What Was The Point?
I just watched this and quite enjoyed it but it left me wondering, what was the point of this documentary? Was it trying to convey a message? Was it purely to shock people? Whatever the reason, I still found it interesting.
shareIt was basically just supposed to be another exploitation film, which were getting even more popular at the time because of VCRs. It was a chance to these crimes that were shown on the evening news, only with raw footage, actual violence, realism, and detail. I dont know how old you are, but young people today probably cant understand the limited exposure of things in those days compared to now. Yes it was to shock, but of course there was a message as well.
In the 1970s, urban decay, pollution, constant fear of nuclear war, drug addiction, crime, and a general feeling of anger was really out of control in the US... issues that had never been seen before at such a level. Things seemed quite hopeless since things were so much different from years past. Of course when "Superman" finally arrived in 1981, a major political shift followed, therefore murderers and violent repeat offenders were finally getting life sentences instead of a couple of years at most, as before (of course this "knee jerk" reaction included ridiculous sentences for non-violent, drug related crimes which is a whole other issue alltogether). Sort of ironically i guess, violent crime levelled off quite a bit (per capita, of course) in the early 80s when this was released, but that seems to have much more to do with demographics. Most crimes are committed by males, aged 15-35. The Baby Boomers were finally approaching 40 years old. As a result, overall crime levelled off.
It is funny how gun politics have been discussed ever since those days, yet nothing really changes. Since we now have the Internet and a million channels on TV, you hear about every little crime now since there is so much time available to dedicate to the news can make things "seem" worse, but society is actually much safer today, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the United States still has the highest violent crime rate and prison population in the western world. I dont know if that will ever change.
Sorry if you didnt want the "long version". I was just bored, but hope it helps to put things into perspective.
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