Movies About Death

[hedwig]

here's an example


it offers insights on the effects and implications of death, explores the way human beings attempt to understand it, the way it changes people. death isn't just something that happens to move the plot forward.

another great example is Magnolia.

what are other good movies that deal seriously with death?

[picolas]

why do you ask?

[rustinglass]

the thin red line
death in venice
mar adentro
limelight

though I think these films are as much about life as they are about death, I don't know....

[pete]

my two favorites movie about death would be To Live and Little Dieter Needs to Fly.  They're both about folks who don't question death with anguish like the rest of us, but rather, people who just struggle to get by, hoping that by living they can defeat death.

bleu
george washington
ponnette (which I didn't like)
ordinary people
northfork
shadows of our forgotten ancestors
porco rosso
ghost?
rushmore
crying out love, in the center of the world

[squints]

Interesting thread. While there are a multitude of narrative films that deal with death, this is a french documentary from 1981 called "Des Morts" or Of the Dead that i just watched recently. It shows the way death and funerals are treated in various cultures. Its shows the rituals of certain eastern societies juxtaposed with the way most Americans treat death. What amounts is similar in view to Baraka without the 70mm lense.

[mogwai]

[samsong]

Taste of Cherry

[edison]

Wild Strawberries
Cries and Whispers
The  Seventh Seal
...ah hell, just about any Bergman flick

[modage]

[hedwig]

why do you ask?

i'm obsessed with death, big subject with me. i have a very pessimistic view of life. you should know this about me if we're gonna go out.

[Derek237]

Moonlight Mile. It's a great and wonderful film about dealing with the death of a loved one. What I like about it is the fact that once the movie starts, the dead character has already died, and it focuses more on the family dealing with life without her. Anybody can show the tragic events that lead to a death, and the grief that the other characters feel, but it takes real magic (for lack of a better word), to show what happens once the tears are gone. Life goes on after that, and it was really moving to see how the characters (played by Dustin Hoffman as the father, Susan Surrandon as the mother, and Jake Gylenhall as the dead girl's ex-fiance) continued on with their lives. Some very interesting twists and revelations as well.

And I'm sure The Lovely Bones could make a good addition to this list, too, provided that Peter Jackson doesn't screw the movie up by making it melodramatic and full of slow motion shots and over-the-top music, you know, like every other movie he does.

[modage]

provided that Peter Jackson doesn't screw the movie up by making it melodramatic and full of slow motion shots and over-the-top music, you know, like every other movie he does.

i'm looking at you Dead Alive...

[MacGuffin]

Moonlight Mile. It's a great and wonderful film about dealing with the death of a loved one. What I like about it is the fact that once the movie starts, the dead character has already died, and it focuses more on the family dealing with life without her. Anybody can show the tragic events that lead to a death, and the grief that the other characters feel, but it takes real magic (for lack of a better word), to show what happens once the tears are gone. Life goes on after that, and it was really moving to see how the characters (played by Dustin Hoffman as the father, Susan Surrandon as the mother, and Jake Gylenhall as the dead girl's ex-fiance) continued on with their lives. Some very interesting twists and revelations as well.

That movie was how Brad Silberling dealt with the aftermath of Rebecca Schaeffer's death by an obssessed fan.

[RegularKarate]

provided that Peter Jackson doesn't screw the movie up by making it melodramatic and full of slow motion shots and over-the-top music, you know, like every other movie he does.

i'm looking at you Dead Alive...

and Bad Taste... oh, and Beautiful Creatures... and Forgotten Silver and Meet the Feebles and The Frigh.. oh, you know what... he's just talking about the two movies he's actually seen... I get it.

[Derek237]

Every movie he does, not did.

I loved Brain Dead (or Dead Alive if you prefer), but let's face it. That was a long time ago. What he does now is completely different.  So I don't think you "get it."