I love going to the movies. I love the experience of sitting in a dark theater, and spending the next 2 hours transported into a different time and place. I love the surround sound. Someday I will overdose and die happily on movie popcorn. I even love watching the previews for movies soon to come. Going to the movies for me is a chance to let my guard down, relax with friends, consume empty calories, and admire various attractive gentleman actors.
The movie experience was attacked.
We are all horrified at the event that took place in Colorado during “The Dark Knight Rises” premiere. I think those of us that go to the movies on a regular basis are even more shaken.
The shooting happened at a midnight showing which changes the dynamics. People that go the midnight showing of a premiere are typically hardcore movie buffs. The atmosphere was sure to be festive. The long awaited conclusion of the Batman trilogy is here! People were there to relax and enjoy. It was more like a party. This has made the shooting all the more horrifying and violating.
I myself just saw “The Dark Knight Rises”. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and honestly look forward to owning it and seeing it repeatedly. When the credits started to roll, however, an unexpected thought came to me.
There is an entire group of people that didn’t live to see the end of this movie.
It is human nature to be sad, scared, and angry at such an event. It is also human nature to blame.
As soon as the news of this massacre sunk in, my next thoughts were “Will we now have to be stripped searched to go into the theater? Will we have TSA like security now? Here comes the blame game”.
And the blame game has started indeed! Should we have more gun laws? Because somehow more laws will make things better. Should we make concealed weapons more available? Because somehow in a dark, noisy, crowded theater with gas bombs going off, a disoriented layperson will no doubt be able to shoot the perpetrator no problem.
OH! And lets ban costumes in the theater! Somehow that will keep us safe! Costumes are bad! Never mind that the suspect in this case was wearing freaking body armor NOT a costume.
I know! How about the parents of this psychopath! Lets blame them! Somehow they should have told someone that their son was…uh…disturbed? Because we all want a police force that runs around investigating reports of “disturbed people”.
It is human nature to blame and I get that. Blame means there was a cause. We want a cause because it means we might be able to control it. Somehow the fact that this was caused by a true psychotic individual that could not by any reasonable means be stopped just isn’t acceptable. We must make more laws! We must have more guns! Less guns! We must do something! We must blame someone! We must have control.
Ah control! How we humans love control! We love to live in this façade that we have control of things around us. There are certain elements that we can control yes. We can take steps to make sure the odds of control are in our favor. Ultimately, however, events like this tragedy remind us that sometimes shit happens. As much as we try, sometimes some crazy person with a gun will kill a bunch of people because it is fun.
I guess my thesis here is to feel free to discuss this tragedy and how it can be prevented, but don’t leave your head behind. Let’s stay real people. (For instance, banning costumes. Really?) Don’t let your fear and paranoia steal your freedom or peace of mind…or your movie experience.
(SIDE NOTE: Not sure where to put this so I will shove it here. I DO THINK that we should consider not allowing children to midnight premiers of PG-13 or R movies. This has nothing to do with the massacre and certainly has nothing to do with preventing such events, but I am frustrated that children were allowed into the theater. A 6 year old is dead who should have been in bed at that time of night. No blame here. I don’t judge her parents. I am not even going to touch the whole movie rating thing even though there is no way in hell I would allow my 6 year old to see Batman due to content. But what adult wants to sit with a child at ANY late night or midnight movie? I think between certain hours no children should be allowed into anything but G or PG movies. Period.)
My heart hurts for the families and the survivors. My thoughts and prayers are with them.
