‘Jack Reacher,’ ‘Django Unchained’ premieres cancelled in wake of Newtown tragedy, director Tarantino tires of defending violent movie content

Shooting tragedies like the one that befell Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last week often leave people struggling for answers. And it's the media -- the movie industry in particular -- that's most often left holding the bag.

The one question that most frequently arises is "why?" People want to know what drives the perpetrators of these mass shootings to do what they do, and in their haste and grief, they can be quick to cast blame on anything. Rather than blaming more obvious things (such as, for example, easily accessible firearms and inaccessible mental health services), more often than not, talking heads and politicians take to cable news channels to charge that it was actually exposure to violent movies and/or video games that led the perpetrators to commit these terrible acts. Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman made such an argument over the weekend:

Of course, these claims come despite numerous high profile studies -- including ones conducted by the Harvard Medical School Center and The Journal of Adolescent Health -- that have shown no conclusive link between exposure to violent movies and video games and violent activity amongst teens.

Nevertheless, the movie studios played right into this false argument. In response to events in Connecticut, numerous movie premieres -- including the Tom Cruise franchise starter "Jack Reacher" and Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" -- were either cancelled or postponed by their studios out of respect for the victims.

See also: Paramount alters 'Jack Reacher' marketing campaign in wake of tragedy

But why those two movies in particular? Because of the (fictional) gun violence portrayed in the films. "Jack Reacher" reportedly opens with a lone gunman carrying out a seemingly random sniper attack, while "Django Unchained" is a bloody revenge tale that features more gunplay than any of Tarantino's previous films combined. In the wake of Newtown, no one wants to give the impression that they're enjoying a violent movie. The unfortunate irony here is that the New York premiere of "Jack Reacher" was to be a charity event benefitting K-12 children.

Violent movies weren't the only ones to have their premieres cancelled, though. Twentieth Century Fox also scrubbed the weekend premiere of the Billy Crystal/Bette Midler comedy "Parental Guidance," a lighthearted family comedy that likely features very little in the way of gunplay or violence. It's not likely that moviegoers will complain much about that one either way, however.

While Paramount and The Weinstein Company may have been quick to remove their films from the spotlight over the weekend, one of the filmmakers was not so shy. At a press conference in New York City on Saturday, "Django Unchained" director Quentin Tarantino struck back at critics who blame movies or video games for tragedies like Sandy Hook.

"I just think, you know, there's violence in the world, tragedies happen, blame the playmakers," Tarantino said. "It's a Western. Give me a break."

To say that "Django Unchained" is extremely violent would be an understatement; it's violent even by Tarantino's bloody standards. But in the search for answers to tragedies like Newtown, for a politician or pundit to actually argue that "Django" or any other movie could inspire someone to go out and commit murder is completely ludicrous. Even if a film or video game played a role in "inspiring" one of these events, the cause of said event would be very serious mental health issues, not someone shooting a gun in a movie.

See also: Quentin Tarantino talks to Yahoo! Movies Canada about 'Django Unchained'

In light of the "Dark Knight Rises" movie theatre shooting in Colorado earlier this year, filmmakers and movie studios have become extremely sensitive to gun violence and how it is depicted on screen. Warner Bros. has even gone so far as to cut out a scene from the upcoming movie "Gangster Squad" that depicted a movie theatre gun fight. That move has drawn both criticism and praise, but shows that Hollywood takes sensitivity to such things very seriously.

It seems as though audiences are only allowed to enjoy the violence and action in movies that they so clearly crave -- and that Hollywood is only too happy to produce -- when a tragic shooting hasn't just occurred. When it does occur, however, the blame game starts all over again. Given the increasing regularity of these acts of violence, it's a wonder that filmgoers are allowed to enjoy these kinds of films at all.

While you can hardly fault these movie companies for paying respect to the victims in light of this enormous tragedy, allowing themselves and their medium to be blamed -- even partially -- every time an event like Sandy Hook occurs is not only irresponsible, but ignores what the real causes of the shooting may have been.