Father of Columbine victim criticizes new rom-com with Pattinson and Zendaya - what's the deal?
Kyiv • UNN
Tom Mauser criticized the plot of the film The Drama due to the heroine's confession of shooting plans. He believes that the participation of stars humanizes and normalizes violence.
The father of a victim of the Columbine High School shooting (a mass murder in 1999 in Jefferson County, Colorado, USA) expressed outrage over the upcoming romantic film "The Drama" starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. The plot revolves around a couple whose wedding is threatened after a game of "worst thing I've ever done," during which the heroine confesses that she once planned a school shooting but backed out at the last minute. This was reported by UNN with reference to The Guardian.
Details
The Columbine High School tragedy occurred on April 20, 1999, in Colorado, USA. Two students opened fire on classmates and teachers: 13 students and one teacher were killed, and dozens more were injured. This event became one of the most high-profile school shootings in the US and sparked a large-scale discussion about gun control.
Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel died in the tragedy, called the use of such a theme in a romantic comedy "horrific" and noted that Zendaya's participation "humanizes" potential perpetrators of similar violence and "normalizes" school shootings, even if violence is not shown in the film.
Despite the controversy, a limited preview screening of the film in the US received mostly positive reviews from critics. A24, the studio releasing it, did not conduct a wide release before the reviews came out, likely to avoid spoilers.
By the way, similar themes have been raised in world cinema before: Gus Van Sant's drama "Elephant" won the "Palme d'Or" at the Cannes Film Festival, and Michael Moore's documentary about the Columbine tragedy – an "Oscar." This month, an "Oscar" was also awarded to the short documentary film "All the Empty Rooms," which documents the rooms of children who died in school shootings in the US.
Recall
Earlier, UNN wrote about how Zendaya debunked marriage rumors, explaining that the wedding photos were the result of artificial intelligence. The fake images even misled the star's close friends.