‘We need to talk about Kevin’ movie carefully highlights the potential causes – unwilling motherhood, psychopathic tendencies in childhood – that lead to teenage school shootings and the repercussions for the shooter and his family. Although several movies about school shootings have been made in the past, but this movie focuses not only on the family issues, but also possibility of undetected mental and/or behavioral problems in childhood that trigger violent behavior in teenagers.

School shootings in USA a social dilemma?

Schools shootings have become a serious issue in the U.S., that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to consider them a social dilemma. Statistics from the 1980s and 1990s show a significant rise in gun violence in the U.S. schools, where students go on a shooting rampage, killing school fellows and teachers indiscriminately. The most horrifying incidents of teenage school shooting were reported in 1997-98.

The movie

The protagonist, 16-year-old Kevin, emerges out of the school main door after he has massacred a number of his fellow schoolmates. Later, it is revealed that before going on a shooting rampage at the school, he kills his dad and younger sister at home. In flashbacks of his mother, we learn something about his short, unhappy life.

Kevin’s mother, Eva was not ready to have a child in the first place. Eva was a travel writer who had led a carefree and bohemian life, which she felt was interrupted after her unexpected pregnancy. When Kevin was few years old, the family moved into a large house in the suburbs, which Eva referred to as “our very own castle”. She could not fit in the suburban life and craved for the sounds and hustle bustle of the city. Some of this discontent apparently rubbed off on and damaged her son.

Eva’s disconnect with her son is seen from the moment he was born – her unwillingness to carry the wailing baby in her arms to her inability to concentrate on him during his early years. In one scene, Eva gets tired of the infant’s wailing, so she stops on the street near a construction worker operating a drill to drown out the baby’s cries.

Kevin’s sociopathic tendency made its mark in early childhood. It was evident that he hated his mother and wanted to do things to cause emotional distress to her. In one scene, he spray paints the maps that his mom had put up on the walls. When a family pet dies, and the younger daughter loses an eye, Kevin’s mother knew who was behind those ‘accidents’. Kevin’s urge to cause immense harm to his mother made him apathetic towards others pain. Playing violent video games, collecting malicious computer viruses, taunting her mother at a dinner and smiling after the school carnage; the character is hateful in every possible aspect.

Eva was always fearful of his son’s behavior and mysterious happenings around him; and wanted to get some professional help for him. However, Kevin’s dad, Franklin rejected his wife’s claims about their son, and suggested she needed to seek psychiatric help.

Some parenting lessons to learn

The movie has highlighted some important parenting issues that affect the well-being of the family. A person should only become a parent when he or she is completely prepared to bring a new life in this world. Having a baby under pressure will lead to an unfulfilled and discontented life, consequences of which are ultimately borne by the children. Secondly, if parents see any prolonged behavioral issues in their kids, they should immediately get some professional help and therapy to avoid any mishap in future.