Harvey Weinstein wants movie violence summit

In a somewhat surprising statement made in the wake of the tragic shootings in Colorado, Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein (producer of ultra-violent movies like "Pulp Fiction," "Scream," and "Inglourious Basterds) says that it's high time filmmakers take responsibility for the violence they depict on screen.

In a recent interview, the mega-producer said that people like him "can't shirk our responsibility" when it comes the portrayal of murder and mayhem in the movies. Weinstein's comments came in response to the widely held belief that violent films may have somehow inspired alleged shooter James Holmes to kill 12 people and wound dozens more at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" last week.

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The Weinstein Company founder went on to propose a powwow of sorts between filmmakers, studios, and industry leaders to tackle the issue of violence in movies.

"I think, as filmmakers, we should sit down — the Marty Scorseses, the Quentin Tarantinos, and hopefully all of us who deal in violence in movies — and discuss our role in that," Weinstein said.

It's unclear whether this is just reactionary bluster from Weinstein in the wake of the Aurora tragedy or a legitimate proposal on his part, but it all sounds a little hypocritical coming from a guy who has made a living by producing some of the most violent movies of the past two decades.

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"I've been involved with violent movies, and then I've also said at a certain point, 'I can't take it anymore. Please cut it,'" Weinstein elaborated, adding that if you respect the filmmakers like he does, it's a really tough line to walk.

The producer is likely referencing his long-running partnership with controversial director Quentin Tarantino, a filmmaker famed for his remarkably bloody films. Weinstein and his brother Bob have distributed or produced every Tarantino film since 1992's "Reservoir Dogs," a collaboration that has helped make all three men enormously successful. Coincidentally, Tarantino's last film, "Inglourious Basterds," actually featured a fictional movie theatre massacre, although the scene received little criticism at the time because the people being killed were Nazis.

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All that said, for Weinstein to turn around and basically call his industry the cause of the Aurora shootings is simply crass. It's a very slippery slope to begin blaming the media for the horrible actions of a lone individual who clearly has serious issues. Critics of media violence (TV, video games, and film) have long tried to link it to aggressive behaviour in children, but numerous high profile studies have found no conclusive link between the two. Of the people who watch violent movies or play violent video games, 99.9 percent of them don't go out and kill people in the real world. Did Shakespeare's blood-soaked play "Macbeth" ever inspire anyone to commit regicide? Probably not.

But hypocrisy aside, Weinstein may be half right. It's fair to talk about fixing the the United States' broken ratings system or about enforcing those movie ratings more stringently so that children aren't exposed to violent content. However, people -- especially Hollywood film producers -- should not start suggesting that filmmakers begin censoring themselves to prevent future incidents like that in Aurora.

The fact of the matter is that violent movies don't kill people; unstable people with guns do. Even if an individual had been inspired to act out by a violent movie, the issue at hand is not the film, but the state of that person's mental health. It's that simple.