Hypothesis: To what extent is crime glamourised in Guy Ritchies films, Rock n Rolla, Revolver and Snatch

Internet: 

www.theinderpendant.co.uk

www.thetelegraph.co.uk

www.tabula-rasa.info/horror

Magazine: Media Magazine (April 2008)

Theory:

"Does extended viewing of certain media texts such as crime films influence behavior?"

"Is the way that organised crimein film portrayed influencing people to commit these offences?"

Starting To Look Into Guy Ritchies Work...

On the 19th of June 2001 the Telegraph newspaper featured an article on Guy Ritchies newest piece of work which back then, was the film "Snatch" the sequal to his first hit "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrells". The article is focused on how Guy Ritchies films glamourise violence for commercial gain and profit. This is a perfect source for my hypothesis.

(In formation retrieved from www.telegraph.co.uk on the 19th of November 2008)

Lord Attenborough who is an influential figure in the British film industry provoked new controversy on the subject of FILMS GLAMOURISING CRIME AND VIOLENCE. Attenborough accused Ritchie of "succumbing to the pornography of violence." He also said that the only reason that he was putting violence in his films to make them sell. 

Attenborough was also backed by officers in the police force. The Chief of the Metropolitan Police stated "The people who commit these type of crimes are vicious, nasty thugs, not glamorous film stars. If you had seen the consequences of violence like i have you would not glamourise it". Attenborough backed up this statement saying "Violence on screen is much worse than sex. It makes us lose the capacity to be shocked or moved. I dont want to be guilty of that. And if it means that i make movies that some people find boring, then so be it".

This statement would back up the Cumlmination Theory which states that too much viewing of violent films hardens the sensitivity of people toward violence and crime.

Snatch was a sequal to the first big hit Lock Stock covering pretty much the same ground as the first on but equally as good. Both films are set in the East End of London and deal with a group of cartoonish villains carrying out acts of great brutallity interlaced with scenes of slapstick humor. The cast included Vinnie Jones a well renound harman from the football scene and Brad Pitt the American A list celebrity. The film was condemned by many critics as callous, cynical retread of his previous film.

The film includes constant bad language, violence and crime. Lord Puttman stated "Violence begets violence. It creates a casualised attitude to violence. It stirs people up"

And what i think he means by that statement that it "stirs people up" is that people start to loose the idea of what is right and what is wrong, which may well be the case. If people are continuously seeing people in these films commiting simple crimes, and acts of brutality and getting away with is without any trace of trouble then they may begin to think that they can perform the same crimes in the same way and get away with it forgetting that the film is still a fictional story.

Leading Police Officers said that "Violence in film was influencing young people". As the culmination theory is a more generic theory that just states the people who watch these films over a long period of time will be influenced by the characteristics and behavior of characters in the film then this could well be happening with Guy Ritchies film. They may not be committing crimes like that of the film but the violence in the film may be influencing them to fight.

I think this will lead me to my next argument for my hypothesis.

"Is the way that organised crime in film portrayed influencing people to commit these offences?"

Death Of The Tramp...

When i typed in Clockwork Orange Crime into the Google search bar it came up with 347,000 matches. Most of which where useless information on the film and sites on which you could buy it however one sight gave me some very useful information on some an incident that happened after the release of the film involving a boy of 16 years old.

(The following information was taken from www.tabula-rasa.info/horror/clockworkorangefiles on the 12th Nov)

A boy aged 16 from Bletchley, Buckinghamshire was sentenced to be detained under her majestys pleasure for murder. He had pleaded guilty for committing the crime of beating an elderly tramp to death. The only money the tramp, Mr David McManus, aged 60 had was 1 and a half pence which was not there when the body was searched.

The boy openly admitted to the murder and told the court that his friends had told him about the film "and the beating up of an old boy like this one".

A Mr Roger Gray for the defence stated "The link between the crime and sensational literature, particularly A Clockwork Orange, is established between and reasonable doubt".

