ASSIGNMENT 4, VISA 1500, RALUCHUKWU OJAH

Raluchukwu Ojah,

T00684460,

Assignment 4, part A,

November 2021,

Terryl Atkin, Ph.D.

VENOM

The picture is a screengrab from the bike chase scene in the movie “Venom” starring Tom Hardy, directed by Ruben Fleischer. In this scene, the main character, Eddie, a journalist, was convinced by Dorothea; a scientist, to break into the laboratory of Carl Drake to take a record of the horrific scientific experiments being done on people which resulted in their deaths. In the process, a black goo, the Symbiote seeped into him. The intruder alarm goes off and he takes off. Some group of men and some drones chase Eddie through the busy streets of the city with bikes. They seem to stop Eddie when they knocked him off the motorcycle. Eddie lies on the ground extremely injured, but the parasite starts to mend his body and takes over. He threatens the man that hits Eddie, throws him to the side. When another one of Drake’s men shoots him in the back, he bites his head off.

The action in this scene portrayed how savage and gruesome the violence is in the movie Venom. The action in the movie is fast-paced and includes a lot of action like fight scenes, chase scenes, and slow-motion shots. The parasite overtook Eddie’s body right after it mended his broken leg. The large frame of the parasite gave Eddie an advantage over Drake’s men. The parasite had supernatural abilities and could not live without the host. The parasite needed to eat human heads which it described as “fuel in the tank”. The action scene is set in the car-chase capital of the US: San Francisco. Or at least that’s what it looks like. Turns out a lot of the scene was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. The art department disguised the streets of Atlanta by masking signs and removing store logos. Select parts of the scene did get shot in San Francisco at some of the city’s most recognizable locations. One of these spots was Bullitt Hill. The long, tumultuous street got its nickname from the 1963 thriller “Bullitt,” which filmed its famous chase scene there.

The free access to uncensored media leaves the public at risk, especially when it comes to the constant imitation of action characters L. Rowell Huesmann and Laramie D. Taylor states: “Media violence poses a threat to public health inasmuch as it leads to an increase in real-world violence and aggression. Research shows that fictional television and film violence contribute to both a short-term and a long-term increase in aggression and violence in young viewers. Television news violence also contributes to increased violence, principally in the form of imitative suicides and acts of aggression” (vol.27:393-415, 2006). Children are the major targets for the negative impact of action movies, their tender states of mind create this craving in them to imitate and learn from everything and anything. Prof Kevin D Browne and Catherine Hamilton, Ph.D. stated “Children aged 6 to 9 years in late 1977 were followed up 15 years later. Structural equation modelling showed that childhood exposure to media violence was predictive of aggressive behaviour in early adulthood in both men and women, even when controlling for socioeconomic status, intelligence quotient, and various parenting factors (e.g, parental viewing habits and aggressive behaviour). Identification with aggressive television characters and perceived realism of television violence also predicted later aggression’(pg. 702-710, 2005).

Drawing source from the Box office Mojo, the movie “ Venom” ultimately caught $856 million worldwide on its sticky goo.

Resources:

• L. Rowell Huesman, Laramie D. Taylor. “The role of media influence of violent behaviour “. Vol. 27:393-415(Volume publication date 21 APRIL 2006), https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.26.021304.144640.
• “How the motorcycle scene was filmed for venom”,https://www.yahoo.com/now/motorcycle-chase-scene-filmed-venom-200415487.html.
• Prof. Kevin D Browne Ph.D., Catherine Hamilton- Giachritsis Ph.D., ” The influence of violent media on children and adolescents: a public health approach” , (Volume 365, Issue 9460, 19-25 February 2005, Page 702-710). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673605179525?casa_token=jDeaZ9WXjO8AAAAA:1LelkNabI1MUOSIpz-PJzqzszCNRNcqQe3IsEa7IyHEP2ggQEzGlOEFmeuILnvdGAKRh2gI.
•  Box office Mojo. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/10/venom-let-there-be-carnage-takes-hardy-bite-at-box-office.
• Symbrock, https://shipping.fandom.com/wiki/Symbrock.