In the age of the Roman Empire, there was nothing more enjoyable than to head to the coliseum in order to watch the gladiators fight wild beasts as well as each other. People at that time cherished the adrenaline rush and visceral excitement which that sort of entertainment afforded them; nowadays men killing one another for sport is considered totally inhuman. Ironically, as people look down on such forms of entertainment as archaically animalistic, they are, in some sense, enjoying forms of entertainment just as violent and disconcerting.
Take, for instance, the infamous Corrida de Toros – or “bull fights” – which are still incredibly popular amongst even the aristocracy of Spain. There, with an excited “Ole,” spectators prod the bullfighter to end the life of the bull, which is forced to surrender because of fatigue and deep pain it has endured simply attempting to preserve its life. Many people dismiss these notorious bull fights as barbaric – just as cruel and disturbing as the gladiator battles of ancient Rome.
But it isn’t just in Spain where this sort of aberrant form of entertainment exists. In fact, it is incredibly pervasive – displayed on movie screens around the world: the films of Quentin Tarantino. In his films, Tarantino mixes drama with comedy while we watch assassins and mercenaries do unimaginably horrific things. These modern day “gladiators” use all type of weapons like knives, firearms, samurai swords, lethal venoms and even their own hands. Blood flows like water in the fountains of the Versailles Palace, and the most ironic part is that the characters survive all these “accidents.” The Tarantinian cinema has created a new venue for an ultimately ancient concept: ultra-violence as ultra-entertaining.
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