Chapter 872: Reality Was Never Perfect

What a person thought and what they did were entirely different matters. More often than not, a person's stance was dictated not by their head, but by where they sat. Take Duke, for example.

To claim that films had no impact on society was absurd. Just as movies were deeply influenced by the social climate, a massive blockbuster would inevitably leave its mark on society in return.

Films should never abandon the promotion of mainstream values—values that had nothing to do with ideology, but were instead universal truths. A movie should not be the aspirin that numbed audiences to reality, nor should it be the formalin that preserved the dark, rotting corners of their hearts.

A film's most captivating quality was its ability to create a dreamlike world, allowing audiences to temporarily forget their troubles and find their own joy and satisfaction within a fictional realm.

Of course, that joy and satisfaction could not look like James Holmes's.

But making a film pay the price for real-world social issues was simply going too far.

However, the impact on The Dark Knight Rises in North America was glaringly obvious. After raking in over 90 million dollars, the shooting incident triggered a massive Saturday slump. Attendance at many mainstream theaters fell below 50 percent, and single-day box office revenues plunged by over 30 percent, ultimately bringing in only 62.67 million dollars.

Many saw this as an opportunity to continue their suppression, using various channels to firmly link The Dark Knight Rises to the Santa Monica Commercial Square shooting.

"The reason it is so terrifying is that you can feel the massive incendiary power the film has on people. It stirs up everyone's urge to rebel against existing social rules. By the end, audiences often start hoping the villains kill Batman. Batman becomes the biggest obstacle to social revolution, while the villains become heroes who smash the state apparatus, inspiring people to follow in their footsteps."

And that was the milder criticism. Some remarks targeted Duke directly.

"Only a lunatic director like Duke Rosenberg could produce a lunatic fan like James Holmes!"

Some supposedly well-informed sources even leaked to the media, "Duke Rosenberg has been saying in private that he doesn't know whether to blame the killer or himself..."

The situation grew increasingly complicated. Starting Sunday, large groups from certain moralist organizations had already gathered outside the Warner Brothers building. Not only did they protest, they also urged the Federal Government to forcibly pull The Dark Knight Rises from theaters.

While it was incredibly difficult for these so-called organizations to actually accomplish anything constructive, no one could ignore their capacity for disruption.

Facing immense pressure, Duke's partner and producer for The Dark Knight Rises, Charles Roven, had no choice but to state during an interview, "Even if this film were immediately pulled from theaters, we would accept it. This is not the time to talk about profits."

That was just talk, of course. Having The Dark Knight Rises pulled from theaters was completely unacceptable to both Duke and Warner Brothers.

Furthermore, those people weren't just targeting The Dark Knight Rises. They were demanding that Duke apologize publicly and reflect on his filmmaking philosophy.

Some media outlets heavily emphasized The Matrix shooting, arguing that Duke's films inspiring crimes was not an isolated incident and that he needed to reflect deeply.

Since the incident occurred, Duke had remained completely silent, aside from visiting the University of California School of Medicine and releasing a public statement. He had hoped this silence would cool the controversy surrounding The Dark Knight Rises, but it was now clear that certain people had no intention of letting him off easily.

Since silence couldn't solve the problem, Duke didn't mind making his voice heard.

Early Sunday morning, Duke personally updated his official Instant Sharing feed.

"In the history of world cinema, audiences mimicking film characters to commit crimes is neither the first instance nor will it be the last. In the face of such a tragedy, any criticism directed solely at a single film is unfair and unreasonable. The presence of violence in films is beyond reproach, because reality itself was never perfect."

Just as Duke had said, tragedies related to movies were certainly not rare in North American history.

He picked up a document compiled by Tina Fey, which contained numerous such cases.

For instance, the famous "Reagan assassination attempt" in 1981.

Back then, John Hinckley, infatuated with Taxi Driver actress Jodie Foster, had imitated the film's protagonist Travis to catch her attention. He shot U.S. President Ronald Reagan near the Washington D.C. Hilton Hotel, striking Reagan in the chest and wounding several accompanying officials. Yet, in the face of the cash waved around by John Hinckley's oil tycoon father, the so-called fair and just legal system ruled that John Hinckley suffered from severe mental illness. He was found not guilty of attempting to assassinate the president and was merely sentenced to mandatory psychiatric care.

