Joshua Seaman – VISA 1500 – Assignment 4, Part A

Joshua Seaman (T00644678)

Assignment 4, Part A

November 22, 2021

VISA 1500 – Introduction to Visual Culture

This picture is a screen grab of the bus fight scene in the movie “Nobody,” starring Bob Odenkirk, directed by Ilya Naishuller. In this scene, the main character, Hutch, is taking the city bus home at night when a group of five drunk men crash their car next to the bus, and then get out of their car and start knocking on the bus doors until the driver lets them on. Once the men get on the bus, they begin to harass a woman who is simply minding her business and trying to take the bus home. After witnessing this occur, Hutch makes his way to the front of the bus, escorts the driver out of the vehicle, pulls a revolver pistol out of his pocket, empties the bullets on to the floor, and tells the men “I’m gonna fuck you up.” Not knowing that Hutch has been combat trained through special operations in the military, the men laugh at him, and one of them advances towards Hutch and looks back at his friends saying “I got it, I got it.” This is when the violence begins.

I chose to use this screen grab to represent the action in this scene because it exemplifies how gruesome the violence is in this movie. The picture shows Hutch using the straps of a purse to hang one of the men from the top poles of the bus, which is an example of how Hutch makes use of the objects around him while fighting. The scene contains hand to hand combat, knife combat, and the use of various other objects. The action in the scene is edited to be very fast-paced, and the violence contains a lot of blood, cuts, and broken teeth. In the group of drunk men who entered the bus, one of them is black, and the other four are white. Out of the six men in total who fought, Hutch was the only one with special combat training, and although he took a lot of damage, he was able to beat five men by himself.

With access to movies having little to no restrictions due to streaming services, it is important for parents to monitor the type of content that their children are consuming, especially when it comes to movies with brutal violence and gore. Rowell Huesmann states “During early, middle, and late childhood, children encode in memory social scripts to guide behaviour through observation of family, peers, community, and mass media. Consequently, observed behaviours are imitated long after they are observed. During this period, children’s social cognitive schemas about the world around them are also elaborated” (p.1, 2009). Children are highly impressionable, and consuming a lot of violent content at a young age can negatively impact your social interactions with others. Amanda E. Pennell and Kevin D. Browne state “Individual differences are perhaps a reflection of not what is watched but rather what is remembered. It is important to determine what importance each scene has to an individual and the meaning they ascribe to it” (p.13, 1999). Certain people are more susceptible to violence than others, so it is important to be aware of those who show violent tendencies after consuming content that contains violence.

According to Box Office Mojo, the movie “Nobody” grossed $55,405,035 worldwide, and made $6,820,100 opening day in the US.

Works Cited

Huesmann, Rowell. “The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research.” Journal of Adolescent Health, 30 Jun. 2009, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704015/.

Pennell, Amanda E. and Browne, Kevin D. “Film Violence and Young Offenders.” School of Psychology, 1999, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178997000487?casa_token=hqGJLGwDqXAAAAAA:2WTCq5AmSUK1wlRwJ3XHOub4yA1vXkprzGaUC8iR1HH7T_SUxA4XU8IvhirsRQSXe4Cf-2g2GA.

“Nobody.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl604276225/.