Depressing movies

Hm. I didn’t find some of the films listed here depressing. AI was depressing because it kept going on for 45 minutes after the ending. Had it ended underwater, it would have been a great downbeat ending.

Breaker Morant was sad for the guys involved, but I didn’t find it depressing at all. Ditto Gallipoli.

Cast Away was only depressing because it was so boring.

Of Mice and Men depressing? Not at all! It’s a wonderful film. (I haven’t seen the remake.)

I think there’s a difference between “downbeat” and “depressing”. I think “downbeat” leaves the viewer with a feeling of empathy for the characters, while “depressing” leaves the viewer just feeling bad. (Not that that makes them bad films. There are very good depressing films, such as Johnny Got His Gun.)

Another good, but depressing, film to add to the list: Zentropa.

On the Beach.

Breaking the Waves
Angel Baby (the aussie film)

For depressing, you have to go to Ingmar Bergman. Try *Virgin Spring * to put you in a dark, depressed mood.

A couple of weeks ago I rented both The House of Sand and Fog and My Life Without Me on the same day. Both are pretty damned bleak, although I can see some people as seeing MLWM as semi-optimistic.

If I want movies guaranteed to make me cry:

Life is Beautiful
The Color Purple
A Patch of Blue

Run them back to back and I’m just useless for the next week and a half.

JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN was the first to come to mind.

1984 (the John Hurt version)

maybe ERASERHEAD

OF MICE AND MEN definitely (the original, have not seen the Sinise-Malkovich remake yet, have seen the TV Robert Blake-Randy Quaid version & it’s OK, but the Burgess Meredith-Lon Chaney Jr original MUST be seen first)

MOTHER NIGHT, not to be confused with 'Night Mother. MN is by Vonnegut, stars Nick Nolte, Alan Arkin & Sheryl “Twin Peaks” Lee- and is about Howard W. Campbell Jr., a US playwright turned Nazi radio propagandist but is actually a double agent for the Allies. “We must be careful what we pretend to be because what we pretend to be is what we become.”

Dogville and House of Sand and Fog are real contenders, but the bleakest thing I’ve seen lately is Songs from the Second Floor.

I see your Gummo and I raise you Heavy followed by Happiness, perhaps the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen.

Whatcha got?

::Eyes other Dopers over cards::

Thir13en Ghosts and Event Horizon were pretty bad…

For that matter, most horror movies I find depressing, and not scary.

Crumb

Another depressing movie featuring Ben Kingsley (since at least a couple have shown up already) Death and the Maiden directed by Roman Polanski with a very close adaptation of the Ariel Dorfman play.

I don’t remember that movie as being particularly despressing, but I’m sick and twisted. For instance, while most would consider Closet Land depressing, I found it somewhat erotic.

What Dreams May Come
Oh, wait. Never mind. You said you wanted a good movie.

About Schmidt w/ Jack Nicholson is the most depressing I’ve seen in a long time.

Sophie’s Choice

Threads, British 1980s TV drama (very similar to the US “Day After Tomorrow”), charting the effect of nuclear war in the short- and long-term.

[url=http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0090315/]When The Wind Blows[/url, ditto, but animated, by the same chap that did “The Snowman”.

Both are ultra-bleak end-of-the-world movies, in very different styles.

Two other worthy candidates to add to the list:

Exotica
The Sweet Hereafter

That was a good one. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

I just watched this a few days ago. I saw it as basically hopeful, but maybe I didn’t get it. Everyone was perfect in that movie.

Another depressing but hopeful movie I just watched is Big Bad Love. Have tissues handy.