The title pretty much says it all. What dramatic depictions of death or ritualized grieving most affected you? I’m not looking for comic depictions, like the infamous “I love my dead gay son” from Heathers; I’d prefer moments that were played “straight,” as it were.
My personal top five, in no particular order
Spock’s death in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Two reasons here. First, it doesn’t pussyfoot around with the fact that Spock is so grieveously, disfiguringingly wounded that even simple talking is horrendously painful; I hate death scenes that are done all pretty-pretty. Second, this is probably the last time in William Shatner’s career that he underplayed a scene.
The surviving companions grieve for Gandalf in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf’s death should have come as a surprise to me because, though I’d read The Hobbit and seen the Rankin-Bass cartoon, I’d never actually made it through the book. But I could tell that he had to be removed from the scene, plot-wise, because he was a crutch for Frodo and Aragorn and had to be removed so they could stand on their own. That said, the simple, wordless, quiet grieving on the slopes of the Misty Mountains was simply beautiful.
Boromir’s death in the same movie. This one I didn’t see coming nearly as clearly. It affects me because Boromir was the most-clearly-drawn of the Fellowship (after Frodo, anyway), and I was both appalled by his betrayal of the Bearer and completely understanding why he did it. The fact that he so quickly recognized the depth of his transgression and immediately set out to atone for it–along with his valiant, hopeless battle against the Uruk-Hai–made me love him again. And his deathbed confession to Aragorn, begging him to save Minas Tirith from Sauron, is just wonderful.
George’s wake in Aspects of Love. Probably the least-well known entry on my list, this is from the only Andrew Lloyd Webber musical worth watching since Evita. The song his best friend/mistress sings in honor of George:
is what I’d like sung at my funeral. Hopefully, like George, I’ll have not one but two hot babes mourning me at the same time.
Tasha Yar’s death and memorial service in ST:TNG “Skin of Evil” **
I’m in the minority here, I know, in that I preferred Tasha’s “redshirt” death to the later one where she consciously sacrifices herself to fix the time stream. Either way she died doing her duty, thinking about the safety of others; and in the impotent rage the bridge crew showed at the briefing immediately afterwards–along with Picard & Data’s quiet exchange at the memorial service afterward–put the lie to any notion that her death was meaningless.
Next?