Movies

Movies are getting deadlier – at least in terms of their dialogue. A new study analyzing over 166,000 English-language films has revealed a disturbing trend: characters are talking about murder and killing more frequently than ever before.

Researchers examined movies spanning five decades, from 1970 to 2020, to track how often characters used words related to murder and killing. What they found was a clear upward trajectory that mirrors previous findings about increasing visual violence in films.

By applying sophisticated natural language processing techniques, the team calculated the percentage of “murderous verbs” – variations of words like “kill” and “murder” – compared to the total number of verbs used in movie dialogue.

Lead author Babak Fotouhi explains, “Our findings suggest that references to killing and murder in movie dialogue not only occur far more frequently than in real life but are also increasing over time.”

This rising tide of violent speech wasn’t confined to obvious genres like action or thriller films. Even movies not centered on crime showed a measurable uptick in murder-related dialogue over the 50-year period studied. This suggests that casual discussion of lethal violence has become more normalized across all types of movies. This potentially contributes to what researchers call “mean world syndrome” – where heavy media consumption leads people to view the world as more dangerous and threatening than it actually is.

What makes this new study particularly noteworthy is its massive scale – examining dialogue from more than 166,000 films provides a much more comprehensive picture than earlier studies that looked at smaller samples.

One researcher warned, “The evidence suggests that it is highly unlikely we’ve reached a tipping point.” Research has demonstrated that exposure to media violence can influence aggressive behavior and mental health. This can manifest in various ways, from imitation to a desensitization toward violence.

Derek Thompson, a writer for The Atlantic, notes that as our homes have become less social, residential architecture has become more anti-social. Thompson writes:

Clifton Harness is a co-founder of TestFit, a firm that makes software to design layouts for new housing developments. He told me that the cardinal rule of contemporary apartment design is that every room is built to accommodate maximal screen time. “In design meetings with developers and architects, you have to assure everybody that there will be space for a wall-mounted flatscreen television in every room,” he said. “It used to be ‘Let’s make sure our rooms have great light.’ But now, when the question is ‘How do we give the most comfort to the most people?’ the answer is to feed their screen addiction.”

Bobby Fijan, a real-estate developer, said last year that “for the most part, apartments are built for Netflix and chill.” From studying floor plans, he noticed that bedrooms, walk-in closets, and other private spaces are growing. “I think we’re building for aloneness,” Fijan told me.

In the classic sports film, Heaven Can Wait, actor Warren Beatty plays a man named Joe Pendleton. He was the star quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams and on the verge of leading his team to the Super Bowl when he is struck by a truck while riding his bike. An overzealous angel prematurely removes him from his body, assuming that he was about to die.

When he arrives in heaven, Joe refuses to believe that his time is up. So, he pleads his case that he needs more time on earth. He successfully argues his point with the overzealous angel’s supervisor, but there’s a problem—he can’t go back into his original body because it’s been cremated. So, they have to find another dead body for him to enter. Lo and behold, there’s this multimillionaire who’s just died, murdered by an unfaithful wife.

Joe comes back to life in the multi-millionaire’s body. Then he buys the Rams so that he can become their starting quarterback and lead them to the Super Bowl. The problem is that his wife still wants him dead. Right before the Super Bowl, he’s shot. The Rams are forced to start the backup quarterback, but during the game the backup takes a brutal hit, and what happens? He dies. What happens after that? Right again. The angel’s supervisor sends Joe into the backup quarterback’s body, and he leads the Rams to Super Bowl victory.

At this point, you’re probably wondering what this story has to do with hope of heaven? The message of the movie is that heaven can wait because it can’t possibly be better than getting what we want right now. Attaining a lifelong dream—that’s heaven! But the truth is when I do get what I want, I find out that there’s something else I want that’s even better.

When children are exposed to violence on TV and in video games, studies show they tend to become more aggressive themselves. But a study reveals that even just exposure to swear words in media may lead children to become more physically aggressive as well.

