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Too Much Blood … or … Not Enough?

Granted, we don’t want every film be to be a blood’n’gore fest, but is censorship regarding media really pro-active?


Lack of Blood

The media , especially Hollywood has downplayed the consequences of violent actions to such an extreme extent, that society in general has a disproportionate and unrealistic sense of ‘Cause and Effect’ Violence is portrayed glamorously, feeding the romanticised image. Lack of violence creates a sense of “romanticism”. Hero and Anti-Hero-type characters will take on entire cities in the name of justice honour and love, endorsing vendettas and revenge. Portrayed as courageous and noble acts. Action movies idolize and glorify unrealistic violence. A person may be shot, but, they don’t even bleed and/or incredibly impervious to pain. Pain is downplayed or overlooked and wounds are trivialities… even deaths looks clean. We could argue that this is a subconscious reasoning to youths believing that they are invincible. Seeing television characters spring back from gunshot wounds and massive traumatic experiences leaves with them an unbalanced understanding of what violent acts result in.

Gunshot wounds -
T.V. - Clean and hardly painful, no swelling and no massive exit wound/limit physical trauma, hardly affected by blood loss.

Reality - Searing Pain that would more than likely double you over, blood is clearly evident, swelling around wound and exit wound is not the same size as the entry wound. People get dizzy from blood loss and pass out... Running around on top of adrenaline causes a heart to beat faster, pumping more blood to the injury, accelerated loss of consciousness and eventually death.

It becomes something that we are desensitized to, feeling that when we attack someone, very little blood will be evident and they will die silently. Without realistic elements, violence and death are not difficult to watch and in many cases, even entertaining. Soon, after constant viewings of violent acts and deaths on TV we become immune to the reality of watching somebody’s life be ripped away from them, life becomes devalued.

Realistic Violence

Realistic violence generally inspires feelings of unease and revulsion. It doesn’t romanticize death and violence by downplaying the consequences. It is less ‘watchable’ to an audience and arguably if it is less pleasurable to view, it is less likely to be emulated in behaviour due to a subconscious aversion.

The majority of 1st degree Homicide cases, are reported by the offender themselves. Quite often, despite the fact that the murder was pre-planned, the perpetrator is psychologically overwhelmed by the visual stimulus coupled with act of violence. A person may convince themselves that they are desensitized to blood and gore to the point of being unaffected, tested through viewing violent films and other such forms or visual representation… yet when confronted by the real deal, the gravity and severity of reality turns out to be so much more horrific. Such persons may slip into shock and develop disassociate disorders in a subconscious attempt to remove themselves from the overwhelming situation. The murderer is often bombarded with feelings of guilt and remorse as the cold harshness of reality settles around them. This isn’t a show where they can change the channel when they’re bored of the situation, it’s not a video that can be rewound. It’s real and horribly permanent.

If a piece is more realistically violent, it is more believable and disturbing, we identify the horror. Many people will say ‘I cannot watch this…”

More Gore

However. There can be ‘too much’ as well, simply meaning that there emphasized blood sprays etc. Over-playing wounds and blood loss, while being gorey also has a psychological effect, because again… our minds tell us, ‘this is isn’t real’. Take for example, the Kill Bill set by Tarentino. People will either hate or love these movies because the violence, while extreme is stylized. Wounds gush blood and blood sprays reach up to 5 ft in range. Those who enjoy his movies for the art form of the genre will enjoy the film, but many cannot get past how ‘fake’ and ‘unreal’ all the blood is.


Discussion Questions

Censorship packaging violence in an appealing fashion

Movies - Not violent enough

Should we have shows that portray a more realistic sense of violence or continue with lack of violence.

Bugs Bunny - Teaching - Violence is funny
Or a positive conduit for releasing pent up anger?

History and Origin of the Bergomask
Submitted by Erinn Ashworth


Righty ho… As far as the world wide web seems to be concerned, the Bergomask or Bergamask, is nothing more that a distant memory of a time long past, remembered now only by those few who perform it vaguely through the works of Shakespeare. Most commonly in a Midsummer Night’s Dream. In fact, when you search for said dance, all that seems to come back in the results is that it’s performed in that play, but none of the theatre sites give any details on how it is performed.

It seems everywhere I tried I kept meeting the same dead ends. Even the mighty Wikipedia let me down with this as their entry;


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia:

Bergamask, or bergomask or bergamasca (from the town of Bergamo in Northern Italy), a clumsy rustic dance (cf. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 360) copied from the natives of Bergamo, reputed to be very awkward in their manners.


Every other encyclopaedia and dictionary had nearly identical write ups. The only thing I saw to be added was that it was sometimes described as being ‘clownish’ in nature.

Brent shared a link with me that seemed to have more of an inkling as to the origin of this dance. From the following link,
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/musdi:@field(DOCID+@lit(M07747))
I was able to determine this:

The dance was arranged by the late Signor Piatti, a native of Bergamo. He arranged it for the for 'cello and pianoforte.

It also had this to say:

“---or the Bergamasca, a rustic dance of great antiquity, which derives its name from Bergamo, a town in Lombardy, the city of Tasso and Donizetti. The dance takes its characteristics from the inhabitants of Bergamo; who are said to be egotistical and cunning, possessing in a high degree the faults and the virtues of the typical rustic. From this type has arisen the harlequin of modern pantomime--the buffoon of classical periods.”

And with that scant tidbit, I am at a loss for further details. Hopefully the rest of the dances we research and undertake, aren’t such enigmas.