Dying for Entertainment

This summer, instead of hitting the books, college students might turn their backs on society and head off to the Alaskan tundra--just like the doomed lead character of Into the Wild. Can they be stopped?

It's no surprise that kids, and especially teens, are influenced by what they see in the movies. It's already been well documented that movies that romanticize smoking and drinking are key players in promoting underage abuse. So what about the story of a recent high school grad who shuns society, treks into the Alaskan tundra, and starves to death in the back of an abandoned bus? That's the plot of Sean Penn's award-winning movie Into the Wild, and lately there's been a rash of copycats packing backpacks and going, literally, into the wild. "That's sort of the heart of the story," said one such traveler, "It's almost like a Jim Morrison grave site, where people just want to go see it."

The influence movies hold over kids is strong. Hundreds of injuries of teen and adults alike can be linked to the Jackass franchise, and over the years, kids have copied various flicks some with deadly results:

	After Rob Reiner's 1986 film Stand by Me depicted hooligans leaning out of car windows to whack mailboxes with baseball bats, kids across the country followed suit, (Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1993)
	The rash of Leo and Kate mimics prompted the U.S. Passenger Vessels' Association to issue a "Titanic Alert" to its members, urging them to close off the bow areas of ships.(The Daily Telegraph, June 25, 1998)
	Two teenagers died after imitating a stunt from the movie The Program. The football hero in the movie, to prove he's tough, lies down in the middle of the road at night. Unlike in the movie, one boy was killed instantly and the other critically injured. (The New York Times, October 19, 1993).
	After watching the film Natural Born Killers, which portrayed serial killers Mickey and Mallory on a rampage across America, Nathan Martinez, 17, shaved his head and began wearing tinted spectacles like Mickey (played by Woody Harrelson). Martinez then drove to Salt Lake City, Utah, and murdered his stepmother and 10-year-old half sister.
	After the release of Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange in England, young men were seen marauding the streets dressed like the ultraviolent "droogs" in the film. A 16-year-old boy said to be "obsessed" with the movie was convicted and sentenced after he kicked a 60-year-old to death.

In the '50s and '60s, there was a spike in the number of boys visiting emergency rooms after accidents in which they were acting like Superman. But many of these stunt go beyond trying to fly and step into the cold-blooded killer category.

Are teens to blame for their own bad judgment or is the film industry at fault?

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