In a study involving middle-schoolers in Missouri, researchers asked the students about their exposure to profanity in the media — in particular on television and in video games — as well as their attitudes about swear words and their tendencies toward aggressive behavior. The scientists measured both physical aggression (by asking students whether they hit, kicked, or punched others) and relational aggression (by asking them whether they gossiped about others to damage their reputations).

The researchers calculated that exposure to profanity had about the same relationship to aggressive behavior as exposure to violence on TV or in video games. In addition, they found that the more children were exposed to profanity, they more likely they were to use swear words themselves, and those who used profanity were more likely to become aggressive toward others. Study leader Sarah Coyne said:

From using profanity to aggressive behavior, it was a pretty strong correlation. And these are not even the worst [profane] words that kids are exposed to, since there are seven dirty words that you’re not allowed to say on TV. So, we’re seeing that even exposure to lower forms of profanity are having an effect on behavior.

While bullying behavior was not specifically addressed in the study, children who are more aggressive are known to be more likely to bully. So, controlling youngsters’ exposure to profanity may be one way to stem the tide of bullying among teens.

In today’s digital age, entertainment is always at our fingertips. Whether it’s the endless scroll on TikTok or jumping from one YouTube video to another, the way we consume media has drastically changed in recent years. But is this content stream of entertainment really entertaining us? A new study finds that scrolling through videos online to cure your boredom can actually make you even more bored!

Researchers from the University of Toronto delved into the curious phenomenon where our attempts to avoid boredom by rapidly swiping through digital content might actually be making things worse. The findings reveal a counterintuitive outcome: the very behavior meant to stave off boredom — quickly moving through entertaining videos — ends up intensifying it.

Digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Netflix have revolutionized how we consume media. With just a swipe or a click, we can skip over content that doesn’t immediately capture our interest. This behavior, known as “digital switching,” is when users switch between different videos or fast-forward through parts of a video in search of something more stimulating. At first glance, this seems like an efficient way to maximize enjoyment and avoid dull moments. However, research suggests that this behavior might be doing the opposite of what we intend.

You might wonder why switching between content would make you more bored. After all, if you’re skipping the “boring” parts, shouldn’t that make the overall experience better?

When you engage deeply with a video, your attention is focused, and you’re more likely to find the content meaningful. However, when you constantly switch, your attention is fragmented. This fragmented attention doesn’t allow you to become fully absorbed in what you’re watching, leading to a feedback loop where you’re constantly seeking something better but never fully satisfied and therefore more bored.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Not only does endlessly swiping from one video to another lead to wasting time and boredom, it can also open the door to the temptation to view inappropriate content for an emotional high.

Disney is trying to be as addictive as Netflix, and they want to grab and keep your attention. Disney spent years trying to attract new subscribers to its Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ streaming services. Now it is trying to make sure those customers spend more time glued to the screen. The entertainment giant is developing a host of new features aimed at lengthening the amount of time subscribers spend viewing its shows and movies. The goal is to mitigate customer defections and generate more revenue from advertising sales.

A metric known as “hours per subscriber”—a measure of user engagement—has taken on increased importance at Disney in recent months, current and former streaming employees say. Netflix, famous for enabling binge-watching with batch releases of episodes, has also given priority to improving user engagement and return visits in recent years.

New features in the works at Disney include a more-personalized algorithm to power content recommendations, customized promotional art for new shows based on subscriber’s tastes and usage history, and emails sent to viewers who stop watching in the middle of a series reminding them to finish.

The bottom line is this: many organizations are vying to capture your attention. What will you choose to set your mind on?

The Hallmark and Lifetime networks are known for their holiday movies each year. They bring in impressive television ratings, perhaps aided by how easy they are to leave on while, say, baking cookies.

