How one thinks and how one acts are entirely different matters. Many times, a person’s stance is not determined by their mind, but by the position of their seat—just like Duke’s right now.
To say that movies have no influence on society is impossible, just as movies themselves are deeply shaped by the social environment and circumstances of their time. Popular films, in turn, influence society as well.
At any time, films should never abandon the promotion of mainstream values. These values are not tied to ideology—they are universal. A movie should not become an aspirin that numbs the audience into ignoring reality, nor should it be a bottle of formalin preserving the dark, decaying corners of people’s hearts.
The most enchanting trait of cinema is its ability to create a dreamlike world for people, allowing them to temporarily forget their troubles and find their own unique sense of joy and fulfillment in illusion.
Of course, that joy and fulfillment should never be like James Holmes’s.
However, forcing films to pay for real-world social phenomena is simply too much.
Still, The Dark Knight Rises was clearly impacted in North America. After earning an astonishing 90 million dollars, the shooting incident caused a sharp decline on Saturday. Many major theaters reported occupancy rates below fifty percent, and the single-day box office fell by more than thirty percent, finally ending the weekend with 62.67 million dollars.
Many people saw this as a new opportunity to continue suppressing the film, using various channels to further link The Dark Knight Rises to the Santa Monica shopping plaza shooting.
"What makes it terrifying is the overwhelming sense of provocation the film conveys—it stirs up every viewer’s urge to rebel against established social rules. By the end, audiences often begin to expect the villain to kill Batman. Batman becomes the biggest obstacle to social revolution, while the villains, instead, are turned into heroes who smash the machinery of the state, inspiring imitation."
That was still considered mild. Some comments went straight for Duke himself.
"In this world, only a madman director like Duke Rosenberg could create a lunatic fan like James Holmes!"
Certain so-called insiders even told the media, "Privately, Duke Rosenberg himself has said, ’I don’t know whether to blame the killer or myself...’"
The situation grew increasingly complicated. By Sunday, some moralist organizations had gathered in large numbers outside Warner Bros. headquarters—not only protesting but also demanding that the federal government forcibly pull The Dark Knight Rises from theaters.
It would be extremely difficult for these so-called organizations to actually accomplish anything substantial, yet no one could ignore their capacity for disruption.
Under mounting pressure, Duke’s partner and The Dark Knight Rises producer, Charles Roven, said in an interview, "Even if this movie were to be pulled from release immediately, we could accept that. Now is not the time to discuss any profit."
Of course, that was just talk. The withdrawal of The Dark Knight Rises would be unacceptable to both Duke and Warner Bros.
Moreover, their opponents were not only targeting The Dark Knight Rises—they also demanded that Duke issue a public apology and reflect upon his entire filmmaking philosophy.
Some media outlets even highlighted the Matrix shooting case, claiming that Duke’s films incited crime and that this was not an isolated incident—he must engage in deep self-reflection.
Since the incident occurred, aside from visiting the University of California Medical School and releasing an official statement, Duke had remained silent. He hoped that such silence would help reduce controversy surrounding The Dark Knight Rises, but it now seemed that some people had no intention of letting him go.
Since silence could not solve the problem, Duke did not mind speaking for himself.
Early Sunday morning, Duke personally updated his Instant Share page.
"In the history of world cinema, this is not the first, nor will it be the last, case of someone committing a crime by imitating a movie character. In the face of such a tragedy, any criticism targeting a single film is unfair and unreasonable. The existence of violence in movies is beyond reproach, because reality itself is far from perfect."
Just as Duke said, in North American history, there have been countless tragedies connected to movies.
He picked up a dossier compiled by Tina Fey, containing numerous documented cases.
For instance, the famous Reagan Assassination Attempt in 1981.
That year, John Hinckley Jr., who was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster from Taxi Driver, tried to win her attention by mimicking the film’s protagonist, Travis Bickle. Near the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., he shot U.S. President Ronald Reagan, wounding Reagan in the chest and injuring several aides. However, so-called fair and impartial justice, swayed by the money of Hinckley’s oil tycoon father, ruled him legally insane, acquitting him of attempted murder and sentencing him only to compulsory treatment.
