Abstract

In latter years, different authors have established and analyzed the different forms of new violence or rather diagnosing the characteristics hidden behind globalization. Violence has become the media’s lead player and is already part of the daily images we see day after day, both privately and publicly. Some of today’s thinkers have made reference to religious violence, and claim a return to this form of violence. We, however, believe this to be a mistake: there is no return to something that has never left. Primary violence has been a subject of vital interest for René Girard who sees violence as constitutive of society and to which there is no possible way out of it. Only religion, by means of the rationalization of sacrifice, provides this solution which is as violent as the violence it intends to eradicate. Over time, law, legality and the administration of justice have stalled and managed this social violence, allowing people to live in certain harmony. To inquire further into this, to see in what manner this violence “returns” to culture and becomes part of the imaginary of our modern society, of civilization, we propose to analyze four “violent” films: Fury (1936m Fritz Lang), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943, William Wellman), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan) and Stromboli (1950, Roberto Rossellini) through which we will see how, by means of sacrifice, the community protects itself against its own violence.

Key Words: Social Violence | propitiatory victim | sacrifice | Law | order