Shoot 'Em Up: Time’s Up for Guns in Hollywood

In the wake of the Parkland mass shooting, is it time for Hollywood to rethink its relationship to guns?

Feature by John Bleasdale | 27 Mar 2018

Cinema loves a good shoot out. Whether it’s Sergio Leone’s stylised duels or Sam Peckinpah’s slow motion blood ballets; John Woo’s two-gun action or Quentin Tarantino’s Mexican standoffs, movies and gunplay go together. This is perhaps why many patrons of the multiplex in Aurora, Colorado on 20 July, 2012 initially thought the heavily-armed James Eagan Holmes was part of some publicity stunt for the movie they were watching – The Dark Knight – before he opened fire, killing 12 and injuring over 70. 

Since that mass shooting, there have been countless others throughout the US: Sandy Hook the same year as Aurora; the Pulse Nightclub; Las Vegas; and now the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida which saw 17 fatalities. This latest, however, has seen an unparalleled movement for gun control, culminating in the March for Our Lives demonstrations on Saturday when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets. Among them were celebrities such as Paul McCartney, Amal and George Clooney and Charlize Theron. Comedian Amy Schumer spoke at the Los Angeles march. Additionally, Clooney, Oprah and Steven Spielberg made large financial contributions to the cause.

And yet Hollywood is often queasy about gun control and it isn’t hard to see the reasons why.

For one – despite the common rightwing perception that the elite that populates tinsel town is a liberal one – many in Hollywood are pro-gun. And not just the usual suspects like Clint Eastwood and Chuck Norris, but also liberals such as Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Even Sean Penn had a huge gun collection until-then girlfriend Charlize Theron forced him into a rethink (proof you don’t cross Imperator Furiosa in fiction or reality). Another reason is that actors are fearful of alienating their audience. Putting their heads above the parapet can lead to them being targeted by internet trolls and alt-right websites. As Schumer pointed out in her speech on Saturday: "we sell half as many tickets for standing up for what’s right." 

It also opens them up to claims of hypocrisy. Liam Neeson spoke out against guns following the Bataclan shooting in Paris and was immediately shouted down, with many pointing out that gunplay was among his particular set of skills in the Taken series. Matt Damon was likewise contradicted by his own poster, featuring Jason Bourne pointing his pistol. More recently, Julianne Moore, an active advocate for gun control, appeared in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a spoofy '007 Junior' with an ample body count that opened the week Stephen Paddock opened fire in Las Vegas.

Recently, Steve Rose wrote in the Guardian that Hollywood is “falling out of love with guns”, citing superhero movies such as Black Panther and Tomb Raider as recent examples of relatively gun-less films. But this is wishful thinking – the John Wick films feature Keanu Reeves as another breed of superhero whose superpowers consists of looking cool, kung fu and shooting people in the face. Likewise, Suicide Squad dribbled over its guns. More importantly, studies show that although the depiction of bloody consequences has gone down, gunfire has become more frequent in film.

So, what is to be done? Is it time for Hollywood to stop writing cheques to victims' organisations and instead start re-writing the script? It’s happened before. Cigarettes and smoking were largely banished from family entertainment as the health risk became undeniable (though with Netflix a particular culprit, smoking is actually returning to screens). And if Hollywood has no influence on real world events then, why does it take the plaudits for changing the conversation on marriage equality, for instance?

We're not saying violent movies are to blame for violence. Japan watches the same films and plays videogames with even more extreme violence but has practically no real-life gun murder, largely because they don’t have any guns. Guns are always to blame, but to get rid of the gun you have to change the conversation. That is beginning to happen, and Hollywood has a role to play. After all, the NRA's chief argument for less gun control is that 'the only solution to a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun' – and that's basically the plot to every Bruce Willis movie. Almost every action movie, in fact.

At the Oscars, Frances McDormand brought activism in terms of diversity into career decisions with her promotion of ‘inclusion riders’. The high-profile gun control advocates around her could do likewise. A conversation could be started; a culture could be changed. And once the guns are under control, we go back to watching Peckinpah and Tarantino, happy in the knowledge that it’s all just a fantasy.

http://theskinny.co.uk/film