Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media

Contemporary media criticism, according to Gregory Sharrett removes itself from an analysis of society's activities and focuses only on lived experience as text or discourse. It seems as if criticism is concerned with the sole purpose of demonstrating the degree to which media violence alone is responsible for producing violent social behavior neglecting arguments related to political economy, sociology or history.The apolitical nature of violence in contemporary film supports the idea that visual violence is an end in itself and that it is being exploited. However, modern Western society itself has become more fragmented and is characterized by flagrant individualism. Ultimately, most contemporary film violence does little more than to reflect current values. It fails to offer alternatives in the same way as the Western political spectrum has become essentially monolithic. In a way, modern violent cinema reflects Francis Fukuyama's famous remark - and title of his bestseller - ` the end of history', that was intended to illustrate that the collapse of Communism in the early 90's left society with only one model, the Western capitalist one, for success. Ideologies, alternative constructs are bound for failure.