Film Violence: Your Earliest Childhood Memories

[Mr. Hakujin]

So, a conversation in the Deadpool movie thread about what age would parents take their kids to see the film got me thinking about what was the first "violent film" I ever saw as a kid. Now, first maybe we should give a definition of what we will call a "violent film." I think for most people their first exposure to any type of real violence in a movie is in a Disney film--Mufasa slain by Scar, Bambi's mom getting shot (which I still vividly recall seeing in a theater as a young child), Snow White & Sleeping Beauty being poisoned into comas, Ursula being impaled, etc. But I am not talking about just an exposure to death or murder in a film.

 

No, a "violent film" would be a movie which depicts multiple deaths and/or murders in a vivid, explicit way, or in which brutal violence is used on multiple occasions to solve conflict or move along the plot. I am sure that definition can be refined and improved, but I hope it serves for the purpose of a discussion here.

 

That being said, I have been thinking and I believe the first really violent film I saw as a young kid was the second RAMBO film. I was in the second or third grade when that film came out, so I would've been 7-8 years old.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Mr. Hakujin

[Keth]

I remember seeing Alien Resurrection as a kid and thinking that the end scene where the Ripley Alien Baby clone gets sucked through the glass was the grossest thing I've ever seen.

 

 

 

Blade also sticks in my head as being one of the more violent movies I saw when I was a kid (Blade 2 was my first R rated movie to see in theaters). And the first time I saw Pulp Fiction, I was 13 and my mom sat me down and had me watch it because she knew I would like it.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Axels

[Mr. Hakujin]

Axels, how old were you when you saw Alien Resurection? I was a teenager and I know that film disturbed me. So much so that I've only seen it once. I bought the Alien box set on blu-ray and still haven't managed to give it another shot. I couldn't even finish watchng that clip. When she starts caressing that abomination I just get so skeeved out.

 

As for Pulp Fiction, yeah, 13 sounds a little young to me; depending on the kid, maybe that young would be okay. But I'd say more of a sophomore in high school would be an appropriate age. I saw it when it first came out in theaters when I was 16, and it made a lasting impression on me. Decades later and I still remember seeing the late show in a sparsely populated theater and being the only one laughing at certain scenes.

 

But back to RAMBO 2 for a sec, that shit was crazy for such a young kid to watch. I remember my older cousins raving about it, they were 12-14 yrs old, and they were all about those Rambo survival knives, so I begged my mom to let me see it. Apparently she wasn't the only one who caved in and let her child watch it because they had a whole cartoon TV series and toy line based around that film. Nerf really missed cashing in by not creating a toy bazooka/rocket launcher like the one Stallone had on that movie poster.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Mr. Hakujin

[Keth]

Oh man I had to be at least 10 or 11 for Alien. It was on cable and I just remember being haunted by that last scene.

[Da Cap'n 2099]

I think I've mentioned on here before that the first movie I saw in the theater was Gremlins. People died in that, but I don't know if it counts.

 

My first real experience with profanity (that wasn't my parents) was at an adult party and all us kids were thrown in a room to stay out of their hair. An older kid popped Eddie Murphy Delirious in the VCR and the rest is history.

 

The first film I saw with gratuitous violence was, maybe, Robocop or Die Hard. I also remember, as a kid, watching Night of the Living Dead tons of times. Starting my love of zombies. Although, I remember not understanding what they were for a long time.

[Da Cap'n 2099]

EDIT: might have been Eddie Murphy Raw, now that I think about it.

[Little Nemo McFly]

Alien: Resurrection - I remember setting up the marquee and putting up the movie poster for it at my theater. I also vividly remember screening Blade as soon as we got the print and being blown away...still got a handful of promo stick-on tattoos of the Vampire glyphs and tie-in comics we handed out at the premiere.

 

Hell yeah, that Ripley-Alien hybrid was skeevy as all hell - LOL - it still makes me groan out loud! LOL "MOMMAAAA..."

 

I guess what's being described here as 'violence' is a typical 80s action flick...or a horror flick. Earliest action flick I can recall watching and understanding was Schwarzenegger's Commando. Horror - it's a toss up between Child's Play and Pet Cemetery. Can't remember which one I saw first-first, but they are the earliest I understood.

[Visitant]

I don't think film violence or gore or anything was ever a huge deal in our house. We were taught it was all fake and that was kinda the end of it. Growing up I watched a lot of horror movies with my family and I turned out just fine.

 

...right?

 

Now do I think parents should be bringing their kids to deadpool? I don't really think so, but people did it anyway. I just don't think they have the right to complain that they had to walk out of a movie which had an R rating. I'm fucking tired of that "oh we didn't know" argument. I saw The Crow with my mom when I was a kid and no one complained then. They knew what they were in for.

 

Have you BEEN to to a theater? That shits posted everywhere before you walk in. Don't blame your bad parenting on the film.