A Few Thoughts on Batman and the Aurora Shooting – An Addendum
Originally posted 7-27-2012
Up until a few days ago, I had never heard the name Charles Hurt. Apparently, he is a staff writer for the Washington Post. I don’t normally read the Washington Post, as I live halfway across the country. Otherwise, I might have realized that this is the same paragon of intellectual prowess that wrote such stunning pieces as “Obama’s South Side Thuggery” and “’Islamist Firster’ president not what he claimed.” One of his most recent pieces, however, was about the Aurora shooting. Well, that’s what it was about in theory.
In practice, the entire letter was spent blaming the violence on Christopher Nolan, Warner Brothers and Sean Penn. Sean Penn? Seriously? Let me say up front, I don’t care for Sean Penn. I don’t enjoy his movies. I think he is a self-congratulatory tool. I act on these sentiments by not watching or buying movies in which he participates. Yet, for all that, I remain mystified by Penn’s inclusion in this list. As near as I can tell, the only reason he appears on this list is because he has left-wing politics and Charles Hurt doesn’t seem to like people with left-wing politics.
Hurt singles Penn out for acting in violent films, but nary a word for conservative actor/politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose on-screen body count undoubtedly exceeds the combined totals of Nolan, Penn and Christian Bale. Nary one word directed at conservative Jerry Bruckheimer, who has served as executive producer on some of the most violent films of the last 20 years. How about conservative Chuck Norris? He never shied away from a big body count in his movies. Nope, those guys have politics Hurt likes, so they get a pass. Singling out Penn, who didn’t even appear in The Dark Knight Rises, was just a cheap shot at someone Hurt doesn’t like.
I’m going to set aside the political elements of Hurt’s screed and just consider who he blames or, more accurately, who he doesn’t blame. Nolan, Penn, and Warner Bros. all come under fire. Oddly, the person who doesn’t get blamed, and barely gets mentioned, is James Holmes. You know, the guy that actually pulled trigger (as near as anyone can tell). To read Hurt’s take on the events, you’d think that Holmes was a just robot carrying out instructions from the diabolical minds of Nolan, Penn, and the corporate person that is Warner Bros.
The absurdity of this stance is mind-boggling. James Holmes is clearly a man with some kind of mental illness. That he fixated on Nolan’s films is tragic, but ultimately irrelevant. He was clearly going to carry out violence, with or without the influence of any particular movie. I am forced to wonder, though, if Hurt would have been so quick to assign blame if Holmes had picked a film made by or starring a staunch conservative. It’s possible, but I sincerely doubt it.