They also have something of a reputation for following a very specific story line. For example, a recently dumped, high-powered female executive from the city finds new love, purpose, and appreciation for Christmas in a small town with the help of a handsome local fellow.

So just how formulaic are these movies? The New York Times analyzed all of them available up to January 2024. The analysis asked: Do they all have a happy ending? The article concluded:

Do you even have to ask? In many endings, the woman does leave her job and the city in favor of the town (and her new man). But there were a couple of twists within the standard happy ending. For instance (spoilers ahead), in ‘Jingle Bell Bride’ (2020), a New York City wedding planner in search of a rare flower meets a handsome botanist in rural Alaska. But he’s the one who ends up following her back to the big city.

And in “A Glenbrooke Christmas” (2020), a woman taking over her family’s Los Angeles-based real estate company does decide to move to a small town to be with a fire chief. But she will still operate as C.E.O. remotely!

One Hallmark executive said, “We always say that whatever our woman’s path is, that her relationship is icing on the cake. If she’s career driven, or there’s some goal that she has, that’s what she’s going for.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Marriage; Relationship – In life in general and marriage in particular—happy endings are almost never this easy or simple. There is usually suffering and disappointment, but the Lord can cause us to grow through these trials.

Washington Post columnist Ty Burr believes the current American political climate is characterized by a sense of crass rule-breaking and flagrant boorishness. Such repugnant behavior was once regarded as an unfortunate side effect of political polarization. Now it is not only well within the mainstream but considered necessary to rally one’s political base. And Burr traces the genesis of this degeneration not to a particular political scandal, but to the release of a movie.

Burr wrote in a recent Post editorial: “Notions of entertainment and personal behavior were turned on their heads. Where audiences had once valued class, they now reveled in the joyously crass.”

Burr is, of course, referring to Animal House, the 1978 collegiate comedy depicting a fictional frat house. Starring John Belushi, Donald Sutherland and a host of other famous names, it elevated the previously unknown National Lampoon magazine into a hitmaking brand for film comedies.

Burr says he saw a preview screening of the film at Dartmouth College, where screenwriter Chris Miller was in attendance. Miller was a Dartmouth alum, and had based his film on the real-life antics of his fraternity, Alpha Delta. Burr writes:

That night, you could feel the collective mood swing like a compass needle toward a new north. The movie fed into and articulated a growing frustration with an overbearing political correctness, the fear that you couldn’t say what you wanted to without stepping on someone’s toes. Which, of course, made a lot of people want to step on someone’s — anyone’s — toes.

Burr says after the film’s end, he quickly saw its prevailing attitude reflected in the raucous student response to it:

Still burned onto my retinas is the image of screenwriter Miller being carried down Fraternity Row on the shoulders of a mob of cheering students, their faces flushed with happiness. What were they celebrating? Nothing less than the permission to indulge their privileges without guilt or responsibility.

Possible Preaching Angle:

All of us are influenced by the media that we consume and the truth--or lack thereof--within it. Let us be discerning in both our consumption and our production, of the messages we receive, counter, and amplify, so that God's character is revealed through our conduct.

Newton Howard is a brain scientist who teaches at Georgetown University. He says, “We are transformers. We change things as humans.” This idea of humans using their ingenuity to create new possibilities is one that Newton says holds extraordinary value, especially for children.

For this reason, Howard commissioned the creation of two life-sized statues of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, stationed outside the door of his home in historic Georgetown. They are characters from the long-running animated series Transformers, which has merchandised children’s toys, and in recent years has spawned cinematic adaptations from action filmmakers.

In a conversation with a local columnist, Howard quoted Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” He says statues have been popular with neighbors and passersby, with people often coming to take photos in front of them. However, the statues do have their detractors, which include people in the Old Georgetown Board, a panel who review projects in the historic neighborhood. That board recently voted to reject Howard’s request for the statues to remain permanently.

