This article reminded me of this age old debate Does Art Imitate Life? or Does Life Imitate Art? Is Hollywood partly responsible for creating the gun culture we have in America or are they just a reflection of it? what do you think
A reflection of it. IMO the biggest part of the "gun culture" is that it is a constitutional right, it is for food, self defense and a means of protection for the rest of the constitution. Of course, that is just my personal experience.
Will Smith said the same thing too way back when he did Bad Boys. Yet he continues to do movies where he's killing people. He admitted the hypocrisy. Why I still like that dude. Great actor
It's hard, but not impossible. One of my favorite movies is Signs with Mel Gibson. They had an alien invasion and not a single gun was used. I also like "shoot em' up" movies. My favorite of those is John Wick.
I have little doubt that hollywood helped to create the current love affair of rifles that look like guns used in war. Americans had little use for them, before hollywood gave them to rambo like figures, and then americans started copying their heros from film. The same thing that enticed people to buy coon skin caps when daniel boone was on tv long ago, is the same thing that made assault looking weapons all the rage. Of course those coon skin caps were bought by parents for their young boys, but remember, the only difference between men and boys are the price of their toys. So life imitated art when it comes to these guns that look like what you take to war.
Well, they took cigarettes out of movies because they didn't want to make them look cool. And China is busting chops in Hollywood so their movie producers will make China look good and not evil. So you can say that movies influence how people think.
Only in the eyes of someone who doesn't know a thing about guns and was never properly trained to respect guns for the powerful tools they are...
Yes and no. There has been a transformation of gun culture over the last 15 years or so. Prior to that time, many more gun owners as a percentage were farmers or hunters (the bubba crowd in gun culture) After that time, at least in part because of military members returning from military service (with combat experience) helped push the new trends. AR's. Tactical platforms. Tactical shooting. Self defense shooting, etc. These days there are more shooters who dont hunt or farm and own guns specifically for self defense and defense from tyranny. So while training is different these days-nobody sees them as just toys. Last week I attended a machine gun shoot-its still quite popular.
Numerous paradoxes here. Guns are bad and yet the good guys use them to do good things. Hollywood is benevolent and yet must make evil shoot em ups for profit. Nobody likes the pussified crap hollywood puts out these days.
Ethan Hawke proclaims that "1+1=2" . "Shoot 'em up" has always been a part of marketing movies (all the way back to the days of the Silent Westerns). Tom Mix, FTW!
When we grew up watching western gun fights, Bugs Bunny get shot at, and played with realistic guns, no one was shooting up schools.
I know a couple guys in hollywood. Im pitching a new action movie, with a loser for the starring role that keeps falling. What do you think? CANKLELYPSE NOW
One more thing. Hollywood has celebrities using their influence to push gun control while they enjoy armed security and live in Beverly Hills.
