Movie Old Boy Did Not Inspire Virginia Tech Killings

Although this is not a political or current events site, but because of the recent developments in this horrific incident, I was a bit forced to write on this topic. By now we've already seen the above images of Cho Seung Hui holding the hammer which seems he was inspired by the movie Old Boy (which interestingly was remade in Hindi as Zinda starring Sanjay Dutt). After seeing that image, the media and a lot of people were quick to blame the violence in movies and video games being responsible for this and other similar unfortunate incidents. I personally have a difference of opinion here.....

The notion that some kid watched a movie or played a violent video game and decided okay today I'm going to buy a gun and shoot people on the streets is not only absurd but plain stupid. The feelings to do something like this cannot be ignited by a movie or a piece of art, it can be validated, but they do not have the power to motivate someone to do such a horrendous act.

Be it the terrorism around the world or the crime in our neighbourhood, these acts, for the most part are a result of who these people are as human beings and how their environment affects them. But I think for the mostly it has a lot to do with how you as a person are wired. This is a whole different debate and I am not a psychologist or by any means qualified to make any absolute statements in that regard. But I can talk about myself and other folks that I have had the pleasure to know during my lifetime. In my opinion, we are not really looking for answers, we are always looking for things to blame and move on. I agree that the "why" in most cases is related to the "who", but we shouldn't be so obssessed with the "who" that we completely forget the "why". I saw the movie Bowling for Columbine sometime back and it was a good documentary, but my biggest disappointment was it never really said that maybe that kid was a psycho. It went on to blame the gun laws, the pressure in schools and colleges, stores that carry guns, rock singers that promote violence etc. but those things are for everyone. You don't see every high school kid that listens to Eminem or Marilyn Manson blowing up their friends' heads?

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that these art forms have no effect at all. Movies, music or any kind of medium does have an effect on people. But the way I see it is, there are all kinds of people in this world and what inspires who is completely personal and we can't go on generalizing that certain kind of art is wrong. Every art form has some kind of influence otherwise what is it's purpose. Maybe this Cho guy found some kind of validation from the movie old boy that inspired him to take that picture, but putting the blame solely on that movie is really wrong. I saw it's Indian remake and thought the concept completely sucked, so that was my take away from it.

I'm a big time movie fan and it annoys me when people start putting blames like these. We need to understand that life does imitate art to a certain extent but most of the time its art imitating life. Remember when the movie Fire came out, people burnt down theatres as if by doing that they'll be able to control the spread of lesbianitis in India. There were lesbians in India long before that movie was made and they will still be there. Actions like these just prove how much power some morons have that they get to decide what's good for us and what's not and basically insult the intelligence of general public.

Now back to our scheduled programming - did Abhi and Ash get married yet??