I didn’t state what I’m up to in the thread title as it may be considered somewhat spoilerish. As spoliers go, I think it’s a small one; you can decide if you want to proceed.
I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button over the weekend. One thing that I did find truly curious was that the film spans the entire life of the main character. That is, we the audience are present at both the character’s birth and his death.Off the top of my head I couldn’t think of any other movies that do this, though I’m sure there are many. What are some?
I thought about this one, though if one wanted to be pedantic about it, we don’t actually witness his death. It can be safely assumed he’s about to die, but as the copter flies off he is still alive in that moment.
**Bicentennial Man
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a lot of movies take us almost, but not quite, from one end to the other. I suspect a lot of fiolms don’t want to include deaths, so as to leave us at an upbeat moment. But we get most of the lives in:
In Modigliani with Andy Garcia, the title character’s birth and death are depicted, but it is a little confusing because the child Modigliani follows the adult Modigliani around and they converse with each other throughout the movie. The child acts as the conscience of the adult and is present at the birth scene… Like I said, it is confusing. But you do see Mogi’s entire life from birth to death.
Hugo Danner’s alpha and omega were described in Philip Wylie’s book Gladiator. Unfortunately, the adaptation–a football comedy starring Joe E. Brown–bore little resemblance to the source and featured neither.
According to Wikipedia, all of John Irving’s novels (and presumably their adaptations) span a main character’s life. Simon Birch (A Prayer for Owen Meany) features his birth and death. I haven’t seen or read Cider House Rules or Hotel New Hampshire, but these may have such elements as well.