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Special Report
Want to Stop Violence? Start in Hollywood
The disgraceful movie treatment of Paul Lieberman’s Gangster Squad.
(Page 2 of 2)
Meanwhile, Cohen, who undoubtedly killed at least one fellow hood but liked to claim more, has been turned into a contemporary Vlad the Impaler. In the opening scene he has a Chicago gangster torn in half by two opposing cars the way people used to be quartered by horses during the Middle Ages. Director Ruben Fleischer collected a teenager audience with Zombieland and apparently didn’t want lose them to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. During the remainder of the film, Penn: 1) incinerates a clumsy lackey in an elevator shaft, 2) orders his boys to put an electric drill through the head of a rival gangster (“You know the drill,” he tells them), and 3) mows down street crowds, including an innocent newsboy whose death finally persuades Gosling/Sgt. Wooters to join the squad. All this is carried out amid the predictable car chases, fiery smash-ups, and the explosion of a truck carrying a (fictional) heroin shipment that levels half a block of Chinatown. (Cohen was not known to deal in drugs.) Instead of just a crime boss trying to muscle other mobsters out of the bookmaking and extortion rackets, Cohen becomes a Batman-style overlord trying to bring the whole city to its knees.
In the final scene — perhaps inspired by Cohen’s putting two bullets in the ceiling of the Roosevelt — the Gangster Squad launches a full-scale attack on Cohen’s hideout in the historic Park Plaza Hotel. Blessedly, the hotel staff and guests have gone home for the weekend, leaving the rival gangs to shoot it out. Their Tommy guns bring down chandeliers and shred the Christmas decorations, killing at least a dozen, until — inevitably — O’Mara and Cohen finally duke it out with fists. All this to serve Cohen with an arrest warrant.
I came out of the movie theater with the same feeling I used to get reading the old horror comics of the 1950s. Until the industry voluntarily regulated itself in 1954 with the Comics Code Authority, it had turned out “comics” where bug-eyed victims would have their flesh picked clean by piranhas or their heads bashed in with baseballs. My elderly piano teacher had a stash in his parlor and every week while my sister was taking her lesson I would be hypnotically drawn into the pile where I pored over sickening scenes of blood and mayhem until I was nauseous. I always left saying, “I wish I hadn’t done that.”
So where in the annals of American history has there ever been a scene where rogue cops and gangsters shot it out for twenty minutes in the lobby of a major hotel without the regular police even bothering to show up? The answer is simple: 1) in the movies, and 2) in the minds of teenage boys, the sickest of whom will one day decide to act out such a scene himself. O’Mara’s granddaughter has written a long protest on Reddit complaining of the misrepresentations, but who cares? Hollywood does what Hollywood does. Asked if the industry could have made a more realistic film out of his 15 years of research, Lieberman says, “If a studio spends $75 million, they’ve got the right to make the film they want.”
“Think Global, Kill Local” was the poster for one movie showing the day Adam Lanza shot up Sandy Beach Elementary. In Hollywood, even Hansel and Gretel are now vengeful superheroes. Recently about 25 movie stars made a TV commercial in which they appeared in quick succession pleading for gun control to “end the violence” and “protect the children.” On the Internet, some clever wag has interspersed the ad with movie scenes in which the same actors and actresses spout their love of guns and plaster the landscape with bullets. It’s good entertainment. It also suggests that if you want to stop the next lunatic from killing a dozen or more innocents, the best place to start might be in that moral sewer on the west side of Los Angeles.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (26) | Leave a comment
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Ron M.| 1.21.13 @ 8:19AM
The solution is simple, don't go to movies and turn off your TV( tossed out mine). Hollywood will fade away and the loud mouthed lackwits on the screen will stop being in the public eye.
Brother John| 1.21.13 @ 8:49AM
This is but more scapegoating. Individuals with at least a moderately satisfying or active life don't have any interest in taking out people en masse, especially as a result of watching a film. Even those persons with the right screws loose just looking for inspiration would eventually find it elsewhere. Blaming films and video games and the like is to solve the wrong problem.
