We live in an age of riot porn. Slogans like Occupy or the 99% only tickle a long-growing dissatisfaction with the socio-political apparatus that can change labels from election to election but never seems to better the circumstances of anyone’s lives. Raw depictions of violence in times like these have a special resonance, like Marlon Brando in The Wild One, who, when asked what he was rebelling against, replied “What do you got?”
The new Jay-Z and Kanye West video for “No Church in the Wild,” resounds with this sentiment, a 5 minute slow-motion romance with violent confrontation between the black-suited authorities and impoverished groups of mostly young men. The Dark Knight Rises also played this note in an early trailer, showing Batman trying to keep order in a city where the citizens themselves have begun revolting. How long before we see videogame riot porn? Will it look anything like this?