Esteemed director Robert Altman issued a bold proclamation last week when he decided to blame the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Hollywood.

The movie industry has always been a target of concerned mothers, conservative fathers and Joseph Lieberman. But Robert Altman? His accusation that violent blockbusters not only inspired the hijackers to ram airliners into our national symbols of freedom, but that the movies actually “taught them how to do it” appears treasonous coming from a film industry insider.

It is no surprise that violent movies such as “Under Siege,” “Die Hard” and “Air Force One” have scored success among American audiences in past years.

Teenagers have clambered into the theaters to glimpse the drama, excitement and even the violence that made these movies blockbusters. But while some studies suggest that continued exposure to violence in all forms desensitizes viewers, it is only speculated that it actually drives them to carry out violence themselves.

“As early as the 1930s, social science research has claimed that people have committed violent acts after what they’ve seen in the media, but this has never really been proven to everyone’s satisfaction,” said Tino Balio, professor of communication arts at UW-Madison.

It is confusing that Altman would make such a sweeping generalization. Not only does it reduce the impact of the personal issues behind the attacks, but it also strikes at the very industry that made him a success.

“Nobody would have thought to commit an atrocity like that unless they’d seen it in a movie,” Altman, who directed The Player and MASH, told the Associated Press last week.

According to Balio, this is bogus.

“If people in Hollywood can dream up these story lines about disaster why can’t other people?” Balio said.

Balio said most these action-packed blockbusters, some depicting terrorism much like that which occurred Sept. 11, come from sci-fi thrillers and common fears perpetuated by reality.

“These ideas are not so arcane that other people can’t think about it before Hollywood makes a movie about it,” Balio said.

Keith Cohen, professor of comparative literature at UW and an expert on film theory, said Altman’s remarks, and his underlying implications, are “absurd.”

“The logical consequence of that kind of causal thinking is censorship,” Cohen said.

Reports have leaked out that the hijackers may have used a video game to train for the attacks, but even that is not enough to suggest that video games were responsible. The market is so reactive that it is fairly safe to say violent video games and movies are mainly a response to high demand. Taking advantage of what the market offers is one thing, but for Altman to imply that the market drives demand, and consequently puts people in certain frames of minds they were not already predisposed to is upsetting.

But psychological arguments aside, it is logistically impossible.

For one, it is very well publicized that Osama bin Laden and the Taliban do not condone movie-watching. These conservative Islamic fundamentalists would not have been caught dead watching “Air Force One.”

Second, violence predates Hollywood by thousands and thousands of years. You never saw participants of the Crusades or knights in shining armor during Medieval times helping themselves to a Bruce Willis marathon and a bucket of buttered popcorn.

“Horrible people [like the terrorists] have amazing imaginations,” Dean Devlin, producer of “Godzilla” and “Independence Day,” told the Associated Press in response to Altman’s remarks.

Altman’s suggestions are that Hollywood stop producing violent movies.

“Maybe there’s a chance to get back to … grown-up films — anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people,” he said.

There is an obvious flaw in this as well. An increase in popularity of romantic comedies has not shown to correlate to an increase in cute puppy-love affairs among the nation’s youth. Nor has there been a dramatic increase in using apple pie to satisfy sexual urges since the release of “American Pie.”

People just do not mimic everything they see.

“I believe it is a factor,” said Joanne Cantor, communication arts professor emeritus. “It just seems to me the terrorists seemed so driven by their desire to hurt the U.S. that I would be hesitant to blame Hollywood.”

Even if Altman’s claims were merited, there’s not much that could be done to stop it.

The film industry responded to the attacks by pushing back a number of scheduled releases that resembled that type of violence too close for their own taste, but even now this short-term censorship is starting to disappear.

“Studios are going to refrain from making certain kinds of films that might call attention to [the attacks],” Balio said. “But in the long run, Hollywood will continue to experiment with genres that people like to see.”