Man Shoots Himself in a Movie Theater Midway Through a Showing of The Watchmen
April 7th, 2009If you know of any info that looks at MK related triggers or themes in The Watchmen, let me know. I haven’t seen the film.
Note: If your comment has anything to do with how bad the film is/”I don’t blame the guy”/making a joke out of this etc.: Please don’t bother. We get it already. I must have come across two dozen of these so far, and it was old after the first one.
Via: Register Guard:
Police said a 24-year-old man shot and killed himself early this morning during a movie screening at a Eugene theater.
About 10 people were seated in the Regal Cinema theater at Valley River Center when the man used a handgun to commit suicide midway through a showing of the film “Watchmen,” Eugene police spokeswoman Jenna LaBounty said.
The closest patrons were seated two rows in front of the man, who was a Eugene resident.
LaBounty said police were called to the theater just after midnight, after patrons reportedly heard a loud “popping sound” behind them. Investigators determined that the man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
LaBounty said theater managers stopped the movie and refunded patrons’ money following the shooting.
I saw it; I can’t say it that it had anything that screamed out MK, although one character has a memory she doesn’t understand the significance of. In any case, from what I read, MK-related stuff is highly idiosyncratic, and anything could be used as a trigger. But then, why would he bring the gun to the theatre?
The film’s theme was that a fake-villain WMD attack was necessary to unite the world, and the protagonists eventually side with the mastermind, who in any case, they fail to stop because of their own human foibles. Not exactly an uplifting theme.
Sooo…. what significance do these movie derivatives of Alan Moore’s comics have, despite the original author’s distaste for them? It would be hard to mistake either “V for Vendetta” or “The Watchmen” as pro-authority, pro-government pieces of work (featuring a Guy Fawkes-wearing vigilante and President-for-Life Nixon, respectively).
If you were looking for a modern pop-culture equivalent of A Clockwork Orange to use as a vector, would there be a better choice in movie theaters at the moment?
Or was it just a poor depressed guy who thought it most fitting to commit suicide in a movie theater in Eugene Oregon instead of anywhere else?
FWIW, Oregon is 51st on the list of the MainStreet.com “Happiness Index”
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/moneyinvesting/news/happiness-index-nebraska-nabs-top-spot
maybe it was:
“this is the last thing i want to see before pulling the trigger”
then halfway through:
“ah hell, even this sucks”
Only movie I seem to recall that screams ‘psyops’ outside US army/DoD/NSA ‘help’ with hardware and advice is
Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (2007) The Band’s Visit from Israel.
A tiny subset of the population would be pushed over the edge to allow strong gun control laws?