Death By Movie?

I have heard a lot of things about the negative effects of movies on people, especially the young.

Movies make people violent. They make us smoke. They scramble our scruples. They make us dumb.

But can a movie KILL us??

I don’t mean in the Hollywood formula of a movie in which people who watch a certain video or look at a certain picture turn up dead afterwards.

I mean, can a movie actually KILL us??

The CHINA TIMES is reporting that a 42-year-old Taiwanese man died of a stroke allegedly triggered by the movie AVATAR.

He had a history of high blood pressure and hypertension and the doctors believe his brain started haemmorhaging due to over excitement from the movie.

Oh boy. Can we really say that?

I know there have been cases of aneurims triggered by, say, a violent roller coaster ride. And we DO know that people have popped blood vessels by overexerting themselves.

But from a MOVIE??

What if that excitement had been triggered by a good, delicious dinner? Or by watching a beautiful sunset? Or a glorious painting or poem? Or a kiss?

Would we be blaming any of those things? Would we say that a man died because he enjoyed his dinner too much? A sunset made him DIE?

Nope.

Movies and the media at large at much easier and convenient scapegoats.

Hollywood may crank out more garbage than they used to. But let’s not get crazy now.

They still don’t have the power to kill.