MPAA Chief Chris Dodd on Newtown Shootings: Hollywood's Gettting Ready to Agree and to Ask Studios to Voluntarily Ban Gun Scenes and Gun Firing Bullets Scenes from All Fuiture Movies On a Voluntary Basis

Some Hollywood studio chiefs are getting ready to ask for a voluntary ban on gun scenes in future movies and are ready to participate in a more meaningful dialogue about gun violence after the shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school last week, Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, says.

GET ME REWRITE: Since the Sandy Hook Christmas 2012 Massacre, the depiction of guns and guns firing bullets has gradually become less frequent on screen as the obvious hazards of violent guns scenes have become more widely known. With the anti-gun movement gaining greater respect and influence, conscious attempts not to show guns or guns firing on screen are now undertaken in order to avoid encouraging future Sandy Hook massacres.

I sent this letter to Mr Dodd:

Just as Hollywood slowly took cigarettes and smoking scenes out of movies, due to lobbying from anti-smoking for good health reasons groups, I want to start a nationwide campaign now to lobby Hollywood execs and studios and writers and directors to TAKE OUT all gun scenes and gun-firing scenes from all Hollywood movies in the future, so that future movies will NEVER show guns or guns firing in any scene, even police movies, even car chase movies, even any movie at all. It might take 30 years of lobbying, but i can be done. Having lived in Asia for 20 years in Japan and Taiwan where gun violence on the streets is rare, when i watch HBO and other TV movie channels on TV here, nine of out ten USA movies have GUN scenes and GUNS firing scenes in violent way. WE MUST TAKE THESE SCENES OUT OF FUTURE MOVIE SCRIPTS and HOLLLYWOOD MUST AGREE TO THIS MODEST PROPOSAL WHICH IS FOR REAL POST SANDY HOOK, and Hollywood can do this on a voluntary basis. Want to help me? Contact me at danbloom AT gmail DOT com

Our group is called SGIH,
or STOP GUNS IN HOLLYWOOD

Jon Hamilton over at Roger Ebert's FB page wrote: "It certainly is a noble cause, Danny, but I enjoy an action movie every once in a while. I wouldn't want to see guns taken out of movies, personally. Sorry, but good luck on your cause anyway. "
  

YOUR POV?

If we could take smoking scenes out of movies, certainly we can take gun scenes and shooting scenes out of movies and still have a creative film industry in the future. Think about it.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-06/india/30481356_1_smoking-scenes-new-films-i-b-ministry


COMMENTS PRO AND CON .....from concerned people on the INTERNET: in reaction to my post here and on Facebook and soon as an Open Letter in a blog post at the Wrap.










Philippa Doran, 83 years old, in New Zealand, writes to me: ''Philippa wrote: "What about war films and historical films?"









Jon Hamilton: "It certainly is a noble cause, but I enjoy an action movie every once in a while. I wouldn't want to see guns taken out of movies, personally. Sorry, but good luck on your cause anyway. "









Jon Hamilton adds...." Just my opinion, but I think a more reasonable argument to make would be to demand theaters to enforce the rating system to stop kids from getting in to see violent movies. Or, how about a campaign to put pressure on the MPAA to be tougher on films with gun violence? I think both of those are much better and more realistic ideas...















Jon Hamilton notes : ''One of the things I hate about the MPAA is how lax they are with killing and violence in movies, yet if there's any nudity or sex, they freak out. What kind of message is that sending our young people? Violence-good, Sex-bad.''









Wendy Weiss: ''Sorry, but I don't agree with this. There are many excellent movies that necessarily include scenes in which guns are fired. Moreover, I don't care for self-censorship. I think it leads to an unhealthy, repressive artistic climate. So you can count me out and on the other side on this issue.'' ''









Wendy Weiss, adds: "Personally, I think Hollywood wanting to help is always a bad sign. Censorship/self-censorship is not something i would pursue. ''









Cathy Gody Wolf says to me: "never happen. Americans like guns .''















Diane Juster tells me: ''Smoking is still in films where appropriate; where would Edward R. Morrow be without a cigarette in "Good Night and Good Luck".... and of course, Mad Men. I've never been a fan of gratuitous violence of any kind, whatever the weapon. ''









http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-06/india/30481356_1_smoking-scenes-new-films-i-b-ministry


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SMOKING IN MOVIE SCENES?

Ever since the era of silent films, smoking has had a major part in film symbolism. In the hard boiled film noir crime thrillers, cigarette smoke often frames characters and is frequently used to add an aura of mystique or even nihilism. One of the forerunners of this symbolism can be seen in Fritz Lang's Weimar era Dr Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922 (Dr Mabuse, the Gambler), where men mesmerized by card playing smoke cigarettes while gambling.




Female smokers in film were also early on associated with a type of sensuous and seductive sexuality, most notably personified by German film star Marlene Dietrich. Similarly, actors like Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn have been closely identified with their smoker persona, and some of their most famous portraits and roles have involved them being haloed by a mist of cigarette smoke. Hepburn often enhanced the glamour with a cigarette holder, most notably in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Smoking could also be used as a means to subvert censorship, as two cigarettes burning unattended in an ashtray was often used to 'suggest' sexual activity.



Since World War II, smoking has gradually become less frequent on screen as the obvious health hazards of smoking have become more widely known. With the anti-smoking movement gaining greater respect and influence, conscious attempts not to show smoking on screen are now undertaken in order to avoid encouraging smoking or giving it positive associations, particularly for family films.

GET ME REWRITE: Since the Sandy Hook Christmas 2012 Massacre, the depiction of guns and guns firing bullets has gradually become less frequent on screen as the obvious hazards of violent guns scenes have become more widely known. With the anti-gun movement gaining greater respect and influence, conscious attempts not to show guns or guns firing on screen are now undertaken in order to avoid encouraging future Sandy Hook massacres.