A new analysis of the major feature films released during the days leading up to the mass shooting in Las Vegas confirm that some filmmakers in Hollywood are preoccupied with violence and overwhelming firepower.
“People were understandably horrified that shooter Stephen Paddock was able to fire what amounted to machine guns into a crowd. Yet similar weapons were being fired in movie theaters around the country. Three of the top five movies at the box office featured characters blasting away with automatic weapons,” writes Matt Philbin, managing editor of MRC Culture, a conservative watchdog which monitors the content of films and other public entertainment fare.
His analysis found that four movies — “Kingsman: Golden Circle,” “American Assassin,” “It” and “Mother!” — featured 589 incidents of violence, including 212 incidents of gun violence. The total body count of the four movies was at least 192. An automatic weapon was used at least 108 times.
“Those guns fired so many rounds, so rapidly, an accurate tally of shots or even shooters was impossible,” Mr. Philbin says.
The analyst points out that four days after the Las Vegas shootings, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein — whose action movies have depicted violence in past years — declared he would channel his “anger” over the attack at the National Rifle Association.
“It was the perfect Hollywood ploy — target the guns, not the media companies that feed them to Americans in endless streams of bloodshed,” Mr. Philbin noted.
The study’s numbers from American movies illustrate the “faux outrage” and the “entertainment media’s scapegoating tactic,” he said.
“Complain about lax gun laws, demonize the National Rifle Association and never accept the possibility that Hollywood’s glamorization of guns and violence has anything to do with the latest mass-shooting,” Mr. Philbin observed, also noting that the films depicted random violence that included body slams, explosions, cannibalism and mutilation.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.