Introduction
Modern popular culture has embraced violent movies as a key component of entertainment. This is evident in the article, which was written by Grisham, where he explains that Sarah and Ben went to Memphis to watch the Grateful Dead Movie (Grisham, 1996). It is, further, noticeable that they had watched Natural Born Killers. This movie was dominated by immense murder, human brutality and cruelty.
Ben admits that he loves this movie implying that the modern popular culture accepts violent movies in this community. This paper will, therefore, focus on how violence is depicted on the movies that are described in this article. It will, further, discuss on how the movies influence the character of the audience when they are exposed to them.
Depiction of Violence
Grisham describes the content of Natural Born Killers in a clear and detailed manner. In this movie, violence is depicted through brutal acts of murder. The main actors Mickey and Mallory randomly kill people as they move to southwest. They are described as mindless lovers implying that their killings were entirely unreasonable and senseless.
The brutality is well illustrated by killing fifty two people on their way before they are arrested by administrators (Grisham, 1996). When the two lovers were caught, the police imprisoned them to restrict them from killing more people. However, they successfully planned to escape from the prison where they killed additional fifty people in the process.
Murder is the main depiction of violence in this movie since the two actors senselessly commit murder in the entire film (Stone, 1996). In terms of degree, the violence that is depicted in this movie is severe. This is due to the use of dangerous weapons and the presence of murder alongside adverse brutality.
Influence of Depicted Violence
In this article, Grisham has described critical behavioral change experienced by Ben and Sarah. In the first instance, the author states that Sarah armed herself to reserve security in case Ben attacks her. Although the reason for this speculated attack was not specified, I contend that Sarah could have possibly noted a change of character in Ben.
This intensifies when Ben start talking about open murder where he introduces topics that are related to openly killing people. In this case, it is evident that he has the quest to kill people just like Mallory and Mickey. From this statement, it is indisputable that Ben had been affected by the violence depicted in Natural Born Killers. Further, he intensified this by expressing his passionate hatred for farmers.
Ben ordered Sarah to stop the car nearby a farmhouse where Ben tested his gun and then proceeded to Mr. Savage’s farm. After a short struggle, Ben short Mr. Savage on the head leading to instant death and forcing Sarah to escape. However, Sarah quickly decided to help her man to rob Mr. Savage at the farmhouse. In addition, Ben admitted that the feeling of killing people was powerful.
This is the feeling that was expressed by Mickey when he was killing people on his way to Southwest (Stone, 1996). It is, therefore, evident that he had been influenced by the violence that was depicted in the movie (Grisham, 1996).
This implies that violence which is depicted in movies can influence the audience by developing violence in real life situation. From this article, it is additionally clear that severe depiction of violence lead to severe brutality in real life. This implies that mild violence would result to weak levels of violence since the audience copies the actions directly.
Conclusion
The above analysis validates the argument of Grisham which contends that depicted violence result to real violence. This is supported by real testimony that is given by Sarah in relation to her previous murders. People should consequently control their exposure to depicted violence to prevent unconscious embracement of brutality.
References
Grisham, J. (1996). Unnatural kilers. Oxford American, 4, 11.
Stone, O. (Director). (1996). Natural born killers [Motion picture]. USA: Warner Home Video.