This is by no means an uncommon response. Many find scenes of social awkwardness excruciating. And my n =1 introspective sample (hey, it worked for Hume!) demonstrates that this response can be especially pronounced in those desensitized to screen violence. Meet the Parents: an excruciating experience.
Why this response? My theory: it's a real event. I can imagine social awkwardness, I've seen it occur, it could happen to me. But Arnold mowing down baddies belongs completely to a world of make-believe.
I like the "real" part of your theory, but whereas you seem to put the emphasis on the situation, I think I'd put it on the characters, and their potential to arouse empathy. Arnold just mows down anonymous (usually foreign) baddies, but you get to know characters like Colonel Brandon and, literally, feel for them.
I find your calling it "social awkwardness" particularly helpful. It makes me realize that what makes Sense and Sensibility so hard to watch is what makes Da Ali G Show so funny: both are using responses to social awkwardness as their emotional base. (That's an interesting place to start considering what humor is.)
I had a harder time watching Lovely and Amazing than just about any other movie I've seen recently. It wasn't because it wasn't good- it was wonderfully written and acted- but it was sheer psychological torture watching every woman in the movie needle each other and screw up their lives. I came out feeling bleak.
Exactly. I haven't seen "Lovely and Amazing," but I see that Catherine Keener is in it. Does anyone deliver the withering line better than she does?