Violence in the Media: Blinn’s Movie “Starsky and Hutch”

📄 Words:	941
📝 Subject:	Psychological Disorders
📑 Pages:	3
📚 Topics:	Violence

Brief description of the scene of violence of aggression.	The age, gender, ethnicity, and other demographic variables of the aggressor.	The age, gender, ethnicity and other demographic variables of the victim.	What was the outcome for the aggressor and victim?	Was there any humor involved in the portrayal of violence?
A drug dealer is displeased that one of his planes with cocaine went down and he blames his employee.	In his 30’s, male, white-American. High profile, rich drug dealer.	30’s, male, white-American. Low-level criminal with questionable intellect.	The drug dealer lost a lot of money. The employee was shot and killed.	After the drug dealer shoots the criminal, he sits down to continue his tanning session and worries that he is “tanning weird.”
A “bookie” is being robbed by several men in masks with guns.	Unclear at first but later is shown as white-American in his 30s. A police officer.	The 30s-40s, Asian. Runs underground business of taking and placing bets.	The aggressor takes the money but gets caught later by his fellow officers. The victim is deprived of the money.	The “robber” turns out to be a policeman and is surprised when they are caught by saying: “where did they come from?”
Two police officers at the station exchange some aggressive words, starting a fight.	In his 30’s, male, white-American. A police officer with high morals.	In his 30’s, male, white-American. A regular police officer with impolite and childish manners.	Both are stopped by the police chief before they hurt each other.	The “good” cop is wearing a towel after a short shower—a hand towel.
Two undercover police officers go to a biker bar to question a suspect.	Both are in their 30’s, male, white-American.	In his 40’s, male, white-American. “Looks after” a bar while his friend is in jail.	Two officers pull the bartender over the counter. They are attacked by some bar visitors. Cops beat them up and victims lose consciousness.	The bartender turned out to be the wrong guy and the police officers apologize and give advice to “be yourself and not pretend to be someone you are not.”
Two police officers are shot at by their car. The sniper drives off after shooting up the car of one of the officers.	Same.	The assassin is in his 40’s, Asian, lives in a poor neighborhood with his son.	Aggressor ran away but was later caught. The police officers were missed.	One of the officers asks: “What kind of the world do we live in where somebody does something like this?” (Pertaining to his damaged car). The other one replies: “Well, I think he was aiming at us.”

For a long time there has been a debate that violence in the media causes more aggressive behavior in the person. There have been numerous studies but the evidence is somewhat controversial. The majority of people believe that the causation of violent behavior by media is exaggerated. The social theorists suppose that people learn by modeling and imitating behavior. There have been experiments where such imitation would be tested with children as participants. It has yielded imprecise results. Further studies and experimentation have not established any particular correlation because of the control variables being too fluid (Freedman, 2002). In the movie “Starsky and Hutch” the violence is shown as being wrong. It constantly reminds the viewer that it is only authorized people, like police officers, are allowed to use violence and as a last resource. The added humor does not diminish the violent and dangerous nature of the situation where a person is killed or their life is threatened. In general, it is possible to assume that a person might get desensitized towards violence, blood, aggression and criminal behavior. It has been proven that the more the person is confronted with certain stimuli, the more they will get used to it. This can be seen in the many examples from real life. Of course, there are people with phobias where constant reinforcement without any guidance will not lead to them “getting used” to disturbing situation or objects. Today some movies show very gruesome and graphic scenes and it is a fact that many people watch movies like “Saw” and it might make them more used to horror and blood. But people realize that it is a movie and a false, staged situation. A real-life occurrence would be very different.

This particular movie is a comedy and does not have any graphic material. When a person was shot there were no close-ups to show the wound or any blood. It would be safe to assume that the only moral of the movie about violence is that it is unlawful and unwanted by anyone. Most evidence supports the fact that there must be a predisposition towards violence. It very much depends on an individual. A person who is kind and moral will not resolve to violence because it will conflict with their core moral beliefs and no matter how often they see violence on the news on in movies, each time they will feel appalled and will not simulate such behavior. It is clear that a person, who resolved to violence, either grew up in aggressive circumstances where they thought that it was allowed or possible or they have some genetic malfunction. The majority of people are taught that violence is wrong and will not be tolerated by the law and society (Wells, 1997). Modern civilized countries take every effort to make this as clear as possible and everyone, even the criminals, know that taking someone’s life or being aggressive towards someone is the highest crime and will be punished.

References

Adler, M. (Executive Producer). (2004). Starsky & Hutch [FILM]. Burbank, Cal.: Warner Brothers.

Freedman, J. (2002). Media violence and its effect on aggression: Assessing the scientific evidence. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Wells, A. (1997). Mass media & society. London, England: Greenwood Publishing Group.

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