Again, I say: if you want to see school shootings stop, get rid of public schools. Most of these perpetrators were or had been stuck in public schools with no apparent hope of escape and were miserable and bitter as a result. Return freedom of association to parents and kids and watch academic achievement increase and violence decrease almost overnight.
TLP| 1.21.13 @ 9:56AM
I agree with Ron, and I almost agree with his Brother - John.
Don't go to the Movies. I don't go to the Movies, unless it's a Cartoon Movie (2 kids) Science Fiction, Comic Book Movies, or Fantasy: ala Lord of the Rings/Avitar.
My Boycott List of Leftist Pukes, that I will NEVER help out with my hard earned money, is as long as Michelle's @ss is wide.
That means it's Long.
As far as The Public Schools are concerned?
The Schools are fine. It's The Teachers that Suck.
Get rid of the Dept. of Education Indoctrination, and Bust the Union.
I graduated High School in 1975, from Public School.
And, I'm the Smertest Guy here. The Smartest Giy here. The Smarnest Guy here.
You know what I mean!
Occam's Tool| 1.22.13 @ 3:12AM
My American History teacher in high school was a NATO tank commander in the 1950s with a Master's in US History. An excellent teacher, and I enjoyed the class greatly.
Now, it's all about "write an essay about why Obama's election was so great for you." Blechh.
Asshole inaugurated today. 3 years 364 days 21 hours and some minutes left.
Brother John| 1.22.13 @ 9:00AM
I agree that many teachers suck - I've known guys who became social studies teachers because they wanted to coach wrestling - but anything short of the abolition of the compulsory public education system is going to be a partial solution.
Once the entire system goes private, you may send your kid anywhere, not just where you're told because you happen to live a certain place. You can move your kid at will. You can withdraw the kid if you like. You can do something about any problem that comes up, if it comes to that.
But no government is interested in having an actually educated populace - just one that will keep the wheels turning long enough.
WRTolkas| 1.21.13 @ 10:55AM
I must be doing the right thing. I saw the video and I couldn't recognize 95% of those people. All I recognized was the many faces of hypocrisy.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.21.13 @ 11:04AM
I saw the video (and more importantly, the enhanced video), and recognized many of the scenes and actors. I did see a message similar to what you detected (i.e. Listen to us now, when we say this; not when we take your money to show you that).
Pecos Pete| 1.21.13 @ 10:57AM
It is all intertwined ... NEA, violent movies, abortion, single parents (is bastard still a PC approved word?), loss of religion, loss of patriotism, love of free stuff, etc.
Hardcard| 1.21.13 @ 11:20AM
That's sean penn weilding that chicago chopper, that's how these leftist scum get part$$ from the moguls, they shit on this country and preach the communist manefesto to the 47%, talentless trash get the parts and the cash ie morgan freeman,alex baldwin,leonardo dicaprio, jaime foxx, tom hanks,ed asner, bill maher, matt damon to name a few. When they run out of money or favor with the moguls and they think they are losing the limelight they start throwing the bullshit and they get rewarded, a part, a commercial, another world tour. We are the marks to keep the cash flowing to our enemies.
7-08| 1.21.13 @ 2:35PM
Absurd: Most of the violence and resultant incarceration which “fine tunes” the perpetrators is due to drugs and the minority (read black) unable to acquire meaningful employment. The lack of a nuclear family, the lure of “easy money,” and no available role models facilitate this.
cicero| 1.21.13 @ 2:36PM
The blood, gore, exploding cars, explicit sex are all just a poor substitute for talent, imagination, and good writing. It is all meant to appeal to the adolescent mind, and those who don't know any better.
Purp| 1.21.13 @ 4:00PM
How Foolish. Hollywood isn't to blame, and neither are video games.
We don't have a Bomb epidemic in this country - and yet I'd wager there are more explosions in movies and games than gun violence anyday.
