Debate – Matrix revelations!! Do movies really influence people??

[Prelude]

Apologises if something similar has been posted recently, but I have been otherwise engaged of late, eating the biggest cake in the world.

I was watching a TV programme last night that claimed the Matrix movie was responsible for pushing people who were already on the edge, over it!!

It’s not the first time that movies have been accused of influencing people to carry out acts they normally wouldn’t have, and I was wondering what peoples views were on this.

The argument was that the Matrix lead people to believe and question whether the world around them is for real. Well big deal, it wouldn’t be the first movie to make me question this, but I guess whilst I am clearly insane I still have the ability to realise it is just a movie, (ok so I had to try the slowing down time thing as well, but after several failed attempts and bruised elbows I was convinced).

The programme documented several cases of people who had committed various murders, seemingly originally stable people one minute and then gunning people down the next, claiming it was because of the Matrix. (Not the movies the REAL Matrix)

The first lad had taken a shotgun and shot both his parents and then called the police to tell them what he had done. His lawyer put in a plea of temporary insanity caused by the boy’s obsession with the Matrix movies. Her only grounds for this was a poster in the boys room, the fact he owned a long black coat and watched the movies frequently, the plea was thrown out.

However another case describe a hard working business woman, gunning her boss’s partner down in the street and then continuing on to take out her boss as well, she was stopped by the police before she managed to do this. On interview she very calmly claimed, they were part of a Matrix group that were out to get her and it was just something she had to do to survive. She was convinced that once she had explained her actions to a Jury they would understand and she would be acquitted. The police found a list in her room of people she was intending to kill, she claimed all of these people were part of the Matrix group sent to kill her, she even started to believe that dreams she had had, were in fact real. A psychiatric report was completed on her and this time the plea wasn’t thrown out! The physiatrist claimed she had lost the ability to rationalise between what was real and what was not.

One of the cases, another young lad, left his father a note, claiming he was ‘The One’ before going out on a random killing spree, he was stopped by police before he could kill anyone but later said he was prepared to shoot the police as well.

Most surprisingly all of I think was the claim of the two guys responsible for the random sniper shootings in Washington recently. The younger of the two stating their actions were because of the Matrix.

Now forgive me but where in the Matrix do they randomly go out and shoot people filling their car's up with petrol!! Did I miss that bit, was it in one of the deleted scenes?

In fact I fail to find any connection with any of the cases to the film, expect one. A computer hacker who become so paranoid and desperate to escape the Matrix it made him unstable enough to think people were after him and he ended up killing his landlord.

I can see how the movies could lead people to question their surroundings but I don’t see how the film could be related to random shootings, isn't the majority of the films fighting? the only mass shooting scene I remember is in the first film when they go into the building where Morpheus is being held and they kill all those security guards.

Are movies just becoming the sanest choice for an excuse in an already insane world?

[DaveJ]

They are the new excuse.

It used to be "God told me to do it."

[THE True Lara]

Morning sis, I'll repeat what I just said over at be.;
I also saw 'The Matrix Defence' on c4 the other night.
Left me feeling that they were all grabbing the wrong end of the stick. It's not which movie has supposedly affected them, but why. Why were they susceptable to such minor suggestion? I don't think the films are responsible -at least not in those cases, what's happened is they've seen the film, and it's fitted their personal view of reality. It's like finding religion. It's just finding a belief system that makes sense to you.
If I were the lawyer for those people I'd feel bloody ashamed I was trying to lessen the charges on dangerous people who were clearly in need of psychiatric help.

[dhama]

Originally posted by Prelude
Are movies just becoming the sanest choice for an excuse in an already insane world?

The Matrix movies were perhaps symbolic of our own society in the way we live an illusion. Movies can only mirror what we already live and feel and they are just as much a part of our illusions as anything else we experience. I find it difficult to remain focused for long periods, I just keep returning to my day dreams, I guess i'm not the only one. But when I am focused, I see the world as it really is, even if it is just for a second or two and maybe that shock just takes me back into my day dream again; what was the question again????

[CatSuit&Ponytail]

Prelude, it is on the same grounds that people burn books. Because ideas have power over those who are ready to hear that particular message. Whether the idea is an absurd one or not makes no difference. People will skew an idea into what fits their world-view. Various religous texts are the very same thing. Reading something some lot of people wrote two thousand years ago and more cause some small part of our society to have in the past murdered old ladies, and now to murder doctors, so nothing at all surprises me when it comes to what people believe or try and convince others they believe.

[Prelude]

Hey sis *waves*

Thanks guys, some interesting thoughts there, and of course you’re all right. At the end of the day they were going to do it anyway, they just have to blame something for there actions, they couldn’t possibly blame themselves, cos people very rarely put there hands up these days and say, ‘yep that was me I did that’ so them blame somebody or something else.

Btw sis, those scones you were saving for tea, well I ate them, but the Matrix made me do it