ON A COLD afternoon I thought I’d watch an afternoon movie.

For near half an hour I stuck with a stream of incomprehensible dialogue, stark brutality, sexual and physical violence, in close up; most crude of language, out of the mouths of children, and general blood and gore. A child being ordered to shoot another man, in the “groin”. And this a mainline general release film premiering at a major world international film festival.

Reviewers speaking of a “postmodern” film. A “super macho” “tour-de-force”. Giving this up I turned to a classic of the 1950s. And lo and behold - dare I say - it had a moral centre. It told a story with major human values in play. How a society holds together in the face of threatening violence.

Yes ‘romantic’- with a great soundtrack. And yes by today’s standards very simple. Not so nuanced. A straight forward story of good facing up to violence. And so what has this got to do with the price of butter in our towns?

I would say everything in the world. How our value system has collapsed over the decades.

How films, and gaming, and media, have become so much more violent and crude with us, generation by generation, barely noticing. And this playing out in the behaviour of the young. In sexual behaviour, and violence.

We all when young and not so young have our role models.

When I was young these were clean cut, standing up for fairness.

The classic Robin Hood. They took on the bullies of the world.

But now where are we? Violence and brutality - “look how casually violent we are” - in graphic detail - pumping out of movie factories.

Jeff Williams

Jubilee Road, Parkstone