Newton learned of the decision from local media coverage, and from messages of support from friends and neighbors. Newton said, “I have received so many beautiful messages. The people that want this to be removed are people that are showing no grace, no openness, no inclusion, no invitation to others. It’s an awful message. It’s contrary to what I believe.”

After addressing potential safety concerns by securing the statues to his property, Newton applied for another exemption, which is to be voted on later in the year. He’s prepared to pursue legal action to defend the statues.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Just as people have found inspiration from these transforming statues, people around us can find inspiration when they see us transformed by the gospel.

Jonathan Roumie is the actor who plays Jesus in the successful series The Chosen, which is based on the Gospels. Before landing the role of Jesus, Roumie had surrendered everything but his acting career to God. He had been living in Los Angeles for eight years, and he was nearly broke. Roumie said,

There was this one day during May of 2018. I woke up. It was a Saturday morning, and I was 100 dollars in overdraft. I had 20 dollars in my pocket. I had enough food to last a day. I had no checks in sight. I had no work in sight. I had maxed out my credit cards. I literally didn’t know how I was going to exist.

He kneeled and poured out his heart to God, asking him, “What happened?” He had been under the impression that God helps those who help themselves—he later realized that the Lord helps those who rely on him.

For years, my prayer was, “If there’s something else I should be doing, please show me what it is, because this is really hard,” I literally said the words “I surrender. I surrender.” I realized in that moment that in many other areas in my life, I had allowed God in. But when it came to my career, I thought, “I know better. I got this God, I’m the actor here. Don’t worry—it’s Hollywood; I know Hollywood, God.”

Roumie left his apartment and went for a walk to collect himself, buying a breakfast sandwich with the money he had left. Later that day, he found four checks in the mail. Three months later, Dallas Jenkins, the writer/director of The Chosen, called and offered him the role of Jesus.

Generations placed the Muppet masters Jim Henson and Frank Oz on the level of comedy duos like Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy. Henson died in 1990, but Oz continued to portray such beloved characters as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Bert, and Grover. Since the early 2000s, though, the puppeteer and filmmaker has been an infrequent presence in the extended Muppet-verse.

Disney acquired the rights to the Muppets in 2004, and many, including Oz himself, feel that this once rich franchise has lost its soul, and consequently, its audience. In an interview, Oz shared, "The soul’s not there. The soul is what makes things grow and be funny."

Once when asked how Disney could salvage the iconic franchise, the interviewer suggested the possibility of hiring "a unique, creative soul, to come in and do something new with the Muppets?" Oz had this to say:

I don’t think the answer is to do something new. I think the answer is to go back and be true to who they are. There’s nothing new to do except to dig deeper into their purity and innocence; that is what speaks to the audience. The problem was, in my opinion, that they were trying to do something new.

Perhaps his advice would be wise council for the Western church today. Maybe the church should not do something "new." The answer is to "go back and be true to who they are." To return to the purity and innocence of the gospel message.

In a recent Cosmopolitan article, Pauline Jayne Isaac lists the 36 greatest on-screen love stories of all time. She begins:

The most famous movie couples have the ability to turn cynics into believers, critics into fans, and can even warm the iciest of hearts. Whether it's a romantic comedy or a drama—the outcome is the same. Love stories make you believe in love.

But the title reveals a problem; "Sorry, But I Just Have to Say It: These Iconic Movie Couples Gave Me Unrealistic Expectations About Love.” Unrealistic expectations are, of course, a key issue in marriages.

Over the years, of course, countless love stories have been told at the box office. Isaac limited her list by selecting stories that met three criteria: "the couples have to be aspirational, the chemistry palpable, and most importantly, the love has to be intense."

Perhaps Hollywood love stories create unrealistic expectations because they are not love stories. An authentic love story is not built on the glamour of aspiration, the feel of chemistry, and thrill of intensity, experiences that come and go while real love remains.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God’s work of grace in Jesus Christ is a “legit love story." It has "the ability to turn cynics into believers, critics into fans, and can even warm the iciest of hearts.”

