The Aesthetics of Violence

Art surrounds us so many different facets of life. Moments of aesthetic pleasure can be hidden or overt in man-made creations and in natural objects and placement. Beauty and how it is perceived can be manipulated by the director or graphic designer in order to pull a specific reaction from the viewer. More specifically, in Anime, the director uses beautiful images to portray ugly and horrific moments. Within anime, structural art arises and takes form in a variety of ways. Everything that the artist and designer create will be art in the film, regardless of what the specific objects are. There is a different effect because the images are cartoons---created images they aren’t real to the viewer. There will not be very many visceral cues for the audience members to hold onto. A sort of gauze separates viewer from the event on screen. Though there may be an emotional connection to events happening on screen, this connection is dampened by the fact that the characters are not real, the scene is in graphics and a screen is placed between the event and the viewer. The viewer can in effect detach himself from this situation, this violence. Various questions arise: what is the purpose of the director’s choice to portray violence in this particular way? Is this an attempt to get a specific reaction from onlookers? The reason for portraying characters and violent events in a certain way is alleviate the viewer of some the pain that is hidden in the moment of recognition.

The film Patlabor 2 contains specific instances when the scene is bloody and traumatic, but the only disturbing aspect of scene might be the screams and cries of characters in the film. The viewer is not traumatized by the situation. The lack of recognition of wounds and of terror is because the images are merely fake representations of a real life situation. The focus on beauty in the film is one notion that can be overlooked throughout it is very much present in all aspects of this work, though it is not always acknowledged. In specific clips of the film, one might be able to sense that there is some strife without fully being aware that some of the pain is screened in hidden because of the way it is portrayed. It is interesting that such a perception and reaction can be manipulated based on how the information is presented. Certain scenes of obvious violence, blood dripping from a face or from an arm, a car or building blowing up and shattering into countless smithereens; may not have the same effect on the viewer because it is not in real life time. Any person can distance themselves from these specific situations because it seems that these instances do not in fact apply to them. A certain gauze lies between the viewer and the characters on the screen. However, had these aesthetically pleasing accidents been real life situations on the screen, or even closer in real life time, an observer would have a different reaction to these specific events. Art is merely a representation of life. Of course, it is a story told from a certain perspective, perhaps with a certain voice but it is still an experience that has occurred. However, one needs to be conscious of the art and what role it is playing in the situation in order to have an aesthetic experience. One must have an aesthetic attitude to identify how art and the director’s choices are playing into how the viewer experiences the film.

‘…the aesthetic experience is best described, at least initially, from a pretheoretical perspective. Aesthetic experience is the sort of experience that most, perhaps all, have with some frequency but that is described in sometimes very different ways. Very few have difficulty picking out aesthetic experiences from nonaesthetic ones. If one attends the opera, even if she does not enjoy the opera but sits bored and fidgeting, she will still recognize this as a classic example of a setting where aesthetic experiences are normally had. If a flower is offered, one will recognize this as an invitation to experience the flower aesthetically.’ (Fenner 5).

How violence is represented in Anime, where images of war and destruction fill the screen show demolition in a beautiful way. What is the reason behind portraying violence in such a way that is pleasing to the eye? The director might create horrible situations but in order to deaden the pain, create them in such a way the one might be able to uneasily swallow the situation. Amidst hardships of life, art has served in such a way to relay reality back to ourselves. Mediums such and drawing, painting, poetry, dance, song, music might serve as a way to package life in way that can be bearable and watched and experienced.

