After Virginia Tech, Testing Limits of Movie Violence
An independent movie studio plans to release their movie “Hostel: Part II” which is the story of the torturing of college students. Even after the recent tragedies at VA-Tech, the movie is still planning to be released on June 8th.
Peter Dekom, an entertainment lawyer and author, said that “You can’t win this one.” Which is in reference to Martin Kaplan’s (a director at USC) comment on how this film could be in very poor taste. After the Columbine shootings, there was a political movement to study and decrease the amount of violent entertainment that is marketed towards children. This article ends with a few interesting and intriguing quotes left my Kaplan saying that even pop culture has a way of getting over ’shattering events’ and that “famously 9/11 was supposed to be the end of irony…if anything, irony has blossomed.”
Should the FCC, the FTC, or government be stepping in to say that this many be an inappropriate film to put out, especially after the VA-Tech tradgedy? It’s a thin line that is hard to cross either way, because there are ethical issues at hand…but also the people behind the film could argue freedom of speech.