Americans say they believe in “true love.” In a recent survey, 61 percent of women and 72 percent of men believe in love at first sight. Another poll asked, “Do you believe in the idea of soul mates, that is two people who are destined to be together?” 74 percent of men and 71 percent of women answered “yes.” This often creates extremely unrealistic expectations in marriage about how a spouse will meet our needs.

Research has also shown that our expectations for love and romance are heavily influenced by the movies and shows we watch. But the actors in these “true love/soulmate” movies can’t live up to the reality they create on the screen. Researcher Arthur Brooks says:

Hollywood doesn’t have your love interests at heart. When you indulge in a romantic comedy, consider its source. … “A-list” screen stars have a divorce rate of 52 percent within the first 16 years of their first or subsequent marriages, more than 10 points higher than the rate after the same length of time among Americans who wed in the 1970s; more than 20 points higher than Americans who wed for the first time in the 1960s. Not even the creators of the movie can achieve the standard they are promoting. Enjoy the occasional rom-com as entertainment if you must, but do so in the way you do science fiction, because it is about as realistic.

If you were casting a modern-day David from the Old Testament, he may be portrayed by Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey. Matthew is truly a man after God's own heart. Matthew has been rocking the waves of social media and TV since his Academy Award speech in 2014 when he thanked God as he received his Oscar.

Most recently, he was standing on the stage at church. That's right, Matthew McConaughey reads Scripture from the Bible at church and it wasn't about performing. It was about the body of Christ and all the different moving parts of the precious body.

The church audience sat in the silence of hushed whispers as Matthew read God's Word as if it were a profound story. The actor didn't bring any attention to himself. Rather, he highlighted the message of how each of us is needed.

He's never tried to hide his faith in Christ even though he is one of the bigger names in Hollywood, a place often chastising Christian values. But the actor takes it all in stride, knowing that God is the author and perfecter of his faith.

Hell is not a popular topic today, except for all the wrong reasons.

The theme song for the film Cruella tells us right up front that Ms. de Vil was "born to be bad." Estella Miller is a creative child with a talent for fashion but has a cruel streak, leading her mother Catherine to nickname her "Cruella." After a tragic series of circumstances Estella finds herself an orphan on the streets of London. She tries to be good, but when she befriends fashion legend Baroness von Hellman, she embraces her wicked side to become the raucous and revenge-bent Cruella.

The chorus to the theme song reads:

Call me crazy, call me insane

But you're stuck in the past

And I'm ahead of the game

A life lived in penance, it just seems a waste

And the devil has much better taste

And I tried to be sweet, I tried to be kind

But I feel much better now that I'm out of my mind

Well, there's always a line at the gates of Hell

Possible Preaching Angle:

The truth is, almost everything about these lyrics is wrong. Penance is not a waste, when won through Christ. The devil does not have better taste. But the one area where the lyrics are spot on, there is a long line at the gates of hell.

Lacking the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, modern society is looking for new, innovative ways to help make people more empathetic. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, whose company sells the Oculus VR headset, said of virtual reality (VR): “One of the most powerful features of VR is empathy. By cultivating empathy, VR can raise awareness and help us see what’s happening in different parts of the world.”

The hope and promise of VR is that one day everyone will call it an “empathy machine”:

By creating an immersive and interactive virtual environment, a VR headset can quite literally put you in someone else’s shoes. Text, image, or video offers only partial views of a person’s life. With VR, you can get inside their head. And this high-fidelity simulation, the argument goes, will make us better people by heightening our sensitivity to the suffering of others. It will make us “more compassionate,” “more connected,” and ultimately “more human,” in the words of the VR artist Chris Milk. ... By lending you the eyes and ears of someone suffering, tech helps you to develop a greater sense of responsibility for them. You feel compelled to act. This is connectivity not merely as a technical concept, but a moral one.

