I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned 12 monkeys yet! That’s probably the worst movie I’ve seen for bummer endings.
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At the end of the movie the main character gets stuck in a paradox of suffering for what is inferred as eternity. I mean, how can you get more depressing?
Haven’t seen it, but I hear 8MM was a little bit of a downer.
Speaking of Terry Gilliam, hows about that Brazil?
spoilers
I agree that American Beauty didn’t at all depress me, it inspired me a little. Lester died completely content with his life. His final “test” I guess was sleeping with the girl who sparked Lester’s rebellion. Plus it shows the afterlife as a pleasant place to reflect all the wonderful things we’ve experienced when we were alive. Ricky even points out how beautiful things that are are dead or dyeing can be.
Most Depressing movie I’VE ever seen was …“Happiness”…, the movie “Seven” was just… morbid! “Seven” really depressed me too.
I believe you meant Triumph of the Spirit. But, rest assured, Triumph of the Will is depressing on so many levels, too.
But as for the most depressing movie of all time, I gotta agree with Johnny LA. You can’t get worse than Johnny Got His Gun. This thing is a quality work, but still, utterly hopeless.
I’m going watch American Beauty again tomorrow. Like I said, I’ve only seen it once, right after it came out on video. I definitely remember liking it, though. I must have been assuming “main character is shot in the head = depressing”.
Schindler’s List: “Why” has been covered.
Safehouse: Patrick Stewart plays a former sercet agent who develops Alzheimer’s.
Dangerous Liasons: Deception, duels, realizations that come far too late, and death.
Princess Mononoke: The spirits clash with humans and fare rather poorly. (“mononoke” means sprit by the way)
BRAZIL!!!
SPOILER…
Sure he’s happy but that is only because he’s trapped in his head and any sanity left in him is gone.
Then again the world he lived in was so depressing maybe it is a happy ending… not as happy as the version the producers tried to foist on the public though.
Dangerous Liasons - neither main character (I believe the two main characters were played by John Malkovich and Glen Close) had a single redeeming quality.
I left the theater sick to my stomach.
That had never happened before, nor has it happened since.
DL = bleeeecccccchhhhhhh.
Fat City—Stacy Keach as a struggling, over the hill boxer. It’s a great movie, but the sad and pathetic lives of most of the characters will drag down anyone.
Corky—Robert Blake as an aspiring race car driver. You could call it a character study, so you know what that means…a downer. The commercials made it look like a typical 1970s car chase movie, stupid but fun. It wasn’t. This flick put me in a funk for a week. Everytime I’d want to laugh at something, that damn theme song and scenes from the movie would play in my head and kill a good mood. BTW, if anyone still cares about the Robert Blake murder situation, watch this film.
Do yourself a huge favor and purge the movie from your mind. When you read the book the movie was very loosely based on, A Prayer For Owen Meany, you’ll see why Irving took his name off the project.
Also, ditto for 12 Monkeys.
I’ll add The World According To Garp.
Oh, cool. I guess I missed the “favorites” thing; sorry about that. Anyway, given this new info, you should definitely check out The Ice Storm.
em i think you’ll find someone did.
Talking of meaningless accidental deaths at the end of films, one of Ingmar Bergman’s films ends with a boyfriend falling on some rocks next to the sea. I can’t remember its name, but I think Bergman films in general probably provide a rich seam for this thread.
Sophie’s Choice
I second The Professional. That movie depressed me so much that it’s the only movie I refuse to see a second time. I just don’t think I could take it. Unfortunately, the song playing at the end of the movie is Sting’s “Shape of My Heart”, which is also on my favorite album. So everytime I listen to that album, I am reminded of that very depressing movie.
“Testament” with Jane Alexander. Woman watches her family die slowly of radiation after a (off screen) nuclear attack. Pretty much everyone is a goner in this one. Husband leaves many phone messages that he’s on his way home from work, but never shows. Mom has to bury her kids. Yeesh!
What you said. I can’t even think about the Pachibel Canon without thinking of that movie. I feel the same way about nearly all post-apocalyptic or dystopic themes. Strangely, however, I really enjoyed The Stand and didn’t find it depressing at all. That’s probably because they started to get their technology going again.
Breaking the Waves was critically acclaimed and “challenging.” It was awful, of course. But the ending was O.K. – it didn’t justify (for me) the rest of the film.
“The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea” – another sick gothic ending. Even worse, I’d read the Yuko Mishima novel, so I knew what lay ahead. [mitigating factor – SPOILER ALERT – Kris Kristofferson was doomed to a ghastly death!]
I’ve never seen the screen adaptation of “Tobacco Road” – but my, that can’t be pretty.
“The Collector”
“Summer of Sam” was pretty much an all-around bummer, too.
I found The Stand depressing, in that it wasted 8 hours of my life with its horrible, putrescent, bloated excuse for a screenplay.