Or the cartoon “What’s Opera, Doc?”
Spoilers for Pay It Forward:
[SPOILER]Case in point, Pay It Forward. Although the film was kinda smarmy, and the main plotline a bit contrived, I still liked it…until the end. Haley Joel Osmet gets killed off, and I went through the roof. Everyone was crying over this “tragic ending”, but I was just fumingly pissed about getting jerked around that that.
“Oh, the tragedy of it…oh, the deep irony of dying while creating this beautiful new utopia…oh, he’s a martyr now”…oh, fuck off. The ending was utter crap. It added nothing to the story, and served only to evoke tears or anger. Don’t get me wrong – creating a film that can cause that kind of reaction is generally a good thing. The problem here is that my anger isn’t directed towards characters, it’s directed towards the filmmakers. This was the one and only film I’ve ever seen that caused me to react that way.
And yes, I have read the book, and I know he dies there too. It’s more of the way his death was presented in the film. It just struck me as mind-bogglingly manipulative.
[/SPOILER]
You should probably skip The Passion of The Christ as well. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hear that the main character doesn’t make it.
Sorry, that probably should have been in a spoiler box.
Of course, you can always wait for the Michael Bay produced sequel Three Days Later: Revenge of The Christ. You’ll see some serious ass-kicking by one pissed off dude who everyone thought was dead.
If you were talking about Hunchback, I was referring to the fact that EVERYONE dies at the end, and the OP said he hates that. 
Ol’Gaffer - “Of course, you can always wait for the Michael Bay produced sequel Three Days Later: Revenge of The Christ. You’ll see some serious ass-kicking by one pissed off dude who everyone thought was dead.”
I can see it now:
Produced by Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer
Directed by Michael Bay
Music by Hans Zimmer
Staring Ben Affleck as Jesus
Kate Beckinsale as Magdalen
Angelina Jolie as Mary
also staring Matt Damon as John the Baptist, Josh Hartnett as Joseph
featuring Robert Duval, Will Patton, Scott Cahn, Jake Busy, Seth Green, Barry Peper and Giovanni Ribisi
and Steve Buscemi as Pontius Pilot
gex gex I really recommend you don’t see Hamlet
“How could a story where every character is murdered suck so bad?”
- Bart Simpson
Welcome to Life. It’s a bitch and then…well, you know the rest.
Sometimes it has to happen, sometimes it’s a betrayal. Sometimes it’s neither. Same goes for other
Somebody mentioned His Dark Materials.
[spoiler]The DEATHS in it were the first category. They had to happen. They fulfilled the characters.
The fact that the worlds were cut off from eachother…That was a betrayal. Not just of the characters and the reader’s emotional investment in them, but of the multiverse created - and the reader’s emotional investment in it.[/spoiler]
I got distracted before finishing this thought. Heh.
‘Same goes for other sad endings.’
xtisme,
heh it’s pretty obvious that Robert Jordan can’t even kill off the villains without bringing them back to life plus there’sthe dreams that STRONGLY suggest Rand is going to fake his own death at some point what better time then after the last battle that everyone expects him to die in anyway?
As for the OP it depends on how it’s presented.
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Emotional manipulation: typically used in sob stories to add an emotional pay off that the rest of the film didn’t earn. (Pay it Forward someone has mentioned) I hate this I can spot it a mile away so I spend most of the movie rolling my eyes at it.
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Out of the Blue: typically indie type movies where someone dies just to show how subversive and different from main stream movies. These can be good or bad depending on how they are done. Deep Blue was great at this. Made that terrible movie nearly watchable.
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The point of the whole freaking story. You know a person is going to die from cancer/whatever and the whole movie is about their journey. Typically I hate these types. American Beauty was well done though.
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Nobel sacrifice. When on character sacrifices themselves for the group. This is the one that always gets me even if I see it comming. Iron Giant is the best (worst?) at this.
I’m probably the only way that feels this way, but in the book at least, I felt it was appropriate that the main character died at the end. As many times as he was shot and apparently dead kept coming back from the brink, I felt like it would have been cheap to do it once again. Granted, this is a problem with the writing of the book, and all those near-death experiences shouldn’t have been in the book in the first place, but given that the were, I felt death was appropriate. I was going to be upset if he had survived yet again.
I guess because I’d rather see a character die then die and then be ressurected(or make you think they are dead and then suddenly “I’m not really dead”), for the most part.
I believe the movie was trying to make the point that the amount of time spent together doesn’t matter as compared to feelings for each other, though I can’t remember if the book was trying to make the same point.
I don’t know how to do the spoiler thing so if you haven’t seen cold mountain yet but want too, stop reading now.
As I said, HPL, I didn’t read the book. In the movie my problem was the final duel was so pointless and stupid. The main bad guys (who’s names escape me atm) were already dead. The little shit running away was no threat by himself. He was going to run away never to return. The war was over essentially. There was no reason for the main character to confront him or to force a duel between them. Revenge? Thats just lame as he wasn’t even the leader. Because he thought the guy was a future threat? Again, lame…no way that little shit in the movie at least was a future threat, especially with the war over, his leader dead, and any authority gone. It was just so stupid IMO. Sounds like maybe in the book at least that it WAS appropriate, but I didn’t get that sense from the movie at least.
