A History of Violence in Movies

June 24, 2017 9:12 AM

An ongoing critical take on movie violence, starting with "Bullitt" Back in January 2016, Tom Breihan began choosing the important and importantly violent movie of the year and discussing why and how it had an impact. He also mentions others of that year in a postscript. His latest post (16 June 2017) is on "Kill Bill." I've set the link to page 2 so you can start at the beginning; there's 30+ posts.
posted by MovableBookLady (18 comments total)

interesting that he starts with Bullitt as I remember being maybe nine years old and overhearing my eleven year old brother and a friend discussing "how cool that part was when they shot the guy and he went flying into the wall". This would have been my secondhand introduction to proper violence in cinema.
posted by philip-random at 9:26 AM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I saw Bullitt in the movie theater with my grandma when I was 6. I spent the movie not really understanding the plot at all. Before I watched it again a few years ago all I remembered of it were the shotgun blast blood spray at the beginning and the car chase. What is strange is that I remembered the bad guys car being a Volkswagen Beetle! Which doesn't really make any sense but is what I would have testified to in court.
posted by Pembquist at 9:56 AM on June 24, 2017

It's because that dang beetle keeps appearing in the chase scene over and over again as they're cutting around the chase. It's the one big thumb in the eye of that whole sequence.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:58 AM on June 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Man! cars were primitive back then. Horrible suspension, horrible tires. Those guys driving had real guts.
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:09 AM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I saw Bullitt in the movie theater with my grandma when I was 6. I spent the movie not really understanding the plot at all.

Ahh, that's okay. Nobody else in the theatre had much luck understanding the plot, either.
posted by notyou at 10:23 AM on June 24, 2017

that dang beetle keeps appearing in the chase scene over and over again as they're cutting around the chase. It's the one big thumb in the eye of that whole sequence.

That is awesome! Someone should make a movie about the Beetle, like Joe E. Brown is just trying to run some errands and these two maniac cars keep zooming around him & lost hubcaps keep bouncing in through his car window.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:13 AM on June 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

We're they using the beetle for filming? Because it really is in almost every scene.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:15 AM on June 24, 2017

magic green beetle

posted by onya at 11:25 AM on June 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

There's some good chewy writing to be had in those articles, especially if you like cheesy action flicks, which I do, so thank you very much for the post.
posted by Beholder at 11:48 AM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Beetle shows up again in the second Dirty Harry clip.
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:55 AM on June 24, 2017

This is the only feature that's worthwhile at the AVClub anymore. They've cut literally every other ongoing series.
posted by Think_Long at 12:11 PM on June 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

There's some good chewy writing to be had in those articles

Yeah, these are really enjoyable, though I think Tommy Lee Jones is given short shrift in the Rolling Thunder write-up; he's the scariest fucking THING in that movie. Devane is damaged, Jones is just gone. If Devane doesn't stop by to pick him up before the last scene, everyone in that house is dead in a week.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:17 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is the only feature that's worthwhile at the AVClub anymore. They've cut literally every other ongoing series.

I still don't get the fucked-up metric that led to them cutting running series and coverage from pretty much every show I watch (along the declining quality of writing), but finding the budget to start a "food" section.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:29 PM on June 24, 2017

Been enjoying this series but as was mentioned above, there's not much else going on at the AVClub lately.

still in mourning over the Disolve
posted by octothorpe at 4:46 PM on June 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

That is awesome! Someone should make a movie about the Beetle

As everyone knows, Beetles died during the Civil War, but what these movies presuppose is....maybe they didnt?
posted by Jon Mitchell at 5:22 PM on June 24, 2017

I've been watching a lot of CHiPs this week (the DVDs were on sale for super cheap; I am on disc three of approximately half a kabillion; pray for me), and it's remarkable, for how much that series owes to Bullitt re: endless car chases in sunny California, it could otherwise not be any less like it; it's like Little House on the Prairie, only cornier and without all the guns.

Incidentally, on the subject of Beetles, a warning: The urge will be difficult to resist, but do not, under any circumstances, play Punch Buggy while binging on CHiPs. Heck, don't do it while watching a five minute clip of CHiPs. At the very least, put some plastic down, because blood will be shed.

(What ever happened to classic Beetles, anyway? Used to see them all the time right up until the turn of the millennium, then it's like they disappeared back to their home planet all at once. Did the dorky rebirth sap them of their cachet? Did they just all finally rust up simultaneously? Or is it because hobbyist mechanics are all but extinct what with all the newfangled computers and whatnot?)
posted by Sys Rq at 11:30 PM on June 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Speaking of violent movies, The Raid 2 was on last night: I noped out at the fight scene with the woman armed with a pair of hammers...did the plot ever actually make any sense?
posted by pharm at 2:58 AM on June 25, 2017

A nice series.
Among other things, it helped give me insight into the Fast and Furious franchise, the appeal of which has eluded me so far.
posted by doctornemo at 3:01 PM on June 25, 2017