Why is that? Guns are easy to get, easy to use. Any idiot can wield a gun. Period.
Responsible Gun owners aren't the problem, but accepting limitations on automatic weapons and size of gun clips is akin to accepting speed limits and traffic laws on driving of a car and is necessary for our country - it's for public safety reasons.
Just like we have Free Speech - but you cannot yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater for fun - it's illegal, because it's for public safety reasons.
Any other argument is supporting the mfg'ers of guns - that is all.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.21.13 @ 5:49PM
Once again, Purp, you get it wrong. One can shout “Fire” in a crowded theater for fun, or any other motivation, as long as there is a fire. It is falsely shouting fire in its absence which is generally prohibited by most state legislatures.
Like almost every other thing you post, what you fail to include is the critical element.
CJW| 1.21.13 @ 6:08PM
There is a simple explanation for his comments, Albert. He is stupid, the Village Idiot.
"We don't have a Bomb epidemic in this country - and yet I'd wager there are more explosions in movies and games than gun violence anyday."
Since purpie has much time, he can count the number of bombs that explode in movies and the number of gunshots. Purpie's logic is that if the number of exploding bombs exceed the number of gunshots then the violent movies and video games do not cause or contribute to violence.
purpie, what is an automatic weapon? What is gun violence?
Pecos Pete| 1.21.13 @ 6:23PM
CJW: Violet thinks any gun is an automatic. But, he won't be able to explain why one gun is automatic and another isn't.
markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 7:54PM
How nice of Purp to spout 3 pieces of liberal ignorance in one post for me to rebut. Coincidentally, my liberal brother and his wife have both spouted 2 of them in the last couple of days so it makes it easy to rebut, just cut and paste from my replies to their emails. First the "guns are easy to get" approach. Prior to the 1968 Gun Control Act guns were EASIER to get then today. No background check and no FFL requirement for dealers. You could walk in and buy a gun at a hardware store. You could mail order a rifle even if you had recieved a dishonarable discharge from the military and had tried to defect to the Soviet Union (see Lee Harvey Oswald).
You imply that since "Guns are easy to get" that is a cause of the gun violence that exists today. However, cause effect relationships require a correlation between the cause and the effect, usually a temporal one (ie; the cause proceeds the effect). However since access to guns was EASIER prior to 1968 there is no correlation between the increased rate of gun violence today and the supposed "easy access to guns". In fact, if you look at the places where guns are hardest for law abiding people to get (Chicago, NYC, DC) they have the highest rates of gun violence. No correlation, no cause effect.
markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 8:00PM
Second, I agree to"accepting limitations on automatic weapons" . In fact, I would require anyone wishing to purchase and automatic weapon to be register it with the BATF, obtain approval from the BATF, obtain a signature from the Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) who is the county sheriff or city or town chief of police (not necessarily permission), pass an extensive background check to include submitting a photograph and fingerprints, fully register the firearm, receive ATF written permission before moving the firearm across state lines, and pay a tax.
Oh wait, we already require all those things and have since 1934. OK Purp, cross that off your wish list, it's done.
markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 8:14PM
You know, I've never seen a (stripper) "clip" that held more than 10 rounds. But Purp, being the classic ignorant liberal, does n0t know the difference between a "clip", which is a strip of metal holding several rounds together at their base (the non-pointy end Purp) that the manufacturer packages them on in order to facilitate loading them into a magazine, and a magazine which is the actual ammunition holding container that is inserted into the magazine well of the weapon in order for rounds to be chambered in the weapon in succession.
markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 8:14PM
Asuming that Purp is actually talking about magazines holding more than 10 rounds let me enlighten him. A "high capacity" magazine (which gun grabbing fascists disguised as Democrat politicians consider any with the capacity of 10 or more rounds) is a necessity if you have a smallish woman who has trouble controlling a large caliber weapon like a .45 or 9mm who might use a personal defense weapon chambered in .380. The round on a .380 is much smaller than a 9mm or .45 so it will almost certainly take more than one round to bring down an attacker of any size especially if that attacker is on drugs (see Rodney King). Even though the woman in GA defending herself and her two children from the career criminal who tracked her and her children through their house to the crawlspace where they were hiding shot him 5 times with a .38 he was still able to drive away. Multiply the number of attackers by 2 or 3, add in the stress factor and a potential low light situation and it might require in excess of 10 rounds for a woman to adequately defend herself from rapists and murderers who travel in packs. Apparently Purp has been watching too many of these movies where the hero never has to reload and every shot is to the heart or the head.
And I need my 30 round 9mm magazines for my Beretta and my 26 round .45 magazines for my Glock for the zombie, I mean Obama voter, apocalypse.
nathan| 1.21.13 @ 10:04PM
Once again, and I thought I explained this to you so pay attention sir. The gun used at Newtown was not an "automatic". It was a SEMI-AUTOMATIC which fires one bullet with one pull of the trigger. The fact that a gun looks like a military weapon does not MAKE IT A MILITARY weapon. NO REPEAT NO army in the world uses the gun that Adam used at that school. NONE.
Magazine size has minimal impact on the death toll. With drop free magazines most anyone, you included could reload any gun in under 2 seconds. When you analyze rates of fire for any shooting including San Ysidro where like 3-400? rounds were fired, the rates of fire never exceed 1 per second if that. It's usually about one every 2 seconds. Translation? With that rate of fire five round clips wouldn't make a difference and would not have impacted the death toll at Newtown. And by the way guns are far more heavily regulated than cars and drivers. We are now talking about an "assault" ban. Would you support a car equivalent? Gun dealers are way more tightly regulated than car dealers. I could go on but drivers would be outraged if cars were regulated like guns. How about a background check every time you bought a car? And the deaths from drunk driving and the gun murders are the same numbers. Care to support prohibition sir? Didn't think so.
Occam's Tool| 1.22.13 @ 3:15AM
Concur with nathan's comments on this one. The problem is the non-medication of the violently psychotic, not guns. One can mass murder with knives.
spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:03AM
" accepting limitations on automatic weapons "
---------------------------------------------------
ahem...purpie...? automatic weapons are already illegal, you moron
gray man| 1.22.13 @ 8:35PM
"but accepting limitations on automatic weapons and size of gun clips is akin to accepting speed limits and traffic laws on driving of a car and is necessary for our country - it's for public safety reasons.
Just like we have Free Speech - but you cannot yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater for fun - it's illegal, because it's for public safety reasons.
Any other argument is supporting the mfg'ers of guns - that is all."
Total nonsense.
Responsible gun owners are not shooting up theaters.
More crimes are prevented by responsible gun owners, by far, then anyone else including all the law enforcement in this country put together.
You cannot yell fire if there is no fire - there being no fire is the point . There are already limitations on automatic weapons, no automatic weapons were used in any civilian killings in this country.
No clips were used either. They are magazines.
Apparently any idiot can make a comment, but the facts don't back up your asinine statements.
hrgfue | 1.21.13 @ 10:10PM
2013 Happy New Year,NFL,NBA
spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:08AM
Those on the Left (especially those who screech about how "Faux Noise" is making the 'great unwashed' think wrong) insist over and over that what people, kids especially, see on the idiot box, hear on their iPod, see at the Bijou, or play on their XBox have NO effect whatsoever on behavior...of course, the entire adverti$ing indu$try (not to mention Al Gorezeera, PBS, etc) would beg to differ...
spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:17AM
I'm not calling for government censorship...i'm asking for people, especially parents, to think about the choices they make...the filth put out by our 'entertainment industry' is just another symptom of what drives most of our society's most pressing problems; the erosion of the stable family and a lack of values-there seems to be a prevailing attitude that 'there is no right or wrong; it's all a matter of perception.' i've actually been told that by someone i had thought to have more sense than to believe that twaddle