Darkhold, I agree that this MIGHT happen, but I really think that Jordan is going to kill Rand off…after he sires children in his 3 ‘wives’ of course. When I first started the series it seemed so grand a story, but its really dragging atm…he just doesn’t seem to be advancing the story very well. Still, as far as the OP goes, I won’t be too disappointed if Rand DOES snuff it in the end, as I’m kind of expecting it. I’ll be a bit more bummed for some of the other characters though if they do.
-XT
If it’s appropriate and in context, I don’t have a problem with it. I’d prefer a character die then see a Deus Ex Machina. I dislike killing off a character just for cheap emotional sentiment, though.
I actually don’t mind so much if a character dies in the middle, and in some cases, like TV shows, I’d perfer they did it more often(CoughStartrekCough), because otherwise dangerous situations don’t have much impact if you know damn well that all the main characters are always going to survive. To know that any character could die at any moment makes things much more interesting.
It worked well in King Kong.
I cried for weeks after I saw Sidehackers.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
What I got from this movie was that Inman had to track down and somehow stop the other character from reaching the town because if he didn’t, the little shit would turn the women in for harboring Confederate deserters, and we all know what happens to folks who do that, as it was illustrated quite graphically when the neighbors were killed and tortured, to draw out the sons, who were also killed. And Inman was himself a deserter. I didn’t think the war was over by that point – I can’t really remember any of the dates (in the film, not the Civil War).
Regarding the OP, I admit I’m annoyed when this happens, but sometimes, it’s fitting. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is one book that made me really angry because a fairly major character snuffs it (sort of). I think it’s that once we get involved in someone’s life, even in works of fiction, we expect that person to stick around until we don’t need them anymore. For some people/characters, that’s forever.
Hahaha…I’m the same way, especially with smarmy teen idols. My favorite deaths include My Girl, The Ice Storm, Steel Magnolias, and the aforementioned Pay it Forward (though the latter was a tad manipulative.) I especially like it when the main character dies suddenly and unexpectedly, without any last words or drawn-out emotions. (To Live and Die in L.A. was especially good in this regard.)
The one thing I hate hate hate HATE the most is the twist when you think the character’s dead, then he/she suddenly turns out to be alive – E.T., anyone?
It really depends on how it’s presented… like Tengu said sometimes it has to happen and sometimes it’s a betrayal.
Like say… MasterHarper Robinton… when he dies in All the Weyrs of Pern I cried… but it was appropriate. It was his time (after all Robinton was an old man with a bad heart) and really it fit with the book.
Pay It Forward I saw on the last day of summer school… I stayed cuz I wanted to see the ending despite us being let out. It cried like mad and just got so bloody pissed off at it.
A Walk To Remember pissed me off too. ALL the previews made it out to be a bad boy/good girl redemption story and implied happily ever after. Halfway through they make it OBVIOUS it wasn’t going to be that. I first watched it on video and I kicked my boyfriend out of my bedroom where we were watching the movie, turned off the tape and sat and cried. Then I watched the rest by myself and cried my eyes out because I started it so I wanted to finish it. It was sappy and reminded me so much of the books I used to find in my private Christian school about God and life and such. In fact I may have read the book and blanked it out because of how the story went.
City of Angels was similar only it wasn’t as bad at Walk.
Oh and His Dark Material’s series… the ending was so sad and pissed me off at the same time too. I mean it makes sense with how he set everything up… but STILL.
I haven’t seen it for 10 years and really don’t have the notaligia that most people do for it, but it didn’t bug me so much. I guess because it was pretty much a childern’s movie mixed with the christ story so it didn’t matter so much.
THough I agree that it bugs the hell out of me more the most part. It worked well enough in the Matrix because of the Premise, but I can’t think of numerous examples where it pissed me off quite a bit.
Anyone ever play the SNES game “Final Fantasy II(J IV)”? I liked the game, but I still got really pissed off by the fact they pulled this stunt I don’t know how many times with different characters, which really robbed “sacrifices” of any meaning because I knew I’d find all of them alive again eventually. Probably the most blantent example of betrayel I’ve ever seen(and despite that, its still one of my favorite FF games. I must be insane).
er, make that “I CAN think of numerous…”
Also, I know the movie **dungeons and dragons ** really sucked, though they pulled this as well. There was an annoying theif in the movie, possibly one of the wayans bros, who at one point gets killed. One of the better moves on the part of the movie, I felt(for several reasons). Of course, at the end, the thief if brought back, rendering any sacifice moot.
Also the movie **Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club **, which was pretty bad as well(though did have one or two amusing parts), at the end one of the characters is killed. There is a huge funeral which is rather sad, and just before the movie ends, some magic yellow black weathervane man brings said person back to life, completely negating the emotional outpouring just 5 minutes earlier so there can be a sappy ending.
Where’s the puke smiley?
I thought that’s what was going on in the book, though I wasn’t sure. I know the war was still going on though(the book takes place in late '64, early '65.