Do We Root For Murder?

[Julianking93]

After recently re-watching some of my favorite action movies, I began to think about something.

(Before reading, take note that I don't hold myself higher than anyone else. I do the same thing as I state in this post)

While watching, naturally, we root for the good guy to prevail over the forces of whatever evil he happens to be fighting at the time. We get excited over big explosive action sequences and we applaud (sometimes) when he finally beats someone, yet, its almost as if people don't seem to notice that he just killed someone and we applaud him for it.

Take Indiana Jones for example, one of my favorite movies. Then take the scene where the guy is waving a sword around and showing off when Indy just simply shoots him. The audience will laugh at this even though he just ended someone else's life. We root for him to kill another human being.

The same goes for all action movies. But that's just movies. It's okay, right?

But this does not only apply to forms of media, this also happens in real life. Take the stereotypical flag waving American who supports troops. The American army kills for a living, so by saying we "Support our Troops" does that also mean we support murder? When is murder justifiable? When someone doesn't aggree with your ideas? When someone tries to kill you or someone you love? Or, am I just thinking into this a little too much?

What do you think?

 

[Kollega]

In short,What Measure Is A Mook.

Murder can be justified if it saves more lives than it ends. Starcraft marines fighting Zerg,or Fellowship of the Ring killing orcs en masse can be justified,because it stops evil from hurting innocents. Soldiers killing innocent civilians are obviously evil,on the other hand. Or at least don't give a shit about anything. War On Terror,in my opinion,is morally ambiguous - innocents may die,but we can't just let terrorists do whatever they want.

Then there's whole Comedic Sociopathy malarkery going on - as in "guy waves sword around,Indy shoots him" example.

 

[AssButt]

The media in the US glorifies violence so we are desensitized to it while strangely maintaining a "it can't happen to me" stance which possibly explains its glorification.

 

[Sevre]

We do need something to root for. You can only follow sports for so long.

 

[Gabanuka]

You clap at the end of movies? Do that in a cinema were is live and everyone will probebly give you the evils.

OT: No one really "roots" for murder. I guess people consider it good beating evil in the movies.

 

[Ibanez887]

I root for murder only if its good, like in The Hills Have Eyes 2. Me and some friends watched a few months ago and every time the dad started killing someone, we'd start yelling and cheering him on

 

[open trap]

population controll, we have no natural predators but ourselves

 

[Casual Shinji]

See this?

It's a pickle!

 

[The Austin]

Uhhh... Indie wasnt murdering people, he was defending himself.

 

[Mabian]

With regard to movies, and by extension video games, we don't really root for murder (in most instances, anyway). We usually prefer movies and games that tend to have a sharp divide between good and evil, where the main character represents the pinnacle of morality against some depraved character or civilization. In these cases, we usually don't call this murder, as there is some sort of justification, and we normally consider killing to be murder when the victim is innocent. There are cases where this doesn't seem to hold true, and perhaps in those cases we do root for murder.

With regard to the media, it is the same issue. We tend to view it as murder so long as we view the opposing side in a war as innocent. "Support our Troops" can only be equated with "Support Murder," then, when the person uttering the phrase believes that opposing side is, in fact, innocent and does not deserve to die.

 

[TheBarefootBandit]

We do need something to root for. You can only follow sports for so long.

I'm beginning to feel that way about sport.

 

[-Orgasmatron-]

Think you're looking into it abit to much.

But yea, a movie is just a movie, nothing wrong with abit of killing there, movies are supposed to bring something which you don't see in everyday life, so I think murder in movies ain't to bad.

'Course the Escapist is full of hard nuts who don't 'fraid of nothing and will all come here and post about their edgy and cool views about how awesome murder is and how much they admire Charles Manson.

 

[j0z]

In short,What Measure Is A Mook.

Murder can be justified if it saves more lives than it ends. Starcraft marines fighting Zerg,or Fellowship of the Ring killing orcs en masse can be justified,because it stops evil from hurting innocents. Soldiers killing innocent civilians are obviously evil,on the other hand. Or at least don't give a shit about anything. War On Terror,in my opinion,is morally ambiguous - innocents may die,but we can't just let terrorists do whatever they want.

Then there's whole Comedic Sociopathy malarkery going on - as in "guy waves sword around,Indy shoots him" example.

Damn you! I want to petition for a new rule for The Escapist, "Do not link to TVTropes", there went my evening.

OT- Killing people is justified if it saves more people than you kill. That is my philosophy.Random murder isn't good, but fighting wars to protect your country is fine. So is killing someone to protect yourself.

 

[Julianking93]

Think you're looking into it abit to much.

But yea, a movie is just a movie, nothing wrong with abit of killing there, movies are supposed to bring something which you don't see in everyday life, so I think murder in movies ain't to bad.

'Course the Escapist is full of hard nuts who don't 'fraid of nothing and will all come here and post about their edgy and cool views about how awesome murder is and how much they admire Charles Manson.

True. When I posted this I knew MaxtheReaper would post something about how he's pro murder or whatever. And I was right.

 

[Iron Mal]

Go genocide! Give me a G-E-N-O-C-I-D-E! What do we get? Genocide!

Seriously though, killing the bad guys is typically seen as morally acceptable since it usually serves the greater good of a situation.

The 'bad guy' has also usually been responsable for numerous acts of evil (which usually, but not always, include murder) so it's not so much 'murder' as 'what he has coming anyway' (at least this is how the logic works in most films).