We haven't heard this commercial yet: "I'm not a bad guy. I just play one in the movies." But we might. After New York passed the nation's toughest gun control legislation in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, lawmakers are arguing for an exemption from the law so that actors can use high-capacity weapons in the making of movies.
"We have a big industry producing movies in New York," says Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also favors an exemption from the assault weapons ban for movies and television shows.
"We spend a lot of money in the state to bring in movie production and post-production here. Obviously we would want to facilitate that," Cuomo said. Yet many gun rights advocates as well as ordinary citizens find the politicians' position hypocritical.
Hollywood's need to produce action movies filled with explosions and big guns in order to appeal to a global audience is abetted by the state's desire to enrich its coffers. While both focus on the bottom line, neither pays much attention to the values being promoted.
The protagonists of the television and movies of my youth would disarm the bad guys, not kill them, outsmart them more than overwhelm them with firepower. Real violence was off-screen. Those heroes were honorable, ethical and promoted decent values.
It wasn't until Sam Peckinpah made "The Wild Bunch" in 1969 that the mythical Western was exploded. The slow-motion, stylized violence of that film was a turning point. Said Peckinpah, "Well, killing a man isn't clean and quick and simple. It's bloody and awful. And maybe if enough people come to realize that shooting somebody isn't just fun and games, maybe we'll get somewhere." I wonder.
What effect does excessive violence in the media have on us? According to Assemblyman Joe Morelle, who favors an exemption to New York's strict gun laws: "What happens on television and movies is make believe." "It's entertainment," the Rochester Democrat said.
Peckinpah's successor in violent cinema is director Quentin Tarantino, who won this year's best screenplay Oscar for "Django Unchained." Tarantino, interviewed about the Newtown massacre, echoed Peckinpah, saying, "Movie violence is not the same as real violence."
In a March 7 essay for the British Film Institute's Film Forever website, critic and filmmaker Kevin B. Lee totaled the number of deaths in eight Tarantino films and came up with 561 or more.
"No other director has enacted murder so prolifically, and yes, so imaginatively, drawing on dozens of homicidal reference points from other films, while pushing himself to top them. Outside the context of cinema, his visions could be seen as psychotic," Lee said.
I agree with his conclusion: "Murderous retribution, however it wishes to justify itself, can never be the great equalizer, but is the eternal dis-equalizer, perpetuating more of itself."
A month after the Newtown massacre, President Barack Obama asked Congress to allot $10 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the relationships between violent media images and violent crime. He specifically mentioned "the effects violent video games have on young minds."
It is hard to believe that excessive movie and video game violence advance the cause of civilization. In a winter of too many shooting deaths, I avoided "Django Unchained." I had no desire to see fictionalized brutality.
Nonetheless, Tarantino's revenge thriller has grossed more than $400 million worldwide, making it the current No. 1 box office hit — and that's before it opens in China next month.
To paraphrase H.L. Mencken: "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the global audience."
Howard Weinberg is a television journalist filmmaker and adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School.