Violence in Film

In the wake of the horrifying maelstroms that have plagued the modern era, different means of motion picture portrayal of these events have arisen. Many films that depict conflicts and historic turning points in wars contain intense images of the gruesome realities of combat. There are also war films that utilize combat scenes that are implicative of violence and killing but portray the brutality through different means. Rather, these scenes serve as a background to a historical account of true events. The portrayal of these historical events can be demonstrated through different techniques, thus eliciting each film with a unique style of portraying historical events.

When it comes to cinema, many war movies serve to entertain rather than to convey a message or reveal the hard realities of historical events. This notion of how historical movies are portrayed, is a key target to the viewer. For many viewers, the film becomes their reality of the historical event, when in fact none of it is real. Violence can be an essential motivating factor of the movie, as the more motivating and emotionally charged scenes that are injected into a movie give the viewer a stronger stimulating impact of reality. Again, the reality and impact a film has on a viewer is essentially based on the methods and mannerisms that make up the film. One must also take into account that many people yearn to see heart-pumping stylized scenes of violence as opposed to traumatic and frighteningly real images of killing. While stylized violence may prove to be effective at keeping an audience's heart rate elevated and their focus intact, it must also present the viewer with an accurate picture of history, and provide the necessary motivating factors to capture the viewer so the scene is deemed as 'real'. Moreover, the majority of this stylized violence provides a spectacle for entertainment rather than providing a purpose and establishing an emotional connection (Tolchin, 48).

On the other hand, graphic violence that stuns the audience with haunting and realistic images of gore captures the brutal essence of what really happened during that particular time. This is far more effective than exposing people to a clichéd Hollywood format (i.e. a hero that endures hardship, leads the people, and in the end prevails) when trying to portray true events. The ultimate goal of historical films is to leave a lasting emotional impression on an audience, not the ephemeral thrill and exhilaration you experience from seeing a typical action flick. However, in some instances, it may be appropriate to incorporate a balance of both stylized and graphic violence in a historical movie, as is the case with the Defiance film. In this movie, the director attempted to illustrate the heroism and determination that the Bielski brothers demonstrated during the Jewish resistance in the Naliboki Forest. The stylized violence presented in the film serves to provide a pathway for which the hero can avoid death in any situation and succeed (stylized as the main character always survives even when death is eminent and graphic in the sense that the hero uses violence as a method to revolt and give the hero power). In addition, stylized violence can be employed at certain moments to give the audience a break from the gore and to make it feel like you were there in the war. One example, in the film Come and See, stylized violence is the scene where Nazi fighter aircraft target the Belo-Russians in the forest. The main protagonist becomes shell shocked from being shaken by the bombs. The camera shakes, time slows to a crawl, percussive explosions crowd the screen and a high-pitched ringing sound of tinnitus drowns out the noise of the battlefield. This scrupulous scene attempts to 'bring' the viewer into the action by the perception of an emotional and intense experience. Metaphorically, a connection is made through the violence (with proper timing and technique), demonstrating how life can be experienced on an adrenaline pumping traumatic level. The viewer is now engaged on a more heightened and inexperienced stage, thus giving a pathway to 'hook' the viewer into a more 'realistic' emotional impact.

As a whole, violence is used as a motivating device that attempts to captivate and give purpose to the events that follow. Violence can thus be established through several varying modes. For the most part, violence is instituted through the physical realm. Predominantly, physical violence takes the aggressive form (arteries gushing blood, mutilated and dismembered body appendages, as well as oozing flesh lacerations to name a few) which encapsulates the viewer by giving violence's final purpose, death. The aim of death by violence is to shock and grasp the viewer within the definitive margins of the plot, and ultimately to motivate giving a final purpose in death and a pathway for the viewer to feel present. Enactments of violent death are common to pivotal moments in film and often establish a form of closure. Classic examples of this permeate Hollywood films by using stylized devices in the death of the character. A clear example of this can be seen in Defiance via a slow-motion death where an attempt to glorify the character in their downfall is emphasized (in Defiance, this character is displayed by purposefully running into an outnumbered battle clenching onto a hand grenade where he is swiftly slaughtered, his attempt to take down the enemies fails, and is ultimately glorified in his death, as he no longer has to endure the hardship of persecution). All physical violence entails the imitation or desensitization of aggressive behavior through actions. Contrarily, violence can be employed on a psychological level that reconciles the viewer through morality. Preceding every violent behavior or action comes a non-diegetic moral decision that the individual must ascertain and decide upon. The potential to display this through the film leaves the viewer with a lasting emotional experience and connection (hence expanding upon the viewer's reality of the portrayed situation). These moral attitudes and decisions associated with violence are typically exhibited by dehumanizing behavior or cultural aspects that pejoratively affect the individual. In the film Come and See, dehumanizing behavior is exemplified on many instances, but few as impacting as the Nazi motorcyclist who rides with a murdered Belo-Russian tied to his sidecar who bears a sign that state "I insulted a German soldier". In another instance, Belo-Russians are rounded up and placed into a large building where they have no way out and no idea as to their fate. The Nazi soldiers then state that those without women and children may come through the window. This dehumanizing behavior leaves the characters with a crucial moral decision as to their existence, which additionally has pervading cultural undertones (as a result the impact increases two-fold as the Belo-Russians are left with a moral decision of possibly escaping death as well as a cultural and communal aspect of leaving one's community behind to suffer). The use of psychological and physical violence in tandem narrates a strapping and lasting impact, fundamentally leaving viewer to cope with fear, shock, morality, and ultimately survival.

The violence that evil subdues always leads to a two part conflict: self-conflict affecting the character individually and the conflict as a whole associated with alienation. The films Come and See and Defiance, essentially deal with the same conflicts as a whole yet, portrayed through different methods of violence. Both films cope with the alienation of a persecuted group, but portray the self-conflict through varying methods of style. Defiance takes the self-conflict into the main typical hero character where issues of self-conflict are typically oriented toward maintaining a strong sense of leadership, and heroic actions. On the other hand, Come and See, takes self-conflict into a naïve character, leaving the character to cope with atrocities, death, and survival for the remainder of his life rather than heroically leading the community to safety. Rather, these films make use of the same plot outline, however are so radically different in their stylization that the terminal result is incomparable. The difference in the outcome is based upon the mode of violence, which is either graphic in nature coming to a horrifying and undying outcome, or stylized in nature so that the outcome is not of graphic tone but rather triumphant.

In conclusion, violence is an indispensable stylized device that can motivate the viewer, and establish a connection. Violence can be employed in a multitude of realms, manners, and modes which allow for a plethora of outcomes. Conclusively, all violence in film is stylized to fit a particular scheme. In certain schemes, violence can be portrayed as graphic in nature or tone, or can lack the graphic characteristic so that the film is stylized to fit a typical story-telling mode (Defiance). Irrefutably, violence graphic in nature leaves a long lasting impression and creates a deeper 'impact' in the viewer's reality and feeling involved with the film, particularly with historical accounts.

Sources

1. Tolchin, Karen R. Part blood, part ketchup coming of age in American literature and film. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007.

2. Violence and American cinema. New York: Routledge, 2001.