1997_10 The Daily Collegian October 1997

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Wednesday, October 22, 1997
Opinion
Telephone: (209) 278-5732
Violence in movie
goes beyond reason
By Rod Dreher
While watching the film "Kiss
the Girls," I fought off the urge to
leave the theater. The movie stars
Morgan Freeman as a police psy¬
chiatrist tracking a serial killer who
kidnaps young women and sexually
tortures them, savagely murdering
those who fail to participate prop¬
erly in his psychosexual rituals. Of
course, a film critic is profession¬
ally obliged to watch a film through
till the end, and I did.
Initially believing that my repul¬
sion arose strictly from personal
taste. I ultimately gave "Kiss the
Girls" a so-so rating. It wasn't ar¬
tistically distinguished, but it was
technically competent, and even
though the movie was thematically
unpleasant, at least it wasn't as gory
as many films of the genre.
But I couldn't get distaste for the
movie off my mind. Then I read the
cover story in the September issue
of the Atlantic Monthly. It's a loifg
piece about the suffering of mur¬
der victims' families. Noting the
"extraordinarily high" U.S. murder
rate, and the rise of mass murders
and serial killings over the past few
decades. Eric Schlosser writes: "In¬
stead of producing widespread re¬
vulsion toward violence...
' America's murder rate has inspired
an altogether different response: a
culture of murder, with the mur¬
derer at its core." Crime fiction and
crime journalism have long been a
staple of public life, he says, "but
only in recent years has the serial
killer become a national icon, end¬
lessly portrayed in movies, books,
and popular music." Schlosser con¬
cludes that "a culture of murder
now surrounds us. like a dark, poi¬
sonous fog."
It's a fog, so thick and disorient¬
ing, that many of us fail to see what
would have been plain as day to
someone from a less homicidal time
or a more civilized place. "Kiss the
Girls" is a movie that, to entertain
its audience, rehes on the idea of
helpless women being sexually tor¬
tured and executed. Naturally, wc
are meant to root for Morgan Free¬
man to catch the mysterious villain,
but scenes of the killer's sadistic
treatment of these imprisoned
women are shown to evoke a sense
of fearful fascination with his sick
mind. The use of grim, sexualizcd
violence in "Kiss the Girls" is
barely distinguishable from the use
of sex in pornography: It exists
solely to exploit base, dehumaniz¬
ing impulses for the sake of kinky
titillation. And that is immoral,
worthy not of our indifference, but
our condemnation.
Why? How do we decide when
the cinematic depiction of evil is
morally acceptable and artistically
permissible? This is not meant as a
legal question: Aside from snuff
films and child pornography, these
days an adult can sec just about
anything he wants to without arous¬
ing the ire of the state. The ques¬
tion is not one of "May I see this?"
but "Ought I see this?"
Start with the idea that film, like
all representative art, by its very
nature reflects certain viewpoints.
Just as we make moral judgments
of events and actions in the real
world, we tend to do the same thing
with the scenarios presented to us
in film (Hannibal Lectcr is a villain,
Clarice Starling is a heroine). Fol¬
lowing the classical definition, se¬
rious films, like all serious art, have
two functions: to please, and to in¬
struct. (Even movies not intended
to be ethically didactic can't help
reflecting certain assumptions,
about right and wrong, and are thus
instructive by default).
What a film tells us about vio¬
lence, both in the drama and the
accompanying visuals, relates to us
the filmmaker's vision of the place
of violence in our world. The truth
is not always readily apparent: In
the slasher film, the killers are al¬
ways depicted as monsters, but the
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Term disabled gives group a
false, 'handicapping' label
By Robert Orozco   .
I believe people have a common
misconception about one group of
students on campus. The Disabled.
I mean really, when I mention the
word disability, the most common
thought is of someone in a wheel¬
chair, or blind, or deaf. The stereo¬
type "handicapped" comes to mind
rather quickly. Did you ever really
begin to think that this thought is
not completely correct? I went
around campus and asked this ques¬
tion, and the above assumption was
the answer given seven out of 10
times. Well, I was proven incorrecr
by a couple of people I spoke with.
"A student with a disability can be
anyone who is blind, deaf, in a
wheelchair, or someone who may
have a learning disability, and even
someone who has temporarily been
disabled due to an accident," said
Ruth Saludes, director of testing for
the Services for Students with Dis¬
abilities Office.
The SSD office is located in the
Henry Madden Library, Room
1049. next to the government docu¬
ments section. October is National
Disability Awareness month, with
activities planned for the 20th
through the 24th. The week will
give students here at Fresno State
the opportunity to find out what
"being disabled" is all about. The
week will also feature the artwork
of ClaytonTumcr. who is an Artist
in ResidencV^ith the Foot and
Mouth Painters.
Being disabled is not about be¬
ing stuck in a wheelchair or being
blind. Being disabled is about not
being able to perform tasks with¬
out the aid of something else. The
disabled are not separate from so¬
ciety, they are normal people like
you and I who just cannot do the
same things as most people
Rebecca Monies, a graduate stu¬
dent assistant, reported that the SSD
office offers many services to siu
dents. These services include: test
ing (to determine it you have a
learning disability), a reading pro¬
gram, computer labs, closcd-cap-
(ioned television labs, note
takers*both paid and voluntary),
and sign language interpreters. "Ac¬
tively, there are approximately 6(X)
students using our services." said
Monies. "This number does not in
elude the students who don't utili/e
our services."
If you or anyone you know is
having a learning problems or sim¬
ply has been temporarily disabled,
encourage them to utilize the ser¬
vices that are there for them.
As National Disability Aware¬
ness month dawns upon us, think
about how much harder it is for a
disabled person to perform "nor¬
mal"'everyday tasks that we take
for granted.
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The Daily Collegian is pub¬
lished five times a week for and
by the students of California State
University. Fresno.
Opinions expressed in the
Collegian are not necessarily
those of the entire Daily Colle¬
gian staff. The editors reserve the
right to edit letters for length and
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