The Jackass Rises: Or, what I think of a total fucking moron writing an open letter to Nolan about the Aurora shootings

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/24/hurt-letter-christopher-nolan-sean-penn-warner-bro/?page=all#pagebreak

That’s the article, by the way. I recommend reading it.

My indignation starts with how stupid the author of the article is, and it just keeps building with every stupid, poorly informed paragraph. I’m almost impressed at how ridiculous this man, Charles Hurt, makes himself sound.

I think this might be my favourite section, talking about the murders:

Senseless? Really? If by “senseless” you mean carried out almost precisely from the scripts of your own [Nolans] movies, then, sure, it was “senseless.”

I mean, right there you know the sort of person we’re dealing with. Hurt must be one of those guys who won’t let his kids watch violent films because they’re such a bad parent that one fight scene will turn them into a murderer. Because that makes total sense. Furthermore, although there is violence in Nolan’s film, it isn’t senseless. The plots are well paced and make sense, and I honestly challenge you to find me the scene in this strategically nameless film where the killer breaks into a cinema and opens fire, with the evidence and bomb equipment left in his flat. Stumped? Yeah, funny that. Of course, that isn’t the point, but it still makes me angry.

This section also makes my blood boil:

No, you did not pull the trigger in this case. You did not don the gas mask. But you were the inspiration, and you are the architects. Your celebrations of diabolical mayhem and pornographic violence prey on the fantasies of sick, fragile minds. You insulated them from the painful reality of bloodshed. You have inspired mass murder. You are the Osama bin Laden of this travesty.



NO THEY WEREN’T. Let me say this again, clearly and simply. Films are not the reason behind murders. People are. You belittle the deaths of those in Aurora by saying the only reason they died was because of a naughty film. They died because a man wanted to kill people. And comparing film directors to bin Laden? Do you even understand, Mr Hurt, how many people you are insulting there? Do you even grasp the stupidity and magnitude of your obvious moronic mental state? They did not inspire mass murder. They did not create ‘pornographic violence’, and they most certainly did not prey on the fantasies of sick, fragile minds. To look at this objectively, the court should rule that the murderer just needs to have a sit down with a series of Friends, because clearly watching happy films or TV is all a person needs to fix their fragile mental state. Obviously, you do not understand a single thing about what inspires a person to act, so I should be nicer in calling you a jackass, but I simply cannot do it. You insult everyone who was involved in making those films, you insult everyone who died, and you insult the intelligence of everyone who has read your article. Finally, I hope you realise just how stupid you are for posting such an article and believing in something so obviously untrue.

The kicker for me is that Mr Hurt says the scenes that 'affected’ the killer were realistic. Have you ever seen a Batman film? It’s BATMAN, for crying out loud. The film is set in a make believe place, with superheroes fighting each other, sometimes with technology that doesn’t exist, and it’s based on a fictional comic book. How much clearer can I be? You’re an idiot, and I want to try and say this so many times it may actually stick in your mind, although I highly doubt that, considering how stuck in your ways you appear to be. Naturally, anyone reading this who honestly believes that films can lead to murderous behaviour may well think that I am either overreacting to his article, or that I am not intelligent enough to comprehend just how nasty and scary these actions were. To these people I say the following: I have seen more than enough films that, according to the logic of Mr Hurt and unfortunately thousands like him, should make me a killer; and I’ve read enough books and comics and watched enough violent TV to cause the same result, and yet somehow I’m yet to commit a single murder. Or crime, as it happens. You know why? Because it takes more than a film to push someone to murder. It always has and it always will.





Just, one more thing. Have you ever even considered how horrible and despicable murders have taken a place in history since long before cinema was ever invented?