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Movies & Crimes

Cinema is an integral part of society. In earlier times we used to have puppet shows, folklore, etc to pass the information and social message from one generation to the next generation. It is a more appealing and interactive mode of communication after books. So many concepts can be delivered easily with the movie. For example, the black hole scene in the Interstellar film sparked interest in physics, and quantum physics in many minds.

Now we have so many contents, genres available from the different parts of world potraying one or other phase of life or perception. With globalisation, social media and inter-communications is boosted on the upper level. In Oscars, we can see vivid titles coming from all the corners of the world. TikTok , reels, and media are the outcomes of movies and people. At the same time, it depends on the viewer and is also the responsibility of a viewer to expose himself/herself towards a specific genre or content type.

I have seen people potraying or resembling the features of a character in a movie, in their real life. This often leads to a strive change in the personality. Remember Rocky movie series? or the Batman Triliogy. People took the favourite nature of a character and assimilated that nature in themselves. That's the impact of movies and cinemas on today's world. Propaganda, narratives, influences, targeted-audience content are on the peak in this decade.

In earlier eras, stories generally revolved around good and bad i.e. hero and villain. But in this era it has acquired a new prevalent dimension - strong and weak. Characters can be potrayed in many ways. There is a race to build a strong character that sells on the screens. Peaky Blinders, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, etc. are such stories that showcases a new dimension where it is no more about good and bad as we say in general life. It is becoming about good of whom and bad of whom, is it the good of hero or villain? is it justifying the story or balancing the power equation among wise and vice.

People want to see the balance of power in the favour of character to whom they can relate. It is not about the personality of character or intention behind an act anymore. This led to spread of narratives like mafia, drug dealers, gun blazers who looks ahead than other characters in a movie. Godfather Triliogy is one such example of this.

Research

Here I present you data about the content that released on cinemas and the rise in criminal activities. For this co-relation, I am targeting movies released in US and increase in criminal activities in US over the last few decades.

Observe the rise in crime content in films in the first graph. Corelate it with the rise in criminal activites in US. Pay good attention on the decade which shows surge in crime content and how it is affecting the growth in criminal activites.

Source - Crime content in films - Robert R.

Source - US crime rates - Wikimedia

Though, there can be multiple reasons behind the surge in criminal activites but at the same time we cannot neglect the effects of media and films on the population.

I hope that content makers realizes their responsibilites towards the society as whole.

Thank you

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