The Influence of Western Movie

共享题干题                                                           (三)
                                                 The Influence of Western Movie
阅读材料，回答下列的问题。
            Why does the Western movie especially have such a hold(影响)on our inclination?Chiefly，because it offers serious insights into the problem of violence such as can be found almost nowhere else in our culture．One of the well—known peculiarities of modem civilized opinion is its refusal to acknowledge the value of violence．This refusal is a virtue．but like many virtues it involves a certain deliberate blindness and it encourages hypocrisy(虚伪)．We train ourselves to be shocked or bored by cultural images of violence，and our very concept of heroism tends to be a passive one．We are less drawn to the brave young men who kill large numbers of our enemies than to the heroic prisoners who endure torture without surrendering．And in the criticism of popular culture，the presence of images of violence is often assumed to be in itself a sufficient ground for condemnation．
         These attitudes，however，have not reduced the element of violence in our culture but have helped to free it from moral control by letting it take on the air of“liberation”．The celebration of acts of violence is left more and more to the irresponsible．The gangster(匪徒)movie，with its numerous variations belongs to a cultural“underground”which praises violence aid sets it against all our higher social attitudes．It is a more“modem”style than the Western movie，perhaps even more profound，because it confronts industrial society on its own ground—the city and because，like much of our advanced art，it gains its effects by a coarse insistence on its own narrow logic．But it is anti-social resting on fantasies of irresponsible freedom．If we are brought finally to concede to the denial of these fantasies，it is only because they have been shown to be dangerous，not because they have given way to higher values of behavior．
    In war movies，certainly，it is possible to present violence within a framework of responsibility．But there is the disadvantage that modem war is a co-operative enterprise in which violence is largely impersonal and heroism belongs to the group more than to the individual．The hero of a war movie is most often simply a leader supposed to be brave；you are supposed to get the job done and stay alive(this too，of course，is a kind of heroic posture，but a new and“practical”one)．At its best，the war movie may represent a more civilized point of view than the Western，and if it were not continually spoiled by ideological sentimentality we might hope to find it developing into a higher form of drama．But it cannot supply the values we seek in the Western．