By Jamie Portman
Calgary Herald, 23 April 1999
Hollywood is suddenly getting nervous over charges that its product is fostering real-life violence.
In the wake of Tuesday’s massacre of 13 people at a Colorado high school, MGM has announced that it is recalling all video copies of the 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Basketball Diaries, a true story about the drug-addicted youth of poet Jim Carroll. The film features a dream sequence in which DiCaprio, playing Carroll, shoots a teacher and students while wearing a long black trenchcoat.
The film was originally released by Polygram, but it was recently acquired by MGM through its purchase of the Polygram film library from Seagram three months ago. An MGM spokesman told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that “we are going to get as many of these videos off the shelf as possible. We think it’s the responsible thing to do under the circumstances.”
The makers of the film are currently being sued by the parents of three girls murdered in 1997 by a youth who said he was influenced in his action by The Basketball Diaries.
In another development, the major U.S. networks said they would be reviewing content of all upcoming shows as a result of the Littleton massacre. CBS Television said it planned to pull Thursday’s airing of an episode of Promised Land dealing with the shooting of a Colorado student. The network said it felt the “sensitive” thing to do would be to postpone the episode to a later date.
The MTV cable network’s launch of a year-long, anti-violence campaign was also moved up from its original April 27 date to Thursday. The campaign — which is titled Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Violence — begins with a 30-minute program entitled Warning Signs, produced with the help of the American Psychological Association. Two segments deal with students shooting other students.
Contributed by Gail Ames