Mental Health, movies, and violence
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Is it wrong to feel a longing for revenge? Most of those inner thoughts are never actualized, so where do those desires for vengeance end up? I think this is an important topic that few are willing to openly talk about.
Justice-seeking is natural. To me, it would be odd to find someone who is completely unconcerned with the injustices in their small world and also in the large one we all share. So, I intend to discuss what we see all the time (reported) in the media and not merely a person’s wishful thinking of striking back at someone they know. In other words, regardless of the state of your life, we have collective resentment toward others who cause great harm without suffering punitive measures.
Killers on our television screens, those who exploit the innocent, criminals who steal millions from people’s savings, and on and on, incite our anger. The media rouses us in the wrong direction.
Therefore, I intend to talk about TV and especially movies. This makes sense in my head, at least, because part of entertainment’s appeal is to offer vicarious situations and characters who give us relief from pent-up frustrations.
I am using movies and how they have changed to begin a discussion of revenge and how we process it. We must talk about revenge and the ugly side of life, because mental health must be more than the slogans of optimism. That does not tell the whole story of the human experience.
For the sake of this story, it matters here that I grew up in the 1980s. Hollywood produced a certain type of movie back then.
They were violent, but it was violence of a different character compared to today. I have noticed that we now demand realistic gore in our entertainment. When blood is shed it can be unsettling, because the camera does not allow us to look away.
Back in the 80s, violence was more cartoonish and “happy.” We could watch as a family while a person was bludgeoned to death. Films catered to our sensibilities, and the attractions on the big screen generally delivered gratifying endings. Thus, there are differences when we contrast eras.
I believe we can distinguish the main factor influencing entertainment in the decade of my youth: the Cold War. By the 80s, this conflict had passed through many permutations, back and forth insults, and indirect wars between the superpowers. Vietnam was over, and Russia’s quagmire in Afghanistan was underway.
The Cold War was this ongoing dichotomy with each superpower supposedly representing the good guys or the bad guys. Your perspective depended on many things, but we can argue that the world was “simpler” in the sense of taking one side or the other. And the evil “Other” must be defeated.
So, violence was often approved of and applauded, because the powers of good assumed the responsibility to scold and perhaps kill those on the wrong side. I am using the word happy, because violence made people feel good without exploring any themes that were too realistic.
I believe happy violence was about revenge. It still is. Is this a problem?
More than any others, I am thinking back on Sly Stallone’s Rambo franchise and the films of actions stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, and Charles Bronson. Stallone won the Cold War twice, once in Rambo III and again in Rocky IV. He was the pumped-up instrument of rage who deleted communists and an assortment of other evil-doers.
We loved revenge stories. I am betting that our brains are stimulated by revenge, but that is just my conjecture.
The world has changed, and you already knew that. The binary us versus them dynamic no longer dominates our understanding of how the world works. Entertainment reflects that with more anti-heroes than those like Stallone.
When people hurt one another, it is messy. War is not a spiritual crusade or a contest about polar opposite ideals. Most people cannot be determined as “good” or “bad.” Entertainment overall depicts war as chaos. Does that make revenge less “happy” and clearcut?
Where does revenge go? How are we exorcising that demon from our collective consciousness? The mental health field evidently provides me with contradictory lessons. And the desire for vengeance is all too human.
Revenge necessarily has some role to play in our mental health. Since everything impacts how we feel, I must try to figure this out. By the way, I am well-schooled in the recommendations from doctors and therapists.
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Professionals in the health field entreat us to process trauma and try to forgive others. We do this for our benefit more than theirs, because it hurts us when we stoke that fire within that keeps grudges and hate burning bright. Hate can destroy a person even when that feeling is justified.
There are parallels between the mental health playbook and the greatest teachings of world religions. The golden rule comes to mind, and so does finding inner peace.
Yet, all these recommendations are easier said than done.
How wrong is it to desire revenge, and should we try to abstain from the revenge fantasies that feel good? Mental health also taught me not to ignore emotions and thoughts. We cannot leave wounds un-attended. So, I still wonder if revenge is natural and proper (to imagine) or if it defies the prevailing consensus. I don’t know.
The Taken franchise is proof that revenge-as-entertainment is not dead. During a very challenging time in my life, I watched the first installment over and over. I can offer personal testimony that it helped in some short-term way to soothe my frustrations when being unfairly treated. There is no reason to get into details, but there was a contract dispute where I was right, the offending party was wrong, and there was nothing at all I could do about it.
The great film, No Country for Old Men, supplies a contemporary example more emblematic of how we think of violence. It is the opposite of Liam Neeson’s butt-kicking and name-taking. There are the people we root for and against, but the lines are blurred. The only wholly sympathetic character is Tommy Lee Jones’ sheriff who is old and overmatched.
Any viewer surely learns that violence is random, and justice is never guaranteed. That is part of the theme of the story, as Javier Bardem is a walking coin flip of death without logic or mercy. No Country has a famous non-ending, ending, where the camera abruptly goes black just after the sheriff’s half-coherent dream dialogue.
Yet, the Coen brothers are making a point: the ending is not cathartic, just, or anything we want it to be. It just is, much like the grotesque death that visits our world without warning or justifiable purpose.
By merely existing, human beings are exposed to numerous wrongs where the unfortunates never secure any kind of satisfying redress. So here, I am not focusing on that person or that company that mistreated you.
I guess I am saying life is not fair, and we sometimes seethe with anger about our powerlessness to stop the bad guys from winning. We may not be directly involved, but there is an accumulation of grievances sensitive people cannot turn away from. And I think that is a problem now more than ever, because information on everything is out there for easy consumption.
No person is a robot programmed to be automated forgiveness machines. Too much is more than enough, and is that not when good folks can cross the line as perpetrators?
Perhaps Internet brawling, with keyboards as weapons, takes the place of acting out in-person revenge fantasies. Could it be argued that Internet buffoonery is the current method of releasing the violent impulse to even scores? Maybe you will tell me, dear reader.
As a younger person, I heard people say, “do not fight” or “there are no winners in a fight,” but I never believed them. The authority figures who spoke in these terms were not sincere. This might be an overstatement, but it feels accurate: most people believed fighting, but especially revenge, was just fine as long as the bad guy received retribution.
And now? I believe happy revenge is not nearly as prominent. Real life has intruded into our bloody fantasies. Victims have more of a voice and talk about real experiences.
There are more films like No Country than Taken. The following might appear as some insignificant thing, but I believe it is more than that. Have you ever watched victim impact statements from a trial? I am sure true crime has impacted your life on some level.
People involved in hideous tragedies where they or their family have been victimized often say that revenge is futile. Of course, this is not always the case. However, we see in movies and in real life similar messages that revenge is unlikely and seeking it is counterproductive.
To summarize, we live in a morally ambiguous age where bad guys are often not repaid for their sins. Sometimes, they are rewarded. That Cold War us vs. them is now everyone against everyone, it seems.
One thing is crystal clear, however: the fighting culture of my young life needs to be eliminated and replaced with socialization and cooperation. That may sound too idealistic, but I disagree.
In addition to the Cold War, we could cite cowboy movies and entertainment in general that created a pro-revenge, fighting-as-cool type of civilization. But, now I am getting into territory much larger than this space and more ambitious than my current mood. That is a sign to end this story.
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When Revenge Is Never Served was originally published in Mindful Mental Health on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.