Tragedy in Aurora: Hollywood to blame?

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Tragedy in Aurora: Hollywood to blame?

Violent movies, video games contributing to coarsening of society?

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 24, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: America's darkest knight sat in court while SWAT teams combed his apartment. On one wall, the feds found a poster of Batman hanging. So we must ask, does Hollywood carry at least some of the blame?

I want to look at a couple of clips, but, parents be warned, these clips contain violent scenes. The first clip comes directly from the movie playing during the massacre, Batman "The Dark Knight Rises."

(MOVIE CLIP PLAYS)

BOLLING: Pretty violent stuff, Bob. I mean, these kids are watching it, they're acting it out. They're almost immune to the violence to it now. But Hollywood, a little bit of a blame?

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: The big blockbuster stuff that's apparently seems to work and I have no hope they're going to change their view about this. They're very violent, full of a lot of bloodshed and kids watch. And that goes with a lot of video games that are appallingly blood thirsty.

And somebody should take responsibility for it. Will they do it? No, because they make a profit on it and they're going to duck it.

BOLLING: Dana, you pointed out you're reading a piece, I read the same piece where Batman original, the TV series, it was almost a comedy. It was fun.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: It was fun. I remember the Batman and Robin costumes and everything. I've never really been able to watch violent stuff, I just don't like it. And my parents wouldn't let me watch scary movies when I was kid, so then now I see, and I get so nervous. And watching Greg looking at me right now is very weird.

But I think that in some ways, Hollywood is a little bit smarter than the people in the gun lobby, right, because they're like, oh my gosh, we're so sorry, it's terrible.

But maybe there is -- to use the newly banned phrase -- the chicken and egg problem. That people have guns for a long time, but does something like this make you want to be like those in Hollywood. I don't watch it. So, I don't know.

ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: I just think you need to be consistent, right? So if the First Amendment is going to be sacrosanct, then the Second Amendment should be sacrosanct. So, freedom of speech, let them do their thing with these movies, but also let Americans bear arms.

And really, if you don't -- the real way to stop these movies, because banning the Batman the movie, what's that going to do? They could go it from "Die Hard" or "Terminator" -- or the comic book or the TV show. That's not going to do anything.

If you really want to ban it, as Dana's parents did, don't go see it. Don't buy the video games. Don't go to the movies that you think is too violent.

BOLLING: Let's be clear, I'm not suggesting or I think we're suggesting we ban any of this stuff. Maybe just revisit the rating system. I mean, a 13-year-old kid with a parent can see that movie. It's pretty violent stuff. Should we change the way the access for kids?

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Here's my point. In 1994, Rwanda, there are 750,000 people killed. You would need an Aurora tragedy every day for 171 years to match that number. There were no Quentin Tarantino movies, there were no video games, there are very little guns -- 500,000 machetes did that. They were imported to the Hutus because they were cheap. The cause of this tragedy, population density and ethnicity.

In my view, pop culture unites people. You have people listening to hip-hop who aren't black, who are white. Guns protect people from humans' darker elements and darker drives.

So I think that actually, there's plenty of proof out there that this stuff has been going on before and it's going to go on forever.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Wait. Allow me to do this. Bob, you mentioned video games. Take a look at this clip again. Parents, before we do this, if you have young kids, keep them out. This is "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II" clip. Go.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

GUTFELD: I'm sorry, that's a tribute to American ingenuity. When I look at that, I see -- that is amazing to see that and I know it looks real but the fact is, I mean we know the difference.

PERINO: It's a long way from --

GUTFELD: Crazy people don't.

PERINO: It's a long way from Frogger on Atari.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: Yes.

TANTAROS: By the way, I think we should all thank President Obama for building that video game.

BECKEL: Right. Look, the reality is that parents probably bought most of those games, right? Maybe the answer here lies at home. They should not allow their kids to go. The little girl that was killed in the movie theater was not 13 years old. Now, that means that somebody brought that child in there against the rules and nobody supported or nobody enforced the rules rather.

PERINO: But if you're with your parents, can you go?

BECKEL: No.

GUTFELD: I think it was R-rated, right?

PERINO: Remember that bullying documentary that we talked about a while ago, that was actually -- they rated that R because of like a bad word. This was --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Can I throw this out very quickly? In these video games, there's shooters and the most popular of all, by far, which is "Modern War: Call of Duty". First person shooter where you're the person in the scene with the gun. You earn points and you get armor and you got clips with extra --

GUTFELD: You know it's a game. You know it's a game. Here -- I want to go back to one of the great shows of all time, "The Brady Bunch". They identified this perfectly. Do you remember the episode when Bobby Brady was obsessed over Jesse James? And so the parents came in and they brought a victim whose parents have been killed by Jesse James to teach you the one thing you need to know, you do not romanticize cool evil, you do not romanticize the antihero. That's the problem you're seeing in pop culture. But I wouldn't link that to this.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: But did the father cut the heads off his kids as a result? I mean, that's what's happens in these things.

TANTAROS: The point is you can self-regulate, right? Parents, as you pointed out, Bob, you can do that. But as Greg said, it's not real. Anyone with a normal functioning brain knows that. It goes back to mental illness.

BECKEL: You're talking about teenagers. There's no normal, functioning brain in the teenage body.

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