Slicing and Dicing Violent Films
By STARSHINE ROSHELL
HALLOWEEN director John Carpenter helms UCSB film class on sex and brutality
At first, one might mistake him for an ordinary professor, quietly ambling into class in a tweed blazer, stepping casually behind the podium and adjusting his wire-rimmed spectacles to peruse the syllabus patiently while his students slowly bring their din to a hush.
He hands out a slew of photocopies and, with a friendly but earnest "OK, guys, lets get started," the distinguished 52-year-old begins his lecture. Just like any ordinary professor.
But most ordinary professors don't make slasher movies.
John Carpenter, director of classic horror movies like HALLOWEEN and sci-fi flicks like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, is currently teaching a class on movie violence to 145 film students at UCSB.
"Social Reality: Violence and Sexuality in Film" is a frank, 10-week look at how sex and violence are used in movies, how they are perceived by audiences and why some groups would like to see them eliminated from modern films.
"This class is important because you guys have got to think about what's going to happen if they start censoring movies," Carpenter told students during a recent Monday night lecture, "and if that's the kind of world you want to live in."
Carpenter isn't the first big-screen bigwig to teach a full-blown class at the university - Billy Wilder and Frank Capra are rumored to have taken to the podium years ago -- but he's the first in a long time. He accepted the gig after receiving an invitation in January from film studies department chair Constance Penley.
"Issues of violence and sexuality in the media are very much on the public agenda," Penley said. "I thought that our students could learn a great deal from someone who has lived these issues."
As the maker of creepy thrillers such as CHRISTINE, THE FOG, THE THING and, more recently, the gory VAMPIRES, Carpenter has often been called upon to defend his artistic choices, and does so without shame.
"His films are violent, they are popular, they are critically admired," says Penley, who confesses to being a huge fan. "John Carpenter is the master at taking theses genres that you think have been done to death and making them completely fresh and aesthetically exciting and socially provocative."
Film students agree. Carpenter's class, a late addition that wasn't even on the university's printed schedule, filled up in just a few days, and about 60 students were turned away.
Sandy Gentile is one of the lucky ones. The film major had high expectations when he signed up for the course and hasn't been disappointed.
"We're next generation filmmakers," he said of his classmates, "and this is an issue we need to bring out on the table and discuss."
And discuss they do. Though Carpenter has made a name for himself creating the very kinds of films that censorship proponents want hacked to bits, the director-cum-instructor works hard to show both sides of the issues at hand.
"I have a gigantic bent, but I'm not going to teach it that way," said Carpenter, a first-time teacher who attended film school at the University of Southern California. "I want to present the issues in a way that the students think them through and don't just take my side, the filmmaker's side, because it's cool. I want them to think for themselves."
Carpenter has fired up class discussions about filmmakers' responsibilities, the First Amendment copycat crimes, the Columbine High School massacre and the Hayes Code and Legion of Decency, ethics guides from the 1920's and '30s which condemn the depiction of "sympathy for criminals," "lustful kissing" and other so-called vulgarities in motion pictures.
He even brought in a study that claimed prolonged exposure to violent images creates antisocial behavior, and argued - almost convincingly - that the media is entirely to blame for the problems of today's youth.
"I'm telling you, there's a crime wave in the '90s," he shouted at the students, saying he was even afraid to be in the room with some of them, who have seen too much sex and violence in their young lives.
Though his argument evoked giggles, it also provoked thought, with several students questioning the science behind the study and challenging him to turn off the television if he doesn't like what he sees. Some even booed him - a response Carpenter endorses.
"The first day of class we were hurling cliches at each other," he later admitted, "and I said that if I used the word 'desensitized,' I wanted them to boo me."
Penley has attended a few of the classes and calls Carpenter's teaching style brilliant.
"It's very low-key, but he knows how to play the devil's advocate," she said. "It's clear that he has opinions on violence and sexuality in film, but he doesn't hit you over the head with his opinions."
Film major Jaclyn Barber, 20, likes the way he calls randomly on students to ask their opinions.
"He's very personal," she said. "You don't feel intimidated, even though he's a director."
But like any college class, there are students who just don't take the bait, no matter how engaging the instructor or subject matter.
"Some of them are back there talking about their days," Carpenter said. "They're different than the kids when I was going to college. We had an idealism that they don't have. Students today are very cynical, and that cynicism is something that has to be overcome to get you to think."
Ultimately, the students will earn their course grades with a six-page essay explaining the reasons for and against censoring movies, and stating their opinion on the matter. To help them form an opinion, Carpenter is screening several controversial and intriguing films during the class, including CRASH, FIGHT CLUB, NATURAL BORN KILLERS and IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES.
"We're not going to talk about my movies because there's not much to say about them," Carpenter said. "They are what they are."
But students had plenty to say about STRAW DOGS, Sam Peckinpah's 1971 film, which they watched in January.
"It tweaked some people," Carpenter said. "What upset the students and got them talking was the idea of the ambiguity of rape, which is not politically correct."
The students also leaped into a discussion last week about "good violence" versus "bad violence." To jump-start the debate, Carpenter showed the gut-wrenching opening sequence from Stephen Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN in which soldiers storm the beach at Normandy, followed by a shocking scene from Quentin Taratino's RESERVOIR DOGS in which a police officer is gruesomely tortured.
"It's not the violence itself, it's the context it's put in and who you identify with," Carpenter said, pointing out that Spielberg goes to great lengths to make his violence palatable, whereas Tarantino doesn't bother.
"We all know war is violent, right? So this violence is OK," he said. "It's very difficult to think of Tom Hanks as someone who's evil. He's such a nice guy. He's got nice teeth."
Levity aside, censorship is an issue Carpenter takes very seriously - and one he's thought a lot about.
"I don't want anyone to impede on my ability to make horror," he said. "But if any of us directors really believed the work we put on screen would cause someone to kill somebody? We'd stop it in a heartbeat."
Carpenter, who is currently prepping a horror movie to shoot this summer, finds teaching a welcome change from the rigors of Hollywood.
"Making movies is not fun," he said. "It's working like a coal miner. This is a lot more fun."
