A study of death scenes and endings, under the Hays code era of Hollywood (1934-1968) and beyond.
John Ledingham is a Victoria BC filmmaker working in music videos and experimental, no-budget documentary.
“Violence Solves Everything” is an experimental collage of endings and deaths scenes from the Hays Code era of Hollywood (1934-68) or in conversation with conventions of this era, and especially movies ending within 1 or 2 minutes of “the bad guy” being “brought to justice” by force – usually killing, but sometimes arrest, which often in these films implies capital punishment. It explores endings as implicit ideological statements along the lines of critic Robin Wood’s psychoanalytic theories of the horror movie monster as a site of social projection & repression, mainly in the genres of the gangster movie, melodrama, crime thriller, and neo-noir. But also showing samples of horror, to explore where the repressed criminal character evolved out of classical movie monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein.
Several trends are traced through this decades long exploration of censorship, ideology, and mainstream notions of moral authority or justice.
This IS a “found footage” montage film. As a critical, non-commercial study, placing clips in a critical context, this film and its use of copyrighted material is protected under Fair Use. I do not claim ownership of any of the sampled films, but do claim the right to and responsibility for distributing this film for educational and artistic purposes.
The version currently linked as a screener is my unlisted YouTube screener, with several films portrayed in still images, in accordance with YouTube’s automatic copyright detection system. A full, non-truncated version will be available for festival screenings.
A full list of films sampled:
Ministry of Fear 1944
Little Caesar 1930
Frankenstein 1931
Dracula 1941
Scarface 1932
King Kong 1933
High Sierra 1941
Saboteur 1942
The Stranger 1946
Kiss of Death 1947
Odd Man Out 1947
They Live By Night 1947
The Naked City 1948
He Walked By Night 1948
The Street With No Name 1948
White Heat 1949
DOA 1950
Gun Crazy 1950
The Sniper 1952
The Hitch Hiker 1953
The Big Combo 1955
Tarantula 1955
Rififi 1955
The Tall T 1957
Attack of The Giant Leeches 1959
The Killing 1956
Touch of Evil 1958
Breathless 1960
Underworld USA 1961
Vivre Sa Vie 1962
Le Samourai 1967
Bonnie and Cude 1967
Night of The Living Dead 1968
Easy Rider 1969
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid 1969
Le Cercle Rouge 1970
Chinatown 1974
Final Exam 1981
Blood Debts 1985
Samurai Cop 1991
Scarface 1983
Robocop 1987
Thelma & Louise 1991
Heat 1995
Training Day 2001
Shooter 2007
The Sopranos 1999-2007
Drug War 2012
Django Unchained 2012
Breaking Bad 2008-2013
Barbarian 2022
The Mastermind 2025