This however is not likely to be the culmination theory but more the hypodermic syringe theory of seeing something and then wanting to do it.

HOWEVER!

This could just be an excuse, or coincidence. The boy may have had a history of violence that is not stated in the report and may have just attacked this person because they where helpless and unlikely to have family that cared or people who knew who he was to draw attention to him being missing. 

Some times the media try to find excuses for human behavior by blaming it on the media texts such as ACO and other violent films to take the blame away from society. And some people who are mentally unstable may try to blame their actions on something else other than themselves to ease their guilty conscience or to gain sympathy on their sentence.

There was an example of this that happened a few years after the film was released. In 1990 a teenager stabbed and strangled a friend to death and tried to blame his actions on repeated viewing of the film ACO. However it highly unlikely that a film is capable of making a teenager so psychotic that they would stab and strangle a friend to death. This is likely to be an act to try and gain sympathy to try and say its not all my fault. 

There for this could also be what is going on in the other case. The media may be looking for someone to blame and as the incident was similar to that of the one in the film they have jumped at the first chance to portray this person not as a normal human being that has committed a savage crime but as someone under the influence of a film that they do now want to be aired.

Source Evaluation

WWW.THEINDEPENDENT.CO.UK

How reliable is this source ?

Method of Research: Secondary

Type of Source: Popular Criticism

Title and Author of the Source : "'Clockwork Orange' gang found guilty of killing bar                                                                                manager"-Arifa Akbar (Reporter for The Independent)

Location of Source : www.theindependent.co.uk (issued-Thursday 15th December 2005)

Main Points Raised : 

• Title - "Clockwork Orange gang found guilty of killing bar manager", straight away linking in to what im am looking for
• Gang of youths taking part in a random violence spree much like that of the characters in the film
• "savagely beaten to death by Clockwork Orange style thugs"
• "The court heard how the girl, now 15, then kicked Mr Morleys head like a football as he lay on the ground" no sensitivity to violence inflicted on others
• The other members of the gang tried to pin everything onto the girl much like the scene in the film where Alex is arrested and tries to blame his "Brothers"
• "It was because of her they did because she wanted to film it on the video phone - people being beaten up."
• "The attacks were carried out so they could be filmed on mobile phones and later played for the attackers pleasure - without thought or regard for the injuries and consequences for their victims." again little or no sensitivity to violence, Culmination Theory?
• "The court heard their actions mirrored those of the teenagers in Anthony Burgess novel Clockwork Orange who also used code words to signal violence"

Strengths

The strengths of this source are that the article was written by a reporter who's main focus for the paper is "Arts", this includes Film and Books so it is more reliable than someone who knows nothing of the film or novel and is comparing the crime to that of either. This means she will have a more indepth knowledge of the story and crimes and therefor is more likely not to relate to the story if it was totally irrelevant. Also the information in the report is easily understandable to why they have linked this event to the film.

Weaknesses

The weaknesses of this report however is that the information in the report due to the event may have been exaggerated or tweaked to make the event look a lot worse than it first appeared for many reasons. Such as to exploit they ever concerning factor of teenage violence etc. Some of the opinions in the report may have been fueled by hate and disgust. 

Evaluation

However i think this is a reliable source as i know that at the time that there where a lot of incidents of happy slapping and there where many serious injuries. I think that as a lot of the opinions and reports in the article are from officials such as police and the court that the information is reliable. The fact that the reporter is heavily involved in film and books makes the source a stronger more reliable view.

The Investigation

When i have looked at the internet for incidents of violence or crime that had been linked to a clockwork orange there was not much information on the subject. However i did find one incident that happened a lot more recently than i would have expected and was still linked to the film by authorities and the media.

The incident

(Info found on www.theindependant.co.uk on the 11th of Nov)

In 2005 a group of teenagers beat a bar manager to death on a "Happy Slapping" spree which they recorded on their mobile phone. The next extract is a straight copy from the site: "A teenage girl and three youths killed David Morley, 38, who had survived the Soho nail bomb blast of April 1999. He was savagely beaten to death by the Clockwork Orange-style thugs, the Old Bailey heard." This proves that even now that people are still linking gang violence to this film and still to this day suggesting that the film influences youths of today.