This expectation is partially explored in the movie Ready Player Two, released in November, 2020. More advanced VR--actually placed inside the brains of most of the world’s population--has rid the world of crime, disease, addiction, and all forms of prejudice. As one of the film’s characters says: “For the first time in human history, we have technology that gives us the ability to live in someone else’s skin for a little while.”

Sometimes we throw religious terms around haphazardly, sometimes interchangeably. Take for example the words "faith," "grace," "repentance," and "salvation." But the distinctions are important for us to understand. Maybe an image can help.

2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the Indiana Jones franchise. In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, there is a legendary scene where Indiana (Harrison Ford) is hanging by a single hand on the edge of a chasm. With the other hand he is reaching out to a goblet that supposedly once held the blood of Christ.

As the tips of his hand just graze the edge of the goblet, he’s grunting, “I can just about reach it.” Above him is his father (Sean Connery) who reaches out pleading “Junior, take my hand! Take my hand!” Finally, his father tells him to “Let it go,” and Indiana reaches up for his father to take his hand.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When Indiana’s father reaches down to offer rescue, that’s grace. When Indiana let’s go of his pursuit, that's repentance. And when he reaches back up for his father to take his hand, that's faith. When his father lifts him up from the chasm, that’s salvation.

In August, the world lost an iconic figure of film and stage. Chadwick Boseman, best known as king T’Challa from Marvel’s Black Panther, died from complications of colon cancer at 43. Because of his quiet and generous nature and the privacy with which he battled his sickness, Boseman’s death reverberated not only across the entertainment community, but throughout the world.

As the tributes continued to roll in from a variety of high-profile Hollywood figures, actor Sienna Miller added her own to the mix. Miller co-starred with Boseman in the action-thriller 21 Bridges, but she says she only ended up in the film because of his generosity.

Miller said, "So, he approached me to do it and it was at a time when I really didn't want to work anymore. I'd been working non-stop and I was exhausted … but I wanted to work with him." She added that she would only do the film “if I were compensated in the right way.” After contacting the studio, however, they balked at the number she had in mind. Apparently, they didn’t think she was worth that much. But Boseman used his leverage to ensure her participation, donating a portion of his salary to ensure she could receive fair pay.

The move surprised Miller greatly.

That kind of thing just doesn't happen. He said, “You're getting paid what you deserve, and what you're worth.” … In the aftermath of this I've told other male actor friends of mine that story and they all go very, very quiet and go home and probably have to sit and think about things for a while.

Possible Preaching Angle:

As Christians, we are instructed to go out of our way to show generosity and respect, especially to those with less power or privilege. This is the way that we stand apart from the crowd.

In 2013, Netflix ventured into new television territory by releasing all 13 episodes of their new show “House of Cards.” Even Netflix was shocked by how many viewers watched multiple episodes in one sitting. Although “House of Cards” was 13 hours long, Netflix reported that thousands of viewers consumed the entire series in one gulp over the weekend of its release. A later Netflix poll of TV streamers found that 61 percent defined their viewing style as watching two to six episodes at a time.

Grant McCracken, an anthropologist paid by Netflix to investigate (and promote) the habit, reported that “TV viewers are no longer zoning out as a way to forget about their day, they are tuning in, on their own schedule, to a different world. Getting immersed in multiple episodes or even multiple seasons of a show over a few weeks is a new kind of escapism that is especially welcome to today.”

This new habit of viewing TV morphed into a new word—binge-viewing. The word became widely used in 2013 after Netflix begin releasing their full seasons at once. It even prompted the Oxford Dictionary to add it to the language and also shortlisted as the Word of the Year. (The final Word of the Year for 2013 was “selfie.”)

Possible Preaching Angles:

Notice the phrases used to describe this practice (or spiritual discipline) of watching TV—“tuning in … to a different world” and “Getting immersed in multiple episodes.” That is how we should be able to describe our life of prayer, worship, and paying attention to God.