Remember the execrable NRA ad from last year that showed a hot woman being compared to and brandishing an automatic rifle? Welcome to the movie-trailer equivalent of that.
Salma Hayek is a lean, mean, aesthetically-pleasing shooting machine in the first official preview for “Everly” (above), which centers on a call girl (Hayek) who's forced to fend off an army of assassins after she informs on her gangster boss (Hiroyuki Watanabe). What did I take away from the trailer? Here's a GIF that sums it up:
Guns are sexy! It's a message Hollywood action films have been feeding us for decades, and it's indicative of the culture in which we live that most of us don't think twice when we see, for example, Salma Hayek shoving a revolver between her boobs in an image that's obviously designed to titillate. Point is: why are people outraged over that execrable NRA ad and yet accepting of a trailer that makes a direct correlation between the sexual appeal of its leading lady and her skillful use of firearms?
As someone who makes his living in the entertainment sphere, I've found a pervasive disconnect in many people's minds between fictional representations of violence and the violence that occurs in the real world, from widely-publicized mass shootings to the bloodshed that erupts in our inner cities on a daily basis. But given the frightening culture of violence that surrounds us, isn't it worth considering how consuming violent media affects our minds, and more importantly the minds of impressionable viewers?
I have no doubt that the potent combo of sex and violence presented in the “Everly” trailer will do wonders for the film's bottom line. But I fear that this in itself says some troubling things about the way films in America are produced and sold, and how closely (albeit unintentionally) many of these films align with the aims of a wildly-irresponsible gun lobby that has no problem showing some skin if it means creating a desirable image for their potentially deadly products.