OT: Most Depressing Movie | The Boneyard

OT: Most Depressing Movie

B1GEast

B1GEast

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Brutal movie, do not ever want to see it again.

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Hollywood critics seem to love movies about people w/ alcohol or substance abuse problems, or some kind of psychological/mental health issues, that hit absolute rock bottom, and then supposedly have a redemption arc. Except the redemption doesn't really start until the movie is ending. Not fun to watch. I've gotten suckered into several of those: Crazy Heart, The Wrestler, Flight. I've got to learn to ignore critical acclaim and quit watching those types of movies. All very depressing.
 
Anything about systemic genocide/ethnic cleansing/people's brutality against other people just for being different: Schindler's List, Hotel Rwanda, Welcome to Sarajevo, Before the Rain, et. al.

Depressing as hell because these atrocities are not someone's imagination. They actually happened/are happening still. Humans are capable of heinous acts in the name of "righteousness" of their religion/politics. And it's something that's not going away regardless of how often we're reminded of past atrocities.
 
Pretty sure we've done this thread before. My entry is Million Dollar Baby with Hillary Swank and Clint Eastwood. I literally stared at the screen thinking WTF just happened? Good movie but just a bit of downer.
 
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Generally don't find depressing movies to be entertaining, but one that was great throughout until the last 10 minutes was Alpha Dog. It just affected me very negatively for about a week after I saw it. Especially since I really liked Outside Providence and I finally saw Alpha Dog as I was watching Southland.

Two others are Johnny Got His Gun (Excerpts in the Metallica video, "One.") and Into the Wild.
 
storrsroars said:
Anything about systemic genocide/ethnic cleansing/people's brutality against other people just for being different: Schindler's List, Hotel Rwanda, Welcome to Sarajevo, Before the Rain, et. al.
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The Promise. I wasn't aware of it prior to watching the film, there was an ethnic cleansing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish Empire during WWI.
 
Days of Wine and Roses, starring Jack Lemmon. Bleak look at married couple and their descent into alcoholism.
 
nwhoopfan said:
The Promise. I wasn't aware of it prior to watching the film, there was an ethnic cleansing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish Empire during WWI.
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The whole world forgot about the Armenians. Even Hitler referred to the genocide assuring his generals that no one would care, just like no one cared about Armenians.
 
B1GEast said:
The whole world forgot about the Armenians. Even Hitler referred to the genocide assuring his generals that no one would care, just like no one cared about Armenians.
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While the modern day country of Turkey is not the same thing as the Ottoman Empire, to this day the government has never officially recognized or admitted that the genocide occurred.
 
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Husky25 said:
Generally don't find depressing movies to be entertaining, but one that was great throughout until the last 10 minutes was Alpha Dog. It just affected me very negatively for about a week after I saw it. Especially since I really liked Outside Providence and I finally saw Alpha Dog as I was watching Southland.

Two others are Johnny Got His Gun (Excerpts in the Metallica video, "One.") and Into the Wild.
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Into the Wild is far more up beat as a movie than a book. The book, fwiw, gives a much better insight in "Alex Supertramp" his motivations and thought process.
 
CL82 said:
Into the Wild is far more up beat as a movie than a book. The book, fwiw, gives a much better insight in "Alex Supertramp" his motivations and thought process.
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I've never watched the movie for fear of the Sean Penn treatment. The book, IMO, portrayed Alex as a naive idealistic schlub. Nothing heroic about him. Just a garden variety idiot who died a stupid unnecessary death. From all I've heard, the movie tried to add some heroism and meaning to his life - the only good outcome of which might be to lead other useless morons into the woods to improve the overall gene pool.
 
storrsroars said:
I've never watched the movie for fear of the Sean Penn treatment. The book, IMO, portrayed Alex as a naive idealistic schlub. Nothing heroic about him. Just a garden variety idiot who died a stupid unnecessary death. From all I've heard, the movie tried to add some heroism and meaning to his life - the only good outcome of which might be to lead other useless morons into the woods to improve the overall gene pool.
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Saw a documentary on "Alexander Supertramp's" life as a whole, and this is exactly how he was portrayed. Apparently he wanted to live off the land for 100 days, but really didn't know what he was doing or how to do it. The movie only partly portrayed this with the rifle scene. The movie also sort of glossed over the alleged double life and abuse at the hands of his father.

"I think it comes down to this, for the most part: Krakauer's book is an examination of McCandless' life and death. Penn's movie is an enthusiastic celebration of it." - Tasha Robinson, 2008

Unlike most depressing movies, I really liked Into The Wild. At the end of the day, I think I was less entertained by it, and more fascinated by it (The great soundtrack by Eddie Vedder no doubt contributes.).
 
storrsroars said:
I've never watched the movie for fear of the Sean Penn treatment. The book, IMO, portrayed Alex as a naive idealistic schlub. Nothing heroic about him. Just a garden variety idiot who died a stupid unnecessary death. From all I've heard, the movie tried to add some heroism and meaning to his life - the only good outcome of which might be to lead other useless morons into the woods to improve the overall gene pool.
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Krakauer is great, I read Into Thin Air like everyone else, but enjoyed Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven even more. Looks like he's had a few new efforts since then, will have to pick those up!
 
