# Bleakest movie you have ever seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901 "2013-05-09T16:32:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/241 "2014-01-25T10:23:19Z")
Sorry to respond to a zombie but nobody has mentioned [Winter Light](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Light) It’s brilliant but bleak. Compared to other Bergman films, it makes Fanny & Alexander look like Mary Poppins. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/242 "2014-01-25T14:19:36Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > _Ironweed_. So depressing no one ever even shows it any more. [Ironweed](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093277/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)seconded. Relentlessly bleak. Here’s the plot summary from IMDB: > [@](#): > > “Albany, New York, Halloween, 1938. Francis Phelan and Helen Archer are bums, back in their birth city. She was a singer on the radio, he a major league pitcher. Death surrounds them: she’s sick, a pal has cancer, he digs graves at the cemetery and visits the grave of his infant son whom he dropped; visions of his past haunt him, including ghosts of two men he killed. That night, out drinking, Helen tries to sing at a bar. Next day, Fran visits his wife and children and meets a grandson. He could stay, but decides it’s not for him. Helen gets their things out of storage and finds a hotel. Amidst their mistakes and dereliction, the film explores their code of fairness and loyalty.” I missed the references to fairness and loyalty. I just wanted to lie down on some railroad tracks when it was over. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/243 "2014-02-04T12:12:28Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’ll toss in _Thief_, with James Caan. Usual tale of a top-flight burglar who decides to quit and is blackmailed into one more mega-job by the mob. Great on the technology and technique of vault cracking etc. but utterly depressing final third and outcome. The kind of film you turn off and stare at the black screen and just say, “Shit,” in a low voice. Closely related to Thief is The Gambler - another movie starring James Caan. The man has a huge amount of style but the movie is just devoid of much substance. Interestingly enough, both films were very closely rated on IMDB. One was 7.2 and the other was 7.4. I thought they were very exciting when I first saw them in 1974 and 1981. But watching them again in the current year, they were really both all style over substance. Very disappointing and very bleak. Both films had really nothing to say except that both gambling and stealing are bad. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/244 "2014-02-04T14:21:07Z")
My vote would be for a little seen Robin Williams film called Carpe Diem. Basically ruins the rest of your day. The Parallax View is also particularly bleak. Of Alan J. Pakula’s “Conspiracy Trio” of films it’s the best. But it’s so bleak that it is unlikely to ever be remade. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/245 "2014-02-04T14:43:42Z")
You mean _[Dead Poets Society](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/)_, the 10th most popular film of 1989 with almost $100 million in box office receipts? (Or did I just get woooshed?) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/246 "2014-02-04T15:05:58Z")
A lot of these I deliberately avoid. I’m sure I’ll eventually see Grave of the Fireflies". No way in Hell will I see Salo, A Serbian Tale, or much of Lars Von Triers’ work (tho I did enjoy “The Hospital”). David Lynch amuses & intriques me as much as he disturbs me. I’ll squirm through some of Eraserhead & laugh out loud the next second. Same with Blue Velvet or Wild At Heart. My nomination for the title… “Johnny Got His Gun”. Why is this so rarely known? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/247 "2014-02-04T15:28:22Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > Come and See is one of those movies that just has you transfixed at the end. It’s like Spielberg watched this and said “This gives me somes idea for Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, but let’s tone it down a bit. And not make the Nazis so evil” > > I think I’ll stick with heroic Western Front and non-China Pacific War movies from now on. Go John Wayne! Be sure to start with _In Harms Way_. ---
**Author:** ![Nom\_de\_Plume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/248 "2014-02-04T15:36:32Z")
I would put \*The Paperboy \*up there with Requiem for a Dream as the two bleakest movies I’ve seen. I actually wanted to take a shower after _Paperboy._ ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/249 "2014-02-04T16:08:52Z")
I can’t believe _[21 Grams](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_Grams)_ hasn’t been mentioned. Not a happy moment in the entire movie. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/250 "2014-02-04T16:43:53Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > You mean _[Dead Poets Society](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/)_, the 10th most popular film of 1989 with almost $100 million in box office receipts? > > (Or did I just get woooshed?) You got wooshed. This film:[Seize the Day (1986) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091920/?ref_=nv_sr_1) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/251 "2014-02-04T17:28:35Z")
Wow. Had no idea that film even existed. Bizarre that the title for one of Robin Williams’s films became the (Latinized) catchphrase for another, more successful film of his. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/252 "2014-02-04T17:58:16Z")
> [@tbook](#): > > Winters Bone > [Winter's Bone - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter's_Bone) > > The story was depressing and the setting was dismal. But Jennifer Lawrence’s character succeeds in her quest. That alone is enough to set it apart from some of the more dismal films here. In many of the films in this thread there is no redemption whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/253 "2014-02-04T18:04:37Z")
[Out of the Furnace](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206543/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_6) is a recent entry in this category. And speaking of Casey Affleck films, has anyone mentioned [Gone Baby Gone](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452623/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_9)? I actually kind of like that one, since it has some points to make besides “Life is shit.” It is at least thought-provoking, as compared with some of the films here, which just seem designed to depress the audience for the sake of depressing the audience. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/254 "2014-02-04T18:36:22Z")