However the crime is, by what i have read was in the arrogant fashion that is seen a lot in the film. The report says that minutes before the attack the girl involved with the mobile phone held it to the mans face and told him they where doing a documentary on happy slapping and told him to "pose for the camera" which is much like the scene in the film in which a homeless person is beaten up.

Even though this is may not be a direct influence this is a great example of a culmination theorists opinion on how the media effects people especially the younger generation. They are not mentally unstable however there sensitively to violence is obviously very little and this maybe due to the fact that they have grown up around violence and watching violent films.

The gang had set upon 8 people in 5 different attacks on the same night.

The Culmination Theory

The culmination theory!!!

This is the first stage of my research into my hypothesis. This theory in a nutshell suggests that if a person is subjected to the viewing of many violent films over the years it could effect there view on violence making them less sensitive to the aspect and effects of it or maybe even make them a violent person.

IN DEPTH...

(Information retracted from www.northallertoncoll.org.uk on the 6th/Nov/2008 )

The culmination theory suggests that while no one media text while have no great effect on the viewer years and years of watching violence may make you less sensitive to violence in reality or years of watching women being miss-treated in soaps on T.V may make you less sensitive to the idea in reality. However the difficulty of this theory is that it is really difficult to prove and many people have tried to prove it in the past with no real success. Many people have a general sense that the media does in someway effect our behavior but it is extremely difficulty to determine to what extent it is effecting people. This however does not prove that there is no link between the two!

If this theory however was true it would mean that films such as Snatch and Rock 'n Rolla will influence the people who watched it particularly with the younger generation to commit crime as they may like the gangster lifestyle that is portrayed in the films.

Evidence?

In 1974 Stanley Kubricks film A Clockwork Orange was banned in Britain due to numerous cases of violence said to be linked to the film.

(Film Description taken from www.thefileroom.org 06/11/08)

The film based on a book of the same name, takes place in a future England and follows a teenaged gang leader who enjoys rape and ultraviolence. He volunteers for a rehabillitation programme which removes his desire for violence, but leaves him suicidal.

The British Board of Film had realeased an uncut version of the film rated X and immediately received a number of complaints that the film would damage society by inspiring teenagers to violence. Throughout 1972 and 73 police had linked several cases to the film that had been committed by teenagers. One of the culprits in a particular case admitted to reading the book which was enough proof for the public to slate Kubricks work. Stanley Kubrick then took it on himself to ban the film from being viewed.

It wasnt untill Stanley died that his family brought the film back out in 1999

This renowned action in film history would suggest that the culmination theory to extent is correct and that this text has effected them. However there are many things that would go against this theory.

Also these actions could fall under the Hyperdermic Syringe theory which is a more basic, monkey see monkey do theory where which people are seen to just copy what they see on screen.

 I will have to take a more in depth look into reprts on the crimes linked to the clockwork orange to see the truth.

Theories

audience representation social

hypodermic syringe 

according to the theory media is like a syringe injecting ideas into viewers heads allowing them not to make there own mind up

two step flow

whatever our experience of the media we will be likely to discuss with others and if we respect there opinion we can be effected by it. eg jamie olivers theory and crap school dinners more respected opinion leaders

culmintaion theory

any one media text does not have too much effect but years and years of watching more violence will make you less sensitive to violence

uses and gratifications

this suggests that when we watch some sort of media text it is not just mindless entertainment  we want some sort of gratification from it eg watching a violent film for excitement horror for being scared etc

reception analysis

individual people decode certain media texts in different ways eg some people wont be scared by a horror film and some people will

david morley nationwide study 1980

observation of how different social groups read the ame media text

he discovered three main types of reading a text 

david gauntlett tenthings wrong with effect theoris

theory.org.uk

representations 

society
stereotypes
realism
representations over time