Lights, camera, chaos: when fantasy meets reality

MY FRIENDS and I, we were movie crazy! We watched every single movie … Make that every single  “action movie” we could.

Now, saying that these days may seem like an exaggeration. But when we were growing up, movie screenings occurred once a week. We had no televisions, no devices, and therefore motion pictures were screened in dedicated cinemas – and these were not cinema multiplexes. In fact, we even had a different name for them: "bioscopes".

It’s hard to describe the thrill, the warmth, the nostalgic emotions that wells up when I think of those days. I guess it’s those feelings that, in a sense, got me practically addicted to theatrical entertainment. 

Yet, the fact is, I cannot say when the last time was that I watched a half-decent movie. No offence to hardworking movie studios, but the quality of entertainment has taken a nosedive. These days, special effects and foul language have moved to the foreground, and simple, good storytelling has evaporated.

There’s no accounting for taste, but I once accompanied some friends to watch an action movie at a cinema. For around two hours, I sat there watching the hero utilise a vast variety of weapons, tools and kitchen utensils to kill more people than I could count.

My friends left the cinema breathless with excitement, while I thought, “So was that a tutorial on how many ways there are to kill humans?”

I even started wondering if watching action movies affects how we deal with people in the real world. I mean, if your preferred type of “entertainment” is all about watching one good man take on a group of bad thugs and systematically destroy them, could it be possible that we could, over time, start to identify with the hero, and be focused on winning all the time? 

And is it possible that we could be influenced to sincerely believe that anyone who opposes us is the baddies who deserve to be destroyed? Yet in our society, we cannot destroy them, because we’ll get into trouble. So that makes us miserable.

This has been known for millennia. In fact, the Bible actually illustrates this phenomenon when the psalmist writes: “Happy is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of the scornful.”

Did you catch that? “Ungodly, scornful sinners” … that sounds like almost every action movie character I have seen. And the counsel here is that happiness comes from avoiding them.

I recently heard a story about a self-ordained hero who decided to mete out what he thought was fitting justice.

John received a text from his next-door neighbour. It read: “This is Alan next door. I am sorry buddy, but I have a confession. I've been riddled with guilt for months and have been trying to pluck up the courage to tell you to your face, but I am at least now texting you, as I can’t have you not knowing. The truth is, I have been sharing your wife, day and night, when you're not around. In fact, probably more than you.

“I haven’t been getting it at home recently, but that's no excuse, I know. The temptation was just too much. I can no longer live with the guilt, and I hope you will accept my sincerest apologies and forgive me. I promise it won't happen again. 

“Please come up with a fee for usage, and I'll pay you.”

John, feeling righteously enraged, grabbed his gun, stomped next door and shot Alan dead. He returned home, poured himself a stiff drink, sat down on the sofa, and checked his phone, where he saw he had another message from Alan, probably sent while John was walking over.

The message read: “Hi John, me again. Sorry about the slight typo. My smartphone’s Autocorrect feature changed “Wi-Fi” to "Wife”, but I expect you worked it out. Technology eh?? Hope you got a chuckle from that. LOL”

The moral of the story: If you want to be a hero, be a nice hero!