly examine the role of violence and then sex in movies.

Firstly, violence in the movies is not of recent origin. From the start, filmmakers were draw to subjects involving action and violence. For example, "The Great Train Robbery" in 1903 which contained the famous and powerful image of a gun being turned towards the camera and fired straight at the audience is the cinema's first example of truly brutality. In addition, graphic violence is an inescapable and ubiquitous characteristic of contemporary cinema. For example, Martin Scorsese has shown characters with their faces shot apart in "Taxi Driver" (1976) and there are giant bugs ripping their victims into ragged, bloody pieces in Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" (1998). Therefore, it is possible to say that screen violence is deeply embedded in the history and functioni...

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Romney, J 2004, 'Le sex and violence', The Independent Online Edition, September 12, 2004. Retrieved: December 21, 2004, from http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/features/story.jsp?story=561392

Jinman, R. 2003, `Sex and violence screen-shocker to open here uncut', The Sydney Morning Herald.

March 7 2003. Retrieved: December 21, 2004, from

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/06/1046826481519.html?oneclick=true

Roten, R. 2001, 'The effect of violence in film and television on society', April 12, 2001. Retrieved: December 21, 2004, from http://www.lariat.org/AtTheMovies/essays/violenceinfilm.html

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