Dogdeacon said:
Krakauer is great, I read Into Thin Air like everyone else, but enjoyed Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven even more. Looks like he's had a few new efforts since then, will have to pick those up!
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Now the comparison of Into Thin Air and Everest are very interesting. Makes you wonder where the truth lies.
 
CL82 said:
Now the comparison of Into Thin Air and Everest are very interesting. Makes you wonder where the truth lies.
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There were at least three books out shortly after that incident. I read Krakauer's and the one by the Russian guide. They were different stories in who they credited as heroes and how they accounted for details, but in both cases they blamed the guide leaders for poor prep, not having enough O2 and for caving into their client's wishes to reach the top in changing weather.
 
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storrsroars said:
There were at least three books out shortly after that incident. I read Krakauer's and the one by the Russian guide. They were different stories in who they credited as heroes and how they accounted for details, but in both cases they blamed the guide leaders for poor prep, not having enough O2 and for caving into their client's wishes to reach the top in changing weather.
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If you listen to Malcolm Gladwell's recent Revisionist History podcasts he explores memory and how our memories even of cataclysmic events are only 60% accurate on average 1 year later. When piecing together what happened from various 40%-ish inaccurate and biased accounts it is inevitable that detailed accounts will be different. For me reading Into Thin Air I didn't get a concept of blame or even theme that people made bad decisions (they did, but not entirely without knowledge of risk). To me it was more about the inherent danger, risk-taking mountaineering concepts and perils and how human's behave in such severe conditions and circumstances. There were lessons for sure but I found them more over-arching life in general lessons as opposed to a critical assessment & review to account for each tragic loss.
 
Dogdeacon said:
If you listen to Malcolm Gladwell's recent Revisionist History podcasts he explores memory and how our memories even of cataclysmic events are only 60% accurate on average 1 year later. When piecing together what happened from various 40%-ish inaccurate and biased accounts it is inevitable that detailed accounts will be different. For me reading Into Thin Air I didn't get a concept of blame or even theme that people made bad decisions (they did, but not entirely without knowledge of risk). To me it was more about the inherent danger, risk-taking mountaineering concepts and perils and how human's behave in such severe conditions and circumstances. There were lessons for sure but I found them more over-arching life in general lessons as opposed to a critical assessment & review to account for each tragic loss.
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Same and it was an interesting account of cataclysmic failure. No one error was critical necessarily, but every error combined to contribute to the loss of life. I enjoyed that book.
 
Mano said:
Manchester by the Sea
Requiem for a Dream
Grave of the Fireflies

The movie was pretty good, the book was way better though.
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I know LOL read a book.
 
storrsroars said:
I've never watched the movie for fear of the Sean Penn treatment. The book, IMO, portrayed Alex as a naive idealistic schlub. Nothing heroic about him. Just a garden variety idiot who died a stupid unnecessary death. From all I've heard, the movie tried to add some heroism and meaning to his life - the only good outcome of which might be to lead other useless morons into the woods to improve the overall gene pool.
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I was literally hoping he would die at the end of the movie. And it delivered.
 
dbmill said:
Days of Wine and Roses, starring Jack Lemmon. Bleak look at married couple and their descent into alcoholism.
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Thought of this film too as soon as I saw the title of the thread. Lemon, Charles Bickford, and Lee Remick. Another I would add ...."The Sand Pebbles", great historical film and maybe Steve McQueen's best movie but ultimately an intensely depressing movie.
 
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Husky25 said:
Generally don't find depressing movies to be entertaining, but one that was great throughout until the last 10 minutes was Alpha Dog. It just affected me very negatively for about a week after I saw it. Especially since I really liked Outside Providence and I finally saw Alpha Dog as I was watching Southland.

Two others are Johnny Got His Gun (Excerpts in the Metallica video, "One.") and Into the Wild.
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Alpha Dog is rough.

Brokeback Mountain has a really depressing ending.
 
storrsroars said:
I've never watched the movie for fear of the Sean Penn treatment. The book, IMO, portrayed Alex as a naive idealistic schlub. Nothing heroic about him. Just a garden variety idiot who died a stupid unnecessary death. From all I've heard, the movie tried to add some heroism and meaning to his life - the only good outcome of which might be to lead other useless morons into the woods to improve the overall gene pool.
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You sound like a real sweetheart.
 
Waquoit said:
You sound like a real sweetheart.
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I am! As you're one of the only two people here I'm aware of actually meeting, I could use some positive press, lol. I did share my vodka with you and CoachCap and thought that as guests my friend and I comported ourselves respectfully. I know we cleaned up after ourselves!

But after re-reading my initial comment about Alex, I realized I really don't want others to go into the woods because finding them and removing their carcasses from remote places is a poor use of resources. Maybe that makes me seem harsh, but IMO, acts like Alex's are extremely selfish and egotistical and should not be celebrated at all or excused away by suggesting "naivete".
 
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Some not mentioned:

Irreversible (Disturbing)
Killing Fields (Genocide)
Oslo, August 31st (Addiction/Suicide)
The Human Condition / The Boy In the Striped Pajamas (Prisoners of War)
 
Jay-Bone said:
The Human Condition / The Boy In the Striped Pajamas (Prisoners of War)
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I watched this, and while sad, I can't really call it depressing because I knew how it was going to end about halfway through and I honestly didn't feel too bad about it,
knowing that a Nazi family would suffer.
 
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