From the start of the film, Patlabor 2 speaks destruction. Machinery and humans collide and one is forced to deal with the shards left over from the attacks. Large mechanical bodies threaten the lives of those in its way. The background music too, plays into how the scene is received. Scene 2:07, the destruction looks almost beautiful as the orange collides with grey giving the attack an ethereal glow. When the smoke billows in the air and spreads throughout the screen, one is not threatened and does not think about choking smell of smoke or enter into the scene through imagination. There is a separateness that is evident in the way that the situation is depicted. This scene is beautiful because of the way in which it looks. The scene shows machinery collapsing, technology taking over as the earth crumbles. However, if these exact moments had been constructed out of real life objects, the reaction might be different. The audience might have a more visceral reaction to the ruin. The exploration of the idea that art plays a huge role in one’s emotional connection to a film is ground breaking. Graphic art separates one from what could be a tragic bone chilling recognition of a real life experience. ‘Such vividness and explicitness can be the effect of a representation’s relationship to indexical reality but also to the intensity of its visual impact as a function of its content and the photorealistic or hyperrealistic effects of textual mediation. The degree of indexicality the representation has with historical examples of actual violence is one way affective impact on readers and audiences can be heightened’ (Symonds 4). The idea that portrayal can have such a large impact on a viewer’s reaction speaks to the reality that presentation does matter.

‘While graphic details in the representation of fictional violence can cause less desensitized audiences of a film to turn away from the screen or to provoke public calls for stricter censorship, there remain distinctions to be made between that effect and the viewing by audiences of violence in real time that they know to be nonfictional, as in television live-from-the-scene reporting. At the far end of the continuum from that indexicality where graphic violence is at its most stylized and the representation of violence can be turned primarily into an aesthetic pleasure—as the way people are hurt on screen becomes a production value defined by virtuosity in special effects re-creation---we find violence that often deflects audience response away from the revulsion that violence in actuality would inevitably cause’ (Symonds 4).

At scene 0:16, one cannot get a grasp of the gravity of the situation because the explosion is shot from far away, it is not till later that people are seen and even amidst the debris there is only a little bit of whimpering. The amount of devastation is unfathomable because of the way the director has relayed the information and the moment to the audience. A type of wall lies between the actual event and a person’s connection to this event.

Also, the characters in the movie do not perceive this beauty---only the audience members do. What does this mean? What can this tell us about the director’s intentions and reasons for dealing with violence and pain in this particular way? Oshii’s choice of how he portrays violence may reflect upon his understanding of audience perception and the power of art. One does not immediately consider these factors when entering into a film. As Fenner claims, one must take on an aesthetic attitude towards all aspects of life. Such an attitude will shape the way one sees the world and how he/she intakes all that they experience. The scenes in Patlabor 2 will not provoke sorrow to the same degree if they are simply graphic representations of a real life occurrences. The colors, the purples, blues against a grey orange backdrop make for a dramatic effect, pleasing to the eye. One does not feel discomfort but pleasure, rapture rather than extreme pain. It is interesting to think that this particular choice of how to portray an event makes such a big impact on how it is received. Real life images, still life photographs however have a different impact. ‘It is true that the initial effect of ling’chi pictures is visceral. They are too real, too savage and forbiddimg to be subsumed under an aesthetic program or practice, even if the point of that program or practice is the disruption and displacement of the very categories and terms in which artistic production is conceived’ (Buch 29). This image has a different, more poignant effect on the viewer for a different reason. Presentation is a large reason as to why a scene is not received in the same way. To an Anime scene, a person will shield their eyes from a frightening and graphic situation, however in real life time, a squeamish person will shudder at such a scene. A person’s knowledge of reality versus fiction will definitely dictate how they understand violent situations on screen.

Oshii had a specific goal in mind when he designed his plan for Patlabor 2. He dictated and calculated the type of reaction he would like to retrieve from the audience, as most directors do. He had a particular destination in mind and willed himself to take others along with on his journey. Art truly does influence us in countless ways though it may go unnoticed. Violence is portrayed in a beautiful way in Oshii’s Anime film, Patlabor 2 in order for an onlooker to be able to take all of it in. War, destruction, and violence are mixed in with colors, beauty, and pleasure. In the realm of Anime, such a combination exists and is gladly welcomed.

WORKS CITED


Buch, Robert. The Pathos of the Real. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Fenner, David E. W. The Aesthetic Attitude. New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1996.

Oshii, Mamoru. Patlabor 2. Film

Symonds, Gwyn. The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Media. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, 2008.