It's all subjective. For example the movie Jojo Rabbit, could be offensive to one person and could be hilarious to the next. But the reason why it doesn't go too far to the point where it's distasteful is because they still handle the story with a level of seriousness and realism. The only way I think art can become distasteful is when the creators don't handle the topic with respect. Say a bunch of teens go and film a dead body in a forest. They joke and laugh at it, then move on. That is distasteful they didn't give the body any respect. Respect is in almost every satire.

Sometimes people have to see extreme things.

Obscene, violent, or pornographic should never be financed with any government money. Beyond that, we can't really censor art, as long as no one is harmed (example: snuff films), endangered (revealing dangerous information about a person), or exploited (child porn) by it. We can only express our disgust and refuse to purchase or finance it.

Nope. Art is utterly and completely subjective, go as far as you want, it be as completely basic as you want. That’s the true beauty of it.

I mean...most modern art disgusts me...does that count? [spoiler]Sorry, all out of salt.[/spoiler]

I think Warhammer 40k is an example of every possible extreme.

It's certainly possible and it's a common occurrence. Graphic entertainment does induce trauma. It's used to program people into following certain behaviours and to encourage compliance with certain policies with the added bonus of desensitizing people to and normalizing horror.

I've never watched a film or show that has went so far that I wanted to stop watching. The closest I have came is when watching season 5 of Bojack Horseman. Actual Spoilers [spoiler]It wasn't because of physical abuse or gore. It was because watching a man who had fought and won against his addiction relapse and slowly tumble downhill is something I have seen myself and it hurts so much to see that happen to someone. I guess it was partially because of physical abuse, though. In episode 11, Bojack nearly strangles his girlfriend. The shot of his eyes and Gina's face were extremely disturbing and probably the most off-putting moment in the entire show. He would have killed her if nobody stopped him.[/spoiler] Because I'm uncultured, I usually can only think of video games examples. There is [i]one[/i] game I have played that unquestionably went too far. Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls is the most vile, vulgar piece of media I have ever consumed. It tells a story about child abuse... by making the victims all unredeemably broken and objectifying them. I won't talk about the disgusting detail. UDG doesn't actually make an artistic statement, so it's not worthy of analysis.

I think the big factor in this discussion is the maturity level of the audience and how much that audience is willing to stomach graphic content. Blood and guts won't fly in a childrens' movie but will be fine in a action movie because the guy making the action movie isn't going to accomadate a child. If a child does see the action movie, the filmaker is not at fault because the genre and style of the film should be all over the poster art or box art or mini-description and most inpietantly the esrb rating. If there's a definite, socially acceptable graphic line, it's going to be the ESRB rating. It's the whole reason why we have them, so that people don't stumble into a movie or video game or whatever that they can't handle. Obviously, it happens occassionaly, whether by accident or by immaturity, but to me, that's no fault of the filmaker. That line is sunjective for each person; for an 8 yr old the line is pg-13, for a teenage porn addict it's going to be at nudity, whatever. Now, the million-dollar question is: is there a line that exists for everybody? Well, i'm not sure. The big issue is that you can't apply Objective Morality to a fictional universe. Its why a hero can lead 10000 soldiers to their deaths and its justified, but if a bad guy executes 2 dudes its a war crime. Things that are unacceptable in reality, like killing, are acceptable in a fictional universe because, in a fictional universe, most of the dying is being done by less-than-human npcs. I feel the same amount of emotion if a soldier dies than if a robot dies in the Avengers universe because that soldier isn't really human in my mind. He's a nobody, there is no family he is leaving behind, but, in real life, there is a backstory behind every life, and that backstory matters a great deal to many people. At this moment, i can't definitivly say that there is no "ultimate line" for all people, but i can say that each person has their own line. And, the more an artist pushes that line, the more people they are going to drive away. Everybody can stomach a kids' movie, but not every person can stomach a pg-13 movie, and mot every person can stomach a rated R movie, etc. If an artist pushes that line too far, suddenly their only audience becomes sadists, which isn't healthy to begin with.

It's lazy film making. They can't think of anything clever so they go for sex and violence. Torture is now the in thing, ignoring the reality and horror of it in real life. Anyone who participates in it is scum, whether it's the writer, the producer or the actors. Watching it supports it. Any film on Netflix that has torture I immediately stop watching and give it a negative rating, with the exception of films that are documenting how terrible it is.

I think its dependant on how much you personally can stomach. If you cant handle gore/blood, then steer away from overly violent movies/games. If you can handle it, go ahead, do it all you want. Its kinda a self-monitoring thing.

All art is subjective. What I find excessive others may not. For example I think some of the violence in video games is excessive but that’s just me. As long as there is some kind of rating system that warns people what they are getting into I don’t see a problem. I think if you are an adult you should be allowed to make whatever viewing choices you like without someone else (like the government) arbitrarily deciding on your behalf that something is too “excessive” or gratuitous.

Personally? Yes. Definitely. I usually cannot watch intense violence, though I can give it a pass every now & then if it’s needed for the story. Do I consider it “bad” vs. “not for me”? Depends. Violence for the sake of violence? Usually I consider that bad. Fanservice (usually coming in the form of excessively violent/sexual content) is usually bad writing, trying to capture an audience with show because your story isn’t compelling enough to grab them on its own. On the flip side, violence can serve a genuine, and important role in a given story. In those cases, it’s just not for me, but can make for a very good story. Objectively? That’s a harder question to answer, but I’d still say the answer is yes. Just don’t ask me what that objective limit is.

Extremely violent/disturbing art needs a purpose. Shock value for shock value doesn’t work, but sometimes it’s necessary to tell an effective story.

Everything can go too far, in the right extremes.

Yes. It absolutely can. It’s called Lewds.

Michelangelo’s David. It has too smol pp

[quote]or do you just deem the story "not for you," and move on?[/quote] Yeah basically that lol. It's not gore or violence specifically, but more like suffering that puts me off, but if that's what you're into then great. I think it was like the late 2000's that a bunch of torture movies were popular, and the way I watched them was by reading the plot on Wikipedia and going "hmm yes very icky". Horror movies too lol.

Yes it is and it is very tempting and easy to do so. They do this all the time in M rated video games. They use overly bloody death sequences and drawn out torture visuals to shock and provoke an audience to the limit. For me this is a very lazy and dumb tool to do so. I am no artist yet I could easily come up with scenes that are equally gross and disturbing. Humans are (unfortunately) rather good at visualizing uncomfortable scenarios. These scenes have no actual emotional significance, rather they depend on you having some level of innocence that they can exploit to their own use.

Lobotomies always make me uncomfortable and sad, aswell as any form of "reconditioning" to "fix" people. But it's entirely a personal deal with me, not the fault of the art stuffs.