BLOOD IN THE CINEPLEX - WHY DO WE LOVE IT SO?

Ever since the first signs of human life on the planet, humanity has been at war with one another. We can debate the reasons, but not the fatalities.

While most people say they deplore violence and war, most people engage in both on a regular basis. Some even laud its merits. Caesar, Napoleon, Bismarck, Hitler and Patton are among those warriors who have said war can bring out what is best in us -- zeal, struggle, courage, victory.

Hollywood's cash boxes have never been adverse to cashing in on a good thing. And so it has been grinding out celluloid warfare from the days of "The Birth of a Nation" ( ) to its current spate of military spectaculars. But if we can't always agree on why war, we can probably on why movie wars sell. They permit a collective outlet for the semi-civilized beast in us all.

Th patrons in the cineplex may not roar like they do at a football game or a wrestling match, but the passions perking just beneath the popcorn surface are surely present. The films are exquisitely designed to achieve this effect, as they first set up the "enemy," then the "hero," and finally the blood-churning denouement when at last good-guys-kill-off-bad-guys to the brass section of the soaring soundtrack.

The younger the males in the audience, the more you can sense the passions at work [you don't want to engage any young stud on your way out of the theatre!]. As for the female of the species, tradition has it they curl up in soft dependence upon their man. In truth, evidence suggests women no less than men harbor gorges of repressed rage.

Why bring all this up...? The better question might be: Why hasn't the species learned by now how to better channel such rage toward more worthy enemies...? Say, prejudice? Incivility? Weapons? Ignorance? Oh, and all those folks who spill sticky Cokes and gum on the floor?