In truth, crimes triggered by films were not limited to the Batman franchise. A website had compiled at least a dozen theater incidents, including ones tied to The Godfather, X-Men: The Last Stand, and others. These events ranged from audience boycotts and sporadic conflicts to incidents completely unrelated to the movies themselves.

Released in 1988, Colors told the story of the Los Angeles Police cracking down on street crime and gangs. On its opening weekend, 13 young men belonging to two different factions were arrested. The police believed these men were gang members who had engaged in a massive brawl outside a theater about to screen Colors in order to disrupt its showing.

In addition, the famous gang organization Guardian Angels displayed slogans during the film's run, reading "Colors Kills Kids" and "Don't Show Colors in Los Angeles." Police in Chicago, New York, and Miami were all on high alert during the film's premiere.

In Long Island during the 1990s, members of two rival gangs opened fire directly inside a theater during a screening of The Godfather Part III. During this shootout, the gang members themselves remained unharmed, but the bystanders sitting nearby suffered. Among them, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed.

Also in the 1990s, several violent incidents occurred in theaters screening Boyz n the Hood. A 23-year-old man was fatally shot, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death on opening weekend, and many others were injured.

Heading into the new century, these incidents became even more frequent. In 2005, during a showing of X-Men: The Last Stand in a Baltimore theater, a man stood up, pulled out a gun, ordered the entire audience to the floor, and randomly fired four shots. A hapless 62-year-old man lost his life as a result.

During a 2008 screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a fan constantly cheered and shouted for the film, greatly irritating the person sitting nearby. After efforts to quiet him failed, the latter decisively pulled out a handgun and shot the fan...

In fact, a quick Google search would reveal endless conflicts caused by films, with casualties occurring from time to time.

Perhaps going to the movies, which was originally meant for leisure and entertainment, would one day truly become an "extreme pastime" that could cost people their lives.

Of course, this was just Duke privately complaining to Scarlett Johansson after reading the relevant materials Tina Fey had gathered.

But one fact could not be ignored, and even Duke could not deny it: since entering the new century, casualties triggered by films were on the rise.

Why was the once-clear distinction between reality and dreams now beginning to blur? Why were there increasingly more people incapable of distinguishing fantasy from real life? To a certain extent, this was connected to the new world of meaning forged by the internet.

Since the advent of the internet, the gap between reality and the virtual world had grown ever smaller, and the trajectory of technological development was aimed precisely at completely erasing this distinction.

This was especially true for film marketing campaigns that leveraged the internet, which heavily emphasized interaction and participation. This clearly boosted the participants' sense of immersion, which correspondingly brought about a host of problems.

"What is a movie? Simply put, it is the forging of a dream."

After finishing the materials Tina Fey had collected, Duke continued to update his Instant Sharing feed.

"Should movies truly pay the price for this tragic shooting, as some media outlets claim?"

"Imagine if there were absolutely no violent content in films—if they were so spotless that not even the most conservative critics could find a flaw. Would the world become a better place because of it? Would violence cease to exist? The answer goes without saying."

"But within this impossible fantasy, what we can know for certain is just how fake and hollow the human inner world would become. All artists and audiences would regress into mindless children, pretending to live in a pure and perfect dream world."

"Film, like any other form of art, is a distorted reflection of reality. It is true that quite a few movies sensationalize or promote violence, but at the same time, perhaps even more films allow audiences to grasp the severity of violence more deeply, urging people to stay vigilant and reflect on where violence comes from and where darkness lies."

"This might not be the best of times, but it clearly isn't the worst of times either. Movies merely reflect a reality riddled with chronic ills. Our society flows with both positive and negative energy at all times. An anti-social lunatic, even without watching a single movie, reading comics or novels, playing games, or listening to rock music, could just as easily turn into a butcher who slaughters the innocent."

"Of course, we have every right to demand that film directors, producers, and studios exercise greater caution and care when handling violent scenes. But the tragic toll of 12 lives is a devastating bill that movies cannot and should not be forced to pay."

"In the real world, we don't need Batman, we don't need Superman, and we certainly don't need the Joker or Lex Luthor. We only need more clarity, deeper reflection, greater courage, and a more passionate love for the world. It is the freedom of choice and free will—not more filtering, protection, and control—that can guide us out of the shadow of the Santa Monica Commercial Square shooting and into a brighter world."

"May God bless them, and may God be with us all."