Our Faith in Evil: Melodrama and the Effects of Entertainment Violence

Critics often characterize American films and other entertainment media as being violent for titillation value. American society has been dubbed a culture of violence by some. If these contentions are true, are the two connected? Studies on the effects of media violence, each using the same data, have reached opposing conclusions. The question of film violence and its effect on society is a complex one. To what extent does entertainment violence affect life and culture, and to what extent do life and culture affect entertainment violence? Beyond the simple bloodshed in films and video games lies a convergence of complex, overlapping contexts of social influence: the media, the consumer and the culture. This insightful study examines media violence closely, analyzing psychological and social effects, the dramatic structure of melodrama and its context in reality, as well as specific films such as ""Pulp Fiction"", ""Psycho"" and ""The Passion of the Christ"".