On Friday July 20th, during the midnight showing of
The Dark Knight Rises, a bloody shooting took place in the theater room which tragically claimed the lives of 12 people and critically wounded 58 others who attended the showing. The shooter is now behind bars and his fate is yet to be decided. Cast members of
The Dark Knight Rises have issued their own statements on the matter, as well as director Christopher Nolan, and numerous others. Now, film critics have responded to the incident, and you can read what they had to say about the tragic event below.
Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times
It is impossible to be surrounded by the 21st century's blood-soaked cinematic culture and not wonder what effect it's having on us. This problem is so big and so pervasive that everyone, including the movie business, has to shoulder a part of the blame if there is to be even a hope of getting it under control. If we do have to have violence in popular culture, we have to stop pretending there are no consequences to having it be so easily available. More specifically, we have to stop our ratings system from being criminally lenient in how it treats disturbing material on-screen, especially where major studio films are concerned.
Anthony lane of The New Yorker
We have been here before, many times; once, very specifically, when John Hinckley, Jr., became fixated on 'Taxi Driver,' which came out five years before Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan. What holds true then remains the case today: no film makes you kill.
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times
I'm not sure there is an easy link between movies and gun violence. I think the link is between the violence and the publicity. I don't know if James Holmes cared deeply about Batman. I suspect he cared deeply about seeing himself on the news.
Dana Stevens of Slate Magazine
They're right, of course. I can't stop asking … why there? I can't get away from the fact that this act of violence took place — with, from the look of it, considerable advance planning — at an opening-night midnight showing of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' a movie that (like the rest of the trilogy it concludes) envisions modernity as a lawless dystopia where just such a thing might happen.
Andrew O' Hehir of Salon
Does Batman, broadly speaking, have blood on his hands for what happened in Aurora? I'm a film critic and a hardcore civil libertarian who has spent much of my career defending free expression even in its nastiest and most disturbing forms. I do not believe that symbolic or fictional violence leads to real violence in any direct or causative manner …. So it may surprise you to learn that I think the question is a legitimate one and that, considered properly, it lacks a clear yes-or-no answer.
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian
Violence is a part of life, and the movies are entitled to reflect it and address it. by the same token, the movies are a part of life, and society is entitled to regulate them – and so it does. The killings in Colorado on Friday are a heartrending tragedy, and for me the debate must always come down on the issue of gun control. This issue is not just about the movies.
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