(3 of 3)
The Motion Picture Association of America, which runs the industry's voluntary rating system, already bans ads in which guns are pointed at heads, and its president, Jack Valenti, says the standards may get tougher. Likely to get the most scrutiny: thrillers and action movies. "There's a difference between a Dracula-type film and one in which a guy splatters AK-47s all over the place," says Valenti.
Much of this activity is clearly a response to the anti-Hollywood climate in Washington. Although Hyde's amendment lost, the House did pass a "sense of Congress" resolution accusing the entertainment industry of including "pointless acts of brutality" in movies and TV. Hollywood is likely to be an even more tempting target during the presidential race. But filmmakers and TV producers are often parents too, and their new sense of responsibility may also be directed by conscience. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was approached to star in End of Days, about the devil coming to earth in human form at the millennium, he wasn't sure he should appear in the violent and potentially religiously offensive film. He says he went ahead only after meeting with his family priest and getting his approval.
Still, Hollywood isn't about to stop making violent movies or TV shows. Scream 3 is scheduled to start shooting soon (though it's rumored the violence will be toned down), and New Line Cinema is planning to pit Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger against Friday the 13th's Jason in another gorefest. At a cable-TV convention in Chicago last week, media-industry leaders insisted that their companies are being scapegoated for larger societal woes. "The same motion pictures that are distributed in the U.S. are distributed in Canada and England," said Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, "and the kids don't kill each other as a result of seeing those movies."
--Reported by Kim Masters, Jeanne McDowell and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles