Nick Cave In Film Violence Fall-Out

16 August 2012 | 4:04 pm | Scott Fitzsimons

Nick Cave and Bobcat Goldthwait have today spoken out on post-massacre film violence and are at odds with each other

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Former Police Academy actor and now film director Bobcat Goldthwait will not be removing a scene which features multiple shootings in a movie cinema and has blasted fellow directors who are as "cowards".

The stance is at odds with that of Nick Cave, who claims that the power of films is enough to encourage violence.

Goldthwait's film God Bless America features a man in his 40s and a teenage girl on a rampage across America, shooting people they deem to be 'evil', that is reality TV stars, religious fundamentalists and the like. But speaking to theMusic.com.au, he says he won't be removing a scene in a cinema in the aftermath of the Dark Knight cinema massacre.

"The current events - all the things that happened before and after this movie - would've happened anyway, regardless of whether or not I made this movie," he said. "I don't believe I've influenced the world in a violent way."

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There has been a lot of publicity around upcoming depression-era gangster epic Gangster Squad, which re-shot scenes originally based in a cinema and Goldthwait has branded the film's producers as nothing more that "cowards" given their mentality.

“The people who are re-shooting that movie should be ashamed of themselves," he said. "Like, they thought showing people getting shot in a cinema was okay, but then something like that actually happened so it wasn't? They're just a bunch of cowards. They're just worried about taking a hit at the box office.

"They're not people that have anything to say, cinematically; they're just a bunch of pussies trying to make a lot of money, and real life just happened to get in their way.”

Speaking to 24 Frames, Cave, who wrote the script for upcoming gangster film Lawless, said, "If beautiful movies can influence you to go out and hug your children, then we have to be honest and say that other movies can inspire you to do bad things. To say they can't is to deny all movies their power."

Claiming there is a direct cause-and-effect between movies and behaviour, which Goldthwait denies, Cave added that, "Guns are part of the American psyche, aren't they? [The Dark Knight Massacre] is collateral damage for having a Wild West mentality. It's intrinsic to the American psyche. It's never going to change."