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VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA:
The Jewish Response
BRAD POMERANCE
CAROLE LARSON WENDZEL
Special to the Jewish News
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W
hen 20th Century Fox released
the controversial movie Fight
Club last fall, they took a gamble that
the public would flock to a film that
depicted self-selected alienated young
men taking out their pent-up anger by
beating up on one another. Having
cost a reported $68 million just to pro-
duce, the film's anticipated gross is a
mere $35 million at the box office
domestically.
As demonstrated by Fight Club's
lackluster box office performance, the
public knows how to self-censor films
that may be overly violent. Still, with
every act of senseless violence that
rocks our nation, Hollywood is
increasingly blamed. And just when
Hollywood begins to breathe a collec-
tive sign of relief that the punishing
rhetoric will end, another random act
of violence rattles the country — and
Hollywood is made the scapegoat.
While there is no doubt that
Hollywood breeds plenty of product
that glorifies violence without depict-
ing the horrific ramifications of the
violent acts, the question is: How
should Hollywood respond to these
cries heard throughout the nation to
minimize the amount of mayhem in
the movies?
Recently, some members of the
Jewish community who make their liv-
ing writing for Hollywood ventured to
answer this question. The Writers'
Torah Study Group held a symposium
titled "Violence in the Media: A Jewish
Response."
As David Weiss, a screenwriter
whose credits include The Rugrats
Movie and All Dogs Go To Heaven,
opened the panel, he proclaimed that
it would be "absurd" to pinpoint "the
Jewish response" to violence in the
media. Rather, he asserted that there
were many different Jewish responses
to this phenomenon.
Weiss may be correct that the Jewish
Brad Pomerance is the entertainment
and media correspondent for Los Angeles-
area National Public Radio affiliate
KPCC-89.3. The views expressed in
this article are solely his own.
community has yet to coalesce around
a single response. But if any viewpoint
carried the day with members of the
creative community both on the panel
and in the audience, it was the notion
that the Jewish community should
unify behind one response: the govern-
ment should abstain from mandating
any answers to the problem.
During the symposium, Stephen
Rohde, president of the Southern
California American Civil Liberties
Union, asked the panel whether there
was a Jewish counterpart to the free-
dom of speech protection found in the
First Amendment to the United States
Constitution.
Rabbi Levi Meier responded that
while Jewish law does not per se pro-
vide that government should not
impinge on free speech rights, our
Creator has endowed us with free will.
Rabbi Meier later cited the
Deuteronomy passage: "I set before thee
life and death, the blessing and the
curse, therefore choose life." The
Talmud similarly pronounces that "all
is forgiven, but free will is given."
The corollary to this concept -
that we have been given free will to
make our own personalized choices
regarding the entertainment we create
and consume was subsequently _
championed by panelist Bruce Sallan,
president of Davis Entertainment, who
exclaimed, "It's our choice as human
beings and as Jews."
While many in the Jewish commu-
nity are as passionate as Sallan about
this stance, others are not so willing to
take a corripletely hands-off approach.
For example, Arlene Sarner, a
screenwriter who penned Peggy Sue Got
Married and Blue Sky, noted that while
she "does not agree with censorship,"
she wondered about "self-censorship."
In fact, she indicated that she has
made the choice that her writing
"would never include violence."
Nevertheless, her decision remains a
laudable exercise of her free will and
one that was not mandated by the gov-
ernment.
In Washington however, various
federal entities are spearheading sepa-
rate investigations into violence in the
media that may result in such man-
dates.
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