Middle-aged not pleasures

General Discussion
1

As a teen I quite enjoyed entertainment with action and to a degree violence, both stories and films, and remained robust for most of my adulthood, though certainly not seeking out the most horribly graphic material. But I find that in the last few years my ability to cope with horrible things being done to people for the sake of a story has just fallen off a cliff, and I hate seeing people being brutalised and tortured. There have been a few films recently where I’ve simply stopped watching because of the awfulness presented. To a degree, films have become increasingly graphic, since CGI allows portrayal of things that could not easily be done by normal means, and I’ve noticed a real callous attitude to brutality in modern films. Yet at the same time, I’m sure that these bother me far more than they would 20, 30, 40 years ago.

Does anyone else find their capacity for brutality is reduced as they mature, or am I just becoming a bit of a wuss?

5 Likes
2

I have always been a wuss! Violence, anger, brutality are not subjects for enjoyment. But strangely if it’s “real” then I will watch. I’ve just started watching the drame series on Nazanin Zaghari imprisonment in Iran, which has nastiness.

3 Likes
3

As with most things context and delivery matters - I can watch cartoonish horror because it isn’t “real”, though I think even that has a downside in normalising both violent behaviour and the acceptance of that behaviour (and its depiction) in others.

So, say, Tarrantino, or Ritchie, or Marvel is OK - to an extent.

Otherwise I take it on a case by case basis.

4

If that is your criterion, then I’ve always been a wuss. I never could enjoy - or even watch - that sort of thing.

I think many young men are drawn to it naturally, probably hormonally, but as you age you crave it less and empathise more.

2 Likes
5

I am definitely in the "always been a wuss’ category.

I have never liked horror films as a genre. Some people find pleasure in being scared but I am not among them. :slight_smile:

When Game of Thrones came out I bought the first season on BluRay (not having Sky TV) and quite enjoyed that - but when I got the second season I stopped watching after a couple of episodes as the constant violence and general unpleasantness just got too much. So those disks have stayed firmly in their box.

I am not a fan of US war or police movies and TV shows that involve people being shot all the time, either.

At the risk of drifting into politics, I think a big part of the problem with gun violence in the US (apart from the ready availability of weapons) is that people get desensitised to violence via what they watch.

4 Likes
6

can and does happen in any country…

I recall being horrified when a young nephew came at me waving a large stick. He was reliving something he’d seen on tv.. not appreciating that the stick was going to hurt/damage me as I was not able to jump over the building and escape… :thinking: :joy:

I took one painful blow then grabbed the stick and (gently) touched him with it… just so he understood that us humans cannot do magical things and sticks can and do hurt !

similar instances have occurred since we’ve been in France, although I now know to gently prepare for battle before the stick/whatever lands :rofl:

1 Like
7

Yes I know, but the US does seem to be much happier to show graphic violence than other countries while at the same time being much more censorious about sex.

3 Likes
8

We certainly saw that with Thompson and Venables.

2 Likes
9

There was a time when I quite relished the prospect of some steamy sex scenes in films and tv programmes. However, now I find myself saying: “Get on with the story!”

2 Likes
10

Hah, for a time you could pretty much guarantee that the first, and only the first, episode of any new Netflix series had a sex scene.

I remain convinced that it was a ploy to rope people in to watching more. Mind you, it took me 200 episodes to realise :wink:

3 Likes
11

I don’t like extreme violence either, and if watching a film, usually turn away!

1 Like
12

I have never liked violence and have seen just how much more it is now portrayed in soaps, which I do not watch, but which is more than likely following the increase of violence against woman.

Strange, but I do read espionage books, which are hugely more violent than soaps.

13

So called “humour” which is based on just screaming very loudly and rushing around.

The way “grown up “ women have suddenly developed baby voices (see above, silly women screaming with baby voices and thinking they are funny)

The way adverts have become infantilised eg (especially) Haribo

The way society itself is becoming infantilised

Film 4 dumbed down out of all recognition: 9pm used to be time for a good film - now just violence and repeats of violence

Lucy Worsley (et al) trailing round in medieval costumes “explaining” history.

So called “sex scenes” where both parties keep their pants on

4 Likes
14

I immediately thought of Michael J Fox and back to the future.

1 Like
15

I agree with all your list and would like to add tv programs, like bake off, great pottery thrown down and the sewing one that have presenters trying to be funny and failing spectacularly.

1 Like
16

A pal and I went to a late night showing of “Don’t Look Now” [Julie Christie/Donald Sutherland . dir Nick Roag from a short story by DaphneDu Maurier]

Apart from a sex scene, the realism of which is such that the question, “Did they really?” has never been confirmed or not, the atmosphere of evil and menace, increasing as the film unfolds, ends with a horrific murder.

We walked back to our flat. It was now about 02:00. We were speechless with shock. We sat, silent apart from the occasional soto voce, “Christ!”, “Phew!” or “Bloody Hell!”.

After ten minutes or so of this our other flatemate, having got out of bed from being asleep, poked his head round the door and asked, “What’s going on? What happened?”

We briefly explained that Nick Roag had surpassed himself with his depiction of psychological extreme [e.g. “Walkabout” and “Performance”].

Our pal caught the atmosphere and the three of us sat there in the night, stunned.

I’ve not been able to watch any of that film since.

There’s an ironic element to this story. The pal with whom I went to the film played the murderer as a young boy in his father’s film, “Peeping Tom”, by Michael Powell.

This film was so shocking in the depiction of killing that it caused universal outrage, ruining Powell’s career and was even discussed in the H of C

As these things tend to do it is now regarded as classic noir, setting the stage for such a Tarantino.

2 Likes
17

Awful events captured by war photographers of the past, photos and videos, stick painfully in my memory banks – I know they are for real - whereas similar brutal events in a fictionized movie don’t. For me it will always be that way.

I know that actors/actresses, producers, directors and CGI graphic specialists try to make such movies convincingly ultra brutal, to entertain and make money. It’s all phoney.

The movie Sin City, full of crazy brutality, I found quite entertaining.

Whereas the brutality of nature, close up and in your face on TV, I endeavour not to watch. It sickens me, as does real human brutality, the worst of which is edited and which the public watching TV, don’t see, presumably to protect us.

1 Like
18

(post deleted by author)

19

I hope that’s a joke.

2 Likes
20

Having seen many of @Helenochka posts, I’d be utterly amazed if it wasn’t. Mostly.

1 Like