John Wick & School Shootings

I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the first few John Wick films on some random streaming service which was probably on my iPhone or iWatch at three or four in the morning and I was likely barely awake as my Ativan and Prozac had already kicked in but in a word I can deliver the elevator pitch, “Violence.”

John Wick 4 was three hours of non-stop music video ridiculously intense, knife throwing, gun trotting, karate chopping, dart throwing, violence.  The film which was rated 14A in Canada was filled with tweens and teens.  A few parents made the trek to the cinema but most probably passed it up to watch the bland superhero movie Shazam in the next cinema, 

Besides the fact I give this movie 2-5 stars, there are a couple thoughts which have been running rampant through the grey matter in my brain since we left the cinema. First, psychiatrists and psychologists have written papers on how this kind of in-your face never ending violence can change a person’s relationship with their world. The mass slaughter of all these people certainly has the ability to influence teenagers thoughts on murder.  Movies like The Purge, John Wick and other insane body count films have the potential to desensitize the killing of innocent people in the mind of adolescents who mights already be dealing with mental health issues.  I’m not saying games like Fortnight and The Last of Us don’t contribute to raised amounts of cortisol in the brain and lowered amounts of dopamine, but combined with the violent films and the idiotic gun laws, it’s of no surprise everyday last year in the US there was a mass shootings.

Recent studies strongly underline this most salient point: that violent films and video games might only influence those who have a violent disposition to begin with.

54 men were split into two groups. The first group contained those who had a history of physical assault, with the other comprising those of a calmer nature.

A recent study strongly underlines this most salient point: that X-rated films and video games might only influence those who have a violent disposition to begin with.

On the first day, the two groups watched a succession of shootings and street fights while their brains were scanned. On day two, they watched emotional but non-aggressive scenes of folk interacting during a natural disaster. They watched nothing on day three.

While viewing the violence, the rather bellicose group had less bustle in the orbito-frontal cortex, which controls emotion-related decision-making and self-control. Their blood pressure went down progressively, while the tranquil groups’ rose. Subsequently, when questioned, all the antagonistic participants said they felt more inspired and resolute and were far less distressed than their non-aggressive counterparts when watching violent scenes.

When no films were shown, the violent participants had unusually high brain activity in a network of regions known to be active when not doing anything in particular. The researchers concluded that they have a different brain function map than their placid peers.

“Our aim was to investigate what is going on in the brains of people when they watch violent movies,” explained Dr Alia-Klein. “We hypothesized if people have aggressive traits to begin with they will process violent media in a very different way as compared to non-aggressive people – a theory supported by these findings.”

The findings, published in the Science Journal Plos One could reduce aggressive behaviour starting in childhood.

“Hopefully these results will give educators an opportunity to identify children with aggressive traits and teach them to be more aware of how aggressive material activates them specifically,” continued Dr Alia-Klein.

“Aggression is a trait that develops together with the nervous system over time starting from childhood. Patterns of behaviour become solidified and the nervous system prepares to continue the behaviour patterns into adulthood when they become increasingly coached in personality. This could be at the root of the differences in people who are aggressive and non-aggressive – and how media motivates them to do certain things”

Instead of reviewing a film that really doesn’t deserve a review here are a list of all of the schools in the United States where killers may have seen movies like this or played video games which may have changed their brain chemistry turning them into killers. 

By the way I took my 12 year old son to the movie and he said it’s his new favourite film while my 11 year old daughter thought there was too much dialogue.