I'm not the kind of person to complain about the violence of video games and movies or to associate that violence with the real violence that happens in the world around me, but a few nights ago some guy walked into a theater and killed some people, and I couldn't help but see the connection.
You've all heard about it by now. It was the premier of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and this guy just started shooting during the film. Lots of confusion. People thought it was part of the movie or something. The whole thing reminds me of the opening scene of Scream 2, when that lady gets stabbed to death during the film, and the audience thinks it's some gimmick, and the killer is dressed exactly like so many other moviegoers.
It also reminds me of a character in the previous Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Anyone remember Heath Ledger as The Joker? He had no real motives. His game was chaos for the sake of chaos, crime for the sake of crime, murder and death for the sake of murder and death. The character was so disturbed, Ledger had problems getting to sleep at night.
I don't know much about what went down at that theater in Aurora or what the authorities have determined as far as motive, but I did hear the guy didn't even resist arrest. He didn't turn the gun on himself like so many other crazed shooters we hear about on the news. And that's why I think his motive was exactly this: He thinks he is The Joker. He wanted only chaos. There was no more rhyme or reason beyond this.
This is just my opinion. I'm not saying movies should never have violence or even that this movie was entirely responsible for the recent tragedy in Aurora. All I'm saying is I believe this was not at random, that this occurred at that specific movie for a reason, and that the violence in a movie filmed years ago has a direct and deep connection to an act of violence at the movies just the other night.
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