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The movie Kick-Ass opens in movie theatres on Friday. From what I understand, it's closely based on the graphic novel of the same name. The film is controversial (and the graphic novel probably would have been if more people had known about it prior to the film). Here's what the Kick-Ass story about--at least the story in the graphic novel--which will explain why it's controversial:
Short version: A 10-year old girl (Hit Girl) and her father (Big Daddy) brutally and graphically track and murder Mafia hit men; they revel in their gory superhero antics. They don't seem at all fazed that they are living out a first-person shooter story (except they slice and dice rather than shoot) in full color--mostly red from all the blood and body parts.
Longer version: The protagonist is a geeky high school student, Dave, who is into superhero comics. He decides to emulate his (super)heroes; he creates a costume and goes out into the city to try to do good. (This part of the story isn't so different than the motivation of "real-life superheroes." Click here and here for more information about them.) Like real-life superheroes, Dave's do-good efforts get him on TV and YouTube, and citizens admire his efforts-or else think he's a little weird. Unlike real-life superheroes, though, Dave gets himself beaten to an absolute pulp, requires multiple surgeries, and his recovery takes months. He nonetheless continues his hapless hero's journey, only to be saved by 10-year-old superhero Hit Girl and her father, Big Daddy. It's clear that Hit Girl and Big Daddy have spent years in training, and Hit Girl can kill with ease. She has become what parents fear will happen when kids play too many first-person shooter video games: She has become inured to committing violence, with no apparent moral compunction about taking life--no matter how "worthy" the death the individual. (In fact, unlike the vigilante-killer cum psychopath, Dexter-from the TV series and novels-it's not clear that Hit Girl and Big Daddy try to ensure that the people they kill truly deserve death.) Like children in war-torn spots around the globe, Hit Girl was involuntarily drafted into becoming a child soldier, but she was drafted by her father, who was willing to make it more game-like and fun for her (hence their costumes).
Okay, back to the controversy. Two weeks ago, I was in San Francisco at WonderCon, a comic book convention; I attended a panel with some of the cast and crew of the film. I hadn't yet read the graphic novel, so I didn't know what the movie was about except for the brief trailer I'd seen online a month beforehand. (By the way, that trailer was much more lighthearted and "funny" than the actual story in the Kick-Ass graphic novel.) The panelists addressed the brewing controversy immediately. Michael Guillen, at twitchfilm.net, reported this description of part of the panel:
"Of course, the character of Hit Girl--the child assassin who has elicited some controversy for her colorful language--was a special challenge for [screenwriter Jane] Goldman, who is no stranger to controversy. The mother of two daughters, Goldman felt the character of Mindy McReady (aka Hit Girl) was a strong female role, precisely because she was pre-teen and a nonsexualized female character. That combination is almost unheard of in contemporary cinema where a sexy woman with a gun is considered to be a strong female role, which Goldman doesn't believe it is at all. It was that combination of youth and vigilante activism that struck her first, rather than the idea that people might be outraged. Further, audiences are used to seeing women and children as the victims of violence. Surely it's less offensive to see them kick off violence? As much as people might complain about linking a pre-teen girl with so much violence, anyone who sees the film and situates the character in its context, in its humor, never seems to complain."
And at the panel, when the young actress who plays Hit Girl, Chloë Moretz, was asked about taking on the role, she responded: "Who wouldn't want to be Hit Girl?" Not everyone would agree.
We can assume that at least some of the controversy is about the character of hero, Hit Girl: she's female, she's 10 years old, she's incredibly profane (her cussing is impressive) and she's a cold-blooded killer. The controversy may also be about the film's, and in particular Hit Girl's, level of violence--if it is anything like the source material (the graphic novel); it is shocking for most people to see a 10-year-old who is so calloused to witnessing and perpetrating violence that her slicing and dicing of people is all in a night's work.
The underlying reason for the controversy about violence stems from the significant body of psychological research investigating the effects of media violence on children and adolescents. (Okay, so maybe--because of the R-rating and the publicity about the movie--not that many pre-teen children will see this movie, but you never know.) Psychologist John Murray, at the Mind Science Foundation says that based on over 50 years of research on television violence,
"it is impossible to conclude anything other than that violence on TV has raised the level of violence and aggression in our society...Johnson's 17-year study shows a strong association between the amount of television watched during childhood and the likelihood of behaving aggressively towards others, even after compensating for other factors such as family background, previous aggression, neglect, neighbourhood and education. It's true that the causal relationship seems to run both ways - more aggressive people tend to watch more violent television...."
Click here for the full article.
According to Murray and others, the decades of research indicate that television (and we can easily and safely extrapolate to film) violence is associated with three phenomena:
- Desensitization. We become more tolerant of violence (that is, we are less outraged by it).
- Imitation. We are more likely to imitate the behavior--at least in particular situations. (After all, seeing other people use violence "successfully"--that is, achieving some end--makes it seem like a plausible option.
- Mean World effect. We come to think of the world as more "mean" and therefore feel more vulnerable.
To read more about Murray's results, click here.
Studies of people who habitually play violent video games are consistent with the research on television violence (click here for Doug Gentile's research; and here for Craig Anderson's work)
Of course any effects of watching Kick-Ass, or any other violent film or show, occurs in a context. Viewers who--based on their temperaments, personal experiences, cognitive abilities and the ability to distinguish clearly between on-screen images from real-life situations--are less likely to exhibit violent behavior; they're likely to have no trouble leaving the violence behind when they leave the theatre (except they may be physically aroused by all the violence, but that's for another blog post). Other people, though, may not be as able to leave behind the images, concepts and model of coping and conflict resolution that Kick-Ass provides. Nonetheless, images matter.
No wonder there's a controversy about the film.
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