The influence of movies on viewers can be significant and profound. How many youngsters have taken up boxing after watching the rags-to-riches-via-canvas story of Rocky Balboa? How many swept hairstyles have followed swiftly in the wake of Ryan Gosling’s starring turn in Drive? How many young couples have stood on promontories in that pose from Titanic over the past decade and a half? Clearly, life imitates cinematic art.
The power in a film-maker’s hands
Many cinema devotees watch films in order to glean some insight into the nature of the universe and their own place within it. Through watching three brothers taking a journey of discovery together through rural India in the Darjeeling Limited, the viewer can reflect on the means for a self-discovery of their own. Meanwhile, for over half a century, men have been living out a particular masculine fantasy through watching the James Bond films, whilst children (and adults too) have been transported to faraway lands by all manner of fantastical movies.
Film-makers possess a great deal of power over their viewers. The way in which ideas are presented in a film can translate to a tangible, sometimes complete change in the viewer’s thinking. It’s for this reason that many campaigners would suggest that films ought to be made responsibly. Sometimes the influences of films on the viewer are prosaic – a football flick might encourage viewers to go for a kick about; or a movie like Waking Ned might spur viewers on to have a play on www.bingo.com – whilst on other occasions they could be potentially serious – films like The Fast and The Furious have been blamed for encouraging dangerous driving; and Tarantino’s gory flicks are often accused of dangerously glamorizing violence.
Are films a reflection of the viewer?
On the other hand, perhaps it’s rare for a film to totally convince a viewer of something which they previously held to be untrue, and maybe expecting a well-adjusted person to leave the cinema after watching Reservoir Dogs with an insatiable appetite to slice someone’s ear off is a little far-fetched… We generally watch any given film because in some way, it appeals to us, and maybe films have the power to appeal specifically to this one part of our personalities and nurture it. There’s no questioning the fact that films can have incredibly strong influences on their viewers, but perhaps to a greater extent, they bring out traits and preferences which were there within us all along.