Over the years, various lawsuits have been filed against movie makers for the alleged influence that their films had on kids who acted out stunts or acts of violence. They have been entirely rejected, but there may be one more on the way. Eric Tavulares, 18, strangled his 18 year-old childhood girlfriend, Lauren Aljubouri.
According to police reports, Tavulares had watched the film 10 to 20 times previously. They had watched only half of the film when they went to bed: “He stated he does not recall exactly what happened next, but something caused him to switch mentally and he rolled over on Lauren Aljubouri and he began strangling her.”
Natural Born Killers, a 1994 film directed by Oliver Stone and depicting a bizarre crime spree, has been the focus of prior lawsuits in Louisiana and Oklahoma and other states.
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Good lord, look at all the republican authoritians in here.
The movie didn’t tell anyone to kill anyone, I hope you guys all get sued for something stupid like you’re all suggesting happen.
Please…This kid was a nut already.
Don’t blame the movie.
Blame the parents!
How many 18-year-olds watched the movie and did not strangle anyone?
When a movie is watched “ten or twenty times” prior to the crime, doesn’t that suggest the movie isn’t the problem and the watcher is?
Gyges,
I agree with you on count A and count B. I got a kick out of your teenage music acquisition!
Jill
Jill,
I think rather then blaming just the violence, or sex, or whatever it is you’re against in modern entertainment we should also look at the consumption level. Popular music\folk music (the musicological folk music, not Woody) has always been about sex, drugs, rock and roll, and violence. The proportions change a little depending on the culture surrounding it, but they’re all there.
Let’s say I’m a teenager, and my brain chemistry is a little off, my parents ignore me, and I’ve got a pretty good collection of about 20 CDS. Of those 5 or 6 are probably lame gifts from relatives, so we’ve got 15 CDs. Since I like really dark stuff with violent images that’s potentially 15 hours of different people telling me it’s o.k. to be violent. And the free time and to listen to them all. That’s a big change from having to work the fields all day and catching a song at the tavern about a highwayman once or twice a week. There’s some problems with the scenario, but you get the point. I’m choosing music as an example, because it’s been around for the longest, but you can apply the same idea to T.V. by substituting folk tales in its place.
Do I think that’s the only issue? Not by a long shot. It might be a movie that acts as a catalyst for someone to go out and kill their girlfriend, but there’s a lot of things that could be a catalyst.