Just a quick post about the last class on Tuesday. I had a quite a negative reaction to the Kennedy Zapruder slow motion film we watched in class. I understand the importance to view it and I understand it's relation to our class and why we viewed it, but I would have rather been known it was going to be that graphic since we watched it in slow motion. Maybe I was simply naive and now being a big baby, but it bothered me seeing someone's head get blown off and their brains hanging out. I didn't know that he was shot in such a gruesome manner, well, that it was that graphic at least. Even at 21, I am sensitive to stuff like that especially because it is real and not CG. I had to watch the film Night and Fog in two classes in my college career and both times the professor warned us that it might be graphic and upsetting to some. Maybe note a disclaimer that the video will be graphic and upsetting would have helped. Even hours, days, after the class, it is still in my head. I'm curious if anyone else had a reaction like I did or if I'm just being a bit of a baby?
It reminded of the video I watched of Budd Dwyer shooting himself in the mouth in front of 5 television cameras. That video is available online to watch (not that I recommend it) but it was another video that stuck in my mind for a long time. So does anyone feel the same as I do?
I agree with this. While viewing this video in class, I didn't expect to literally see Kennedy's head get blown off. It was a bit disturbing to me as well, and I would have liked to have more of a warning before it was shown. I was afraid that the video of his assassin getting murdered would contain the same level of gore so I kept my head down just in case.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that it contained more than an expected amount of gore. And to be shown on Television at that time with that scene but have been shocking. If this were to show now a days, there would be the point of ethics, if this kind of gore should be displayed on national Television. Some people would definitely say, yes people should see the truth behind his assassination. Others would say no there is no need to see that much detail and frighten the audience. The topic of how much horror and gore to show on real life television news is debatable. Should the audience see the way Kennedy got assassinated? Or should the audience be protected from seeing how cruel the world really is?
ReplyDeleteThe film footage is widely accepted to be a valuable form of forensic evidence used to solve the crime of the President's murder; as well many people saw it repeatedly on the big screen in the film JFK. I am sorry if anyone found it disturbing, but it is a real and brutal fact of our nation's history, so it would be more shocking if people did NOT find it disturbing. I am not in the habit of censoring or editing any content relevant to the content of this (or any) class. Media courses often deal in sensitive and provocative material. As for
ReplyDelete"protecting" any adult audience from seeing footage that is part of our national history, I am not sure why this would be necessary or desirable. Some theorists might argue that the growing sensitivity to video violence in our culture belies our obsession with violent narrative content (in horror or action films, or video games) as well as our obsession with actual violence (perpetrated by mass shootings). Certainly there are some odd discrepancies in these anxieties.
I’d argue that sensitivity and compassion is what in fact makes you an adult. The image of President Kennedy’s explosive assassination is a haunting scene. It’s also exactly what we need to see – along with footage of mass burials in Germany, Darfur, Tibet. We need to see footage of our dead soldiers returning home in caskets, and explosions at the international manufacturing sites of our corporate puppeteers. We need to see the real things if we’re going to talk about anything beyond Miley’s twerks.
ReplyDeleteWe have a societal tendency to forget and deny while self-medicating and hyper-activating – and then continuing about our comfortable habits until another tragedy strikes close enough to home to wake us up for a nanosecond. We create this world: by voting, by consuming – in our expressions and in our actions. We MUST be reminded of the results.
My equivalent to your Tuesday happened on Friday, beginning with the onslaught of presidential pandering in TV in American Culture, and ending with the reminder of G.W. Bush’s first stolen election in Theories of Persuasion.
We need to be inspired to make informed decisions. We should ask ourselves what leads to these occurrences in history. We should ask ourselves how we want to participate in our own making. With every moment like this we owe it to ourselves, and each other to look in the mirror and ask: “What do I want to do with this loss of innocence? What do I want my own eulogy to sound like?” This moment, like any other, is our only moment with this unique opportunity.