The movie Very Bad Things.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very\_Bad\_Things](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Bad_Things) It’s billed as a black comedy; but I was so freaking depressed after seeing it. It’s from 1998 so I’m not going to put anything in spoiler tags. It stars Christian Slater, Jon Favreau, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven and Jeanne Tripplehorn. A group of guys go on a bachelor party and accidentally kill a hooker. Security guard finds out, so they kill him. They cut up those bodies and bury them in the desert. Over the next few days the guys are cracking under the pressure of killing two people. This causes one guy to run over his brother killing him. Worried that the dead man’s widow will now call the police, one of the other groomsmen kill her. The living brother is then murdered to try to make the widows murder look like a love triangle. Geez, only half of the deaths are done; check out the wiki link to try to make sense of the dismal plot. ---
**Author:** ![orderfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orderfire/32/10908_2.png) [@orderfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orderfire)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/255 "2014-02-04T19:08:24Z")
> [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#): > > I would put \*The Paperboy \*up there with Requiem for a Dream as the two bleakest movies I’ve seen. I actually wanted to take a shower after _Paperboy._ God, _thank you_. I couldn’t quite belive I’d almost gotten to page six of this thread and no mention of _The Paperboy_. That made _Last Exit to Brooklyn_ look like the _Sound of Music_. What a miserable tale, I am still trying to forget many of those scenes and characters. I did, however, like _House of Sand and Fog_ and _Magnolia_, despite the mostly downer subject matter. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/256 "2014-02-05T02:35:44Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > [Out of the Furnace](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1206543/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_6) is a recent entry in this category. > > And speaking of Casey Affleck films, has anyone mentioned [Gone Baby Gone](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452623/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_9)? I actually kind of like that one, since it has some points to make besides “Life is shit.” It is at least thought-provoking, as compared with some of the films here, which just seem designed to depress the audience for the sake of depressing the audience. And speaking of Casey Affleck films, has anyone mentioned [Gerry](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_15)? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/257 "2014-02-05T02:41:21Z")
[Short Eyes.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Eyes_%28film%29) I don’t even want to discuss it. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/258 "2014-02-05T09:46:15Z")
Engineer Dude writes: \> Even though it’s been on Comedy Central many times and has a lot of Porky’s-like \> humor, I’d have to say The Last American Virgin. This would be my choice too. It’s strange to choose this, since nobody dies or really is even physically hurt. It appears to be another of those teenage sex comedies that were common in the 1980’s. It came out the same year as _Porky’s_ and _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_. The closest analogy to what happens in this film is to imagine if there was an action film that started with the hero’s wife being killed. The hero spends the rest of the film searching for the villain who killed her. There are the usual successes and failures for the hero as he gets closer and closer to finding the villain. In the final scene, he finds the villain. He pulls out his gun and you think that he’s going to kill the villain. However, the villain pulls out a bigger gun and shoots the hero, walks over and spits in his face, insults him, and shoots him dead. The villain then walks away happy. _The Last American Virgin_ is more depressing than many films with huge body counts because it’s closer to the lives of most of us. We’re probably not going to die in a war, be shot dead on the street, or die of a drug overdose. Those films can be dismissed as too far from our own situation. We’re accustomed to expecting that a film about a teen romance will end at least vaguely happy though. We expect that if we’re a nice person that someone will love us. Well, guess what? They won’t. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/259 "2014-02-05T13:36:24Z")
For everyone citing **Grave of the Fireflies** , you’ve only begun to to scratch the surface of soul-crushingly bleak Japanese movies about the aftermath of WWII. I give you: [Black Rain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Rain_(1989_Japanese_film)) [The Burmese Harp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burmese_Harp_(film)) And, the most bleak of them all, [Fires on the Plain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fires_on_the_Plain_(film)). From a contemporary review of **Fires on the Plain**. “Never have I seen a more grisly and physically repulsive film than ‘Fires on the Plain.’ So purposefully putrid is it, so full of degradation and death… that I doubt if anyone can sit through it without becoming a little bit ill… That’s how horrible it is.” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/260 "2014-02-05T15:45:41Z")
> [@MichaelQReilly](#): > > For everyone citing **Grave of the Fireflies** , you’ve only begun to to scratch the surface of soul-crushingly bleak Japanese movies about the aftermath of WWII. > > I give you: > > [Black Rain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Rain_(1989_Japanese_film)) > > [The Burmese Harp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burmese_Harp_(film)) > > And, the most bleak of them all, [Fires on the Plain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fires_on_the_Plain_(film)). > > From a contemporary review of **Fires on the Plain**. “Never have I seen a more grisly and physically repulsive film than ‘Fires on the Plain.’ So purposefully putrid is it, so full of degradation and death… that I doubt if anyone can sit through it without becoming a little bit ill… That’s how horrible it is.” It would make a fine double-bill with _Come and See_. > [@](#): > > According to Klimov, the film was so shocking for audiences that ambulances were sometimes called in to take away particularly impressionable viewers, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.[5] During one of the after-the-film discussions, an elderly German stood up and said: “I was a soldier of the Wehrmacht; moreover, an officer of the Wehrmacht. I traveled through all of Poland and Belarus, finally reaching Ukraine. I will testify: everything that is told in this film is the truth. And the most frightening and shameful thing for me is that this film will be seen by my children and grandchildren.”[4] Described as " … An impressionist masterpiece and possibly the worst date movie ever." > **[Come and See](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See)** > > Come and See\[a\] is a 1985 Soviet anti-war film directed by Elem Klimov and starring Aleksei Kravchenko and Olga Mironova. Its screenplay, written by Klimov and Ales Adamovich, is based on the 1971 novel Khatyn and the 1977 collection of survivor testimonies I Am from the Fiery Village (Я из огненной деревни, Ya iz ognennoy derevni), of which Adamovich was a co-author. Klimov had to fight eight years of censorship from the Soviet authorities before he was allowed to produce the film The film's p... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=14)