As I'm sure you all know, a couple nights ago a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado experienced a horrible tragedy at the hands of some piece of shit who decided to start open firing on a crowd of people at the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. I wasn't sure if I should post about it, but I'm truly affected by this news and am saddened not only for the victims, but for what this may mean for the future of movies. Considering that I was one of the people who excitedly waited six hours in line to have fun at a Batman movie, this story hit a little too close to home for me. One of the worst results of this tragedy is that my favorite activity and one of the purest forms of escape, going to the movies, will always bear the shadow of this incident. In a time where the news should be covering how Christopher Nolan's movie was a huge hit and how much people loved it, instead we have to be bombarded with news stories exploiting this story, turning it into some kind of event (I saw one local news outlet call it the "Batman Massacre").
I really hope this isolated incident does not mean that cinemas will now have their own TSA checks (metal detectors, etc.), and that less people will go to the movies in the same way Jaws drove crowds out of the water. And of course we're going to see the concerned parents come out of the woodwork blaming the Batman films for this tragedy, even though the shooter claiming to be "The Joker" had red hair instead of green. My heart goes out to the victims - this is a sad time to be a moviegoer.
100% agree with you, Pete. You can't blame the movies for what happened at all - I keep telling people that if this wasn't the world we live in then a story like Batman would be completely irrelevant. The first thing people ask when mentioning an incident like this is: Can you believe this shit? I can't help but be honest and answer, "Yes, I can and I'm actually not shocked by it at all - the problem of evil is nothing new and sure doesn't need any films to bring it about." Isn't a shooting outside a theater the tragic event that inspires Bruce to create his symbolic figure Batman in the story? "Don't be afraid," - these are the last words uttered by Bruce's father as he's dying in the alleyway after being shot by a RANDOM GUNMAN, and in the wake of this tragedy I think we should heed that same advice. We should learn from the Batman series that we cannot let fear into our hearts, but maintain hope through even the darkest hours of our darkest days. Very well written post though; I know you were hesitant to cover the incident at first, but everything you said was very well put - Keep up the good work Peter.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Manzo