I
have seen a lot of death and destruction in my 40 plus years.
In
movies and television shows that is. If I added up the number of fictional
characters I have seen killed on the big and small screen, I don’t think those statistics
would come anywhere close to the number of innocent civilians senselessly gunned down over
the course of a year here in this country. The number of fictional fatalities I
have seen wiped out in movies and TV shows has got to be in the millions or more.
It
goes without saying. When the lights dim and we settle down in our theater seats with
our large, hopefully hot, and not cold stale bucket of buttered popcorn and
large coke and a couple hot dogs one hopes has not been sitting in the oven
since the theater first opened years ago, we hope that for more than a couple hours we are allowed to escape into a different world to get away from the grim
realities of life outside, even if the lives of beloved characters on the big
screen are cut short in some latest big screen comic book adaptation, disaster,
gangster, horror or science fiction movie.
After
all, it’s only a movie, right?
Within
an hour of taking in the endless 24/7 - 9/11 style news coverage from Aurora,
Colorado the morning of July 20 where, to quote Colorado Democratic Rep. Ed
Perlmutter in an interview with 850 KOA News Radio in Denver, “a psychotic son
of a bitch” shot 70 moviegoers at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" that left 12 dead and 58 injured, my desire
to see what was and maybe still is despite the tragic events, the summer’s most
anticipated blockbuster quickly diminished. For a brief moment that is.
My first reaction to what happened Friday morning was the same as on September 11, 2001 when 19 terrorist/hijackers took over four jetliners slamming the first three into the World Trade Center’s twin towers and the Pentagon before passengers bravely stopped the fourth from making its way to what was believed to be either the U.S. Capitol or the White House, losing their lives in the process.
I
was angry that someone with no regard for human life could walk in during a
movie and start firing at anyone who moved like he was playing his own personal
violent video game. What did any of those people in theater 9 do to make him go
on a killing spree?
I was
so sickened by this that I refused to name the 24-year-old suspect in this
column. I feel the SOB does not deserve any more attention than what he is
already getting from the media and what I can only assume in his own twisted
mind wanted when he began planning this atrocity months ago.
Just as I did on 9/11, I shed
several tears for the victims.
As
unbearably sad and unfortunate as this is, what happened July 20 could have
happened at any major screening of an anticipated summer blockbuster on opening
night in a sold-out theater full of people. It could have happened during the
first midnight screening of "The Avengers"
in May somewhere in Anytown, USA. I wish there was an easy solution to the
problem but it's the times we live in. We just aren't completely safe anymore
no matter where we go be it the nation’s schools, college campuses, the local
malls, movie theaters, restaurants, sporting events and even
church.
I am, however, and anyone else for
that matter who shares the same belief, are only letting as former President
George W. Bush (2001-2009) often referred to throughout his presidency the
“evil doers” win if I say I’ll never again attend a midnight screening at the
local theater out of fear of what some other mentally disturbed, disgruntled P.O.S./SOB
might do opening night.
Movies are still as "The Dark Knight Rises" director
Christopher Nolan said, "one of the great American art forms and the
shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important
and joyful pastime."
The tragedy in Aurora, Colorado will not stop me from catching the first afternoon screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" at an IMAX theater a couple days from now. I won’t feel any uneasiness watching such unsettling action sequences of school children in buses in danger as city bridges are blown up, NFL players are wiped out during a football game and shootouts at Gotham City’s stock exchange; scenes of which were shown in the trailer.
I
know in the end good will triumph over evil like it always does 99 percent of
the time in the movies. Just as it did early Friday morning in real life when
police caught “The Joker” at his car outside the theater and immediately took
him into custody.
The only difference now as I make my
weekly or bi-weekly pilgrimages to the local multiplex on my days off and sit
in the first five rows of the bottom floor of the auditorium, I may, out of the
corner of my eye, occasionally keep a close watch on anyone coming out or
coming in through those exit doors as I am watching the film.
©7/21/12
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