Speaking of Violent Films

Over at Western Confucian, Joshua is talking about Tarantino and such like.

I knew a guy once who took martial arts and used to fantasize about being in a store during a hold up. He said he liked to imagine forcing the thief’s arm back until the gun was forced up his anus, at which point he would pull the trigger and say, “I’m sorry, officer. The gun went off in the struggle.”

He had… issues.

I regard films like Inglourious Basterds and similar violence fantasies as exactly the same thing. Set up some dehumanized cardboard movie Nazi and then encourage the audience to indulge their darkest and most evil impulses, all while congratulating themselves on sharing the moral courage of the people who fought and defeated (and eventually forgave and befriended) real German human beings. I think Tarantino is a cinematic technical whiz who uses his gifts to cultivate and encourage deeply evil desires in his audience.