In fact, crimes sparked by films were not limited to the Batman series. One website compiled at least a dozen cinema-related incidents, including The Godfather and X-Men: The Last Stand. These cases ranged from boycotts and sporadic brawls to incidents unrelated to the films themselves.
When Colors was released in 1988—a film depicting the Los Angeles police crackdown on street crime and gangs—thirteen young men from two rival gangs were arrested over the opening weekend. Police claimed they were gang members who fought at a theater showing Colors, disrupting its screening.
Furthermore, the notorious vigilante group "The Guardian Angels" held protests during the film’s release, carrying banners that read "Colors Kills Kids" and "Don’t Screen Colors in Los Angeles." Police in Chicago, New York, and Miami were all on alert during the film’s premiere period.
In the 1990s, on Long Island, during the screening of The Godfather Part III, members of two gangs opened fire in the theater. None of the gangsters were hurt, but several nearby moviegoers were caught in the crossfire. Among them was a 15-year-old boy who was killed.
Similarly, in the same decade, during the screening of Boyz n the Hood, several violent incidents occurred in theaters. A twenty-three-year-old man was shot and killed, a fifteen-year-old boy was stabbed to death during the opening weekend, and several others were injured.
Entering the new century, such incidents became even more frequent. In 2005, at a theater in Baltimore during a screening of X-Men: The Last Stand, two men stood up, pulled out guns, ordered everyone to lie on the ground, and randomly fired several shots. As a result, an unfortunate sixty-two-year-old man was killed.
In 2008, during the screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a moviegoer kept cheering loudly for the film, which greatly irritated the people nearby. When persuasion failed, one of them decisively pulled out a handgun and shot the other.
In fact, a quick search on Google reveals that conflicts caused by movies happen one after another, with deaths and injuries frequently occurring.
Perhaps one day, what was originally a leisurely form of entertainment—watching movies—may truly become a kind of "extreme recreation" that costs people their lives.
Of course, this was merely Duke’s private complaint to Scarlett Johansson after reading the related materials collected by Tina Fey.
But one fact cannot be ignored—and even Duke cannot deny it—since entering the new century, the number of casualties caused by movies has been increasing.
Why has the once-clear distinction between reality and dreams become blurred? Why are there now more and more people unable to tell dreams from reality? To some extent, this is related to the new world of meaning created by the Internet.
Since the advent of the Internet, the difference between reality and virtuality has become smaller and smaller; moreover, the direction of technological production is to completely eliminate this difference.
Especially in film marketing through the Internet, the focus on interactivity and participation significantly enhances the viewer’s sense of immersion—which, correspondingly, brings about some problems.
"What is film? Simply put, it is the art of making dreams."
After reading Tina Fey’s collected materials, Duke continued to update his Instant Share.
"If, as some media claim, movies should be held accountable for this shooting tragedy, does that make any sense?"
"Just imagine, if there were no violent content in any movie, so clean that even the most conservative people couldn’t find fault—would the world truly become better because of it? Would violence disappear? Everyone knows the answer."
"But in this impossible imagination, what we can be sure of is how false and hollow the human spiritual world would become. All artists and audiences would degenerate into mindless children, pretending to live in a pure and perfect dream world."
"Movies, like all other art forms, are distortions and reflections of reality. Indeed, many films depict or glorify violence, but there are also, perhaps even more, films that make audiences more deeply aware of the severity of violence—warning and prompting reflection on its origins and on where darkness lies."
"This may not be the best of times, but it is certainly not the worst. What movies reflect is merely the reality riddled with chronic problems. Our society constantly flows with both positive and negative energy. An antisocial lunatic—without watching any movie, comic, or novel, without playing video games or listening to rock music—can still become a butcher who slaughters the innocent."
"Of course, we have reason to ask film directors, producers, and studios to handle violent scenes with greater care and caution, but such a tragic loss of twelve lives is something movies cannot and should not be blamed for."
"In the real world, we do not need Batman, we do not need Superman, nor do we need the Joker or Lex Luthor. What we need is more clarity, deeper reflection, greater courage, and a more passionate love for the world. Only through free choice and free will—not through more filtering, protection, or control—can we walk out of the shadow of the Santa Monica Mall shooting and into a brighter world."
"May God bless them. May God be with us all."
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