Depressing Movies

[LiddyRules]

Inspired by the Magnolia Thread, what are some of your "favorite" depressing movies? The movies that after you watch it, you just end up sitting in darkness for hours.

Leaving Las Vegas.
Magnolia
Requiem for a Dream

Mullholland Drive also was a downer.

[Mike Teacher]

wow that is such an ESP moment I was about to do exactly the same but not sure if its been done.

Nice.

Gotta go make my list. But for starters, I once took a first date to see The Elephant Man.

Bad move.

[burrben]

two that first come to mind is 2004's "closer" and ingmar bergman's "cries and whispers"

[MellySmelly]

The Hours
Sophies Choice
Boyz In the Hood

[Fat_Sunny]

It Might Have Been A Made-For-TV Movie, And It Comes On Very Rarely, But SYBIL With Sally Field Puts F_S Into A Funk.

[Kevin]

Any movie set in the future depresses me.. All the technology and stuff they have is so cool.. I then see the shit that we have compared to that.. And it depresses me..

[LiddyRules]

two that first come to mind is 2004's "closer" and ingmar bergman's "cries and whispers" I can't believe I forgot Bergman films. Through a Glass Darkly. Winter Light.

Orson Welles' "The Trial." But it's based on the Kafka novel so of course it's depressing. Great movie though. Great novel too.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The Fountain.

That scene in Wall Street where the guy loses all his money. [/The Critic reference]

[Landblast]

top ten on my all-time but still, Alien depresses me.

[BoondockSaint]

The original Brian's Song.

[Marc with a c]

black hawk down ruined me for two days

[ppanda]

Untamed Heart

Actually one of two movies I cried during.- Funny story.

My gfriend at the time and I were looking for a vid to watch she picked Untamed Heart- I had no desire to watcha "chick-flick" but saw the box and said "OK- I can sit through 2 hours of Marissa Tomei...what a doll"
The two of us are in bed watching it and the end caught me off guard (I am not gonna spoil it for those who havent seen)...I can feel my eyes welling up. I couldnt hold it in... I said to my girl at the end of the scene- "Could you pause this? I have to go to the bathroom"- I got up and balled my eyes out for like ten minutes in the bathroom- aweful

...The second was E.T. but I was also 8 years old at the time and a sensitive lad.


***edit*** I'm surprised Scindlers List didnt come up in like the first three posts

[burrben]

Orson Welles' "The Trial." But it's based on the Kafka novel so of course it's depressing. Great movie though. Great novel too.



one of my top ten films

[ppanda]

top ten on my all-time but still, Alien depresses me.

That's a first..Alien is my favorite movie...but I've never heard anyone saying its depressing. I am curious as to why you feel that way.

[bigredd]

Where the Red Fern Grows. Holy shit. I haven't seen it in years and it may be hokey but I remember it being sad.

[ppanda]

Any movie set in the future depresses me.. All the technology and stuff they have is so cool.. I then see the shit that we have compared to that.. And it depresses me..

Kevin- I think you have an awesome point- and a perfect example would be Blade Runner- no happy ending there.

[FUNKMAN]

Angela's Ashes
Dolores Claiborne

[pennington]

"Forrest Gump" depresses me, at least the first half. The other kids mock and torture him, his mother has to have sex with the principal to get him into a regular school and his little girlfriend (I forget her name) is being molested or something by her father.

The movie turns around by the end, showing what a positive effect he has on everyone's life. But still...

[ppanda]

[QUOTE=pennington;1361342and his little girlfriend (I forget her name) is being molested or something by her father.

[/QUOTE]

C'mon budday...It's Jenny....you must have had a brain fart.

"RUN FORREST....RUUUUN!!!!"

[Landblast]

top ten on my all-time but still, Alien depresses me.

That's a first..Alien is my favorite movie...but I've never heard anyone saying its depressing. I am curious as to why you feel that way.

yeah, weird huh? don't get me wrong ppanda, i think it is a MASTERPIECE, and i'll watch it any day of the week, but for me personally it's the feeling of isolation/resulting in impending death type thing. I don't personally do that well with isolation in life so it strikes a chord. That tone is set so well by Scott, for me it's a testimony of how well film is made.

[ppanda]

yeah, weird huh? don't get me wrong ppanda, i think it is a MASTERPIECE, and i'll watch it any day of the week, but for me personally it's the feeling of isolation/resulting in impending death type thing. I don't personally do that well with isolation in life so it strikes a chord. That tone is set so well by Scott, for me it's a testimony of how well film is made.

AHHHHH- OK- that makes sense. I totally hear ya with the isolation thing- and thats really what made it scary- No population- and the 7 people being picked off one by one.

Now I get it.

[IMSlacker]

The most depressing movie in my recent memory is The Virgin Suicides.

[Bay Ridge Tim]

The Bicycle Thief makes me want to dig a ditch and throw myself in it.

[sailor]

wow that is such an ESP moment I was about to do exactly the same but not sure if its been done.

Nice.

Gotta go make my list. But for starters, I once took a first date to see The Elephant Man.

Bad move.

went to see life is beautiful on a first date. had no clue what it was about. depressing movie, but didn't ruin the date. i find it way more depressing that the antiseptic schindler's list, which everyone loves.

[Leticia]

Hiya.. yay my thread inspired a thread! lol

There was this movie called underground? Not the party movie.. it was a forieign movie were a village of people live underground after world war II(or I) and they live there for years before they find out one of the main people is a traiter and has known that there was life outside the whole time...


It's like a 3 hour movie...and A LOT of people die... and a lot of people become traitors... and it ends in suicide.


I can't remember all the details of this movie cause it was so long and I haven't seen it in a really long time.

But it was fucking depressing.

[Stankfoot]

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a350/stankfoot/pennies.jpg

[jennysmurf]

lady jane=gut wrenching sobs. i'm still not able to laugh the way i once could. i'll never be the same. never

[mildly amusing]

http://www.impawards.com/1991/posters/rush.jpg
always gets me in the mood to drink jack daniels...

[WhistlePig]

I agree with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Also:

The Sweet Hereafter

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Life is Beautiful

The Last Picture Show

[FUNKMAN]

http://www.cineclub.de/images/2004/04/monster-p.jpg

[Recyclerz]

The River's Edge was something less than a hoot.

[El Mudo]

http://www.filmposters.it/imgposter/grandi/million-dollar-baby.jpg

[waltermitty]

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/most_substance/Posters/LeavingLasVegas.jpg

[boonanas]

The concept of Idiocracy is extremely depressing, too bad the movie itself was terrible.

[FUNKMAN]

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/514GNJP58EL._SS500_.jpg

[Mike Teacher]

Jack Lemmon in 'Glengary Glenross' performance is at once superb acting [the best of an amazing ensemble] and so uber-depressing if you've done Any sales whatsoever; you know That Guy, his whole life is sales, and his sales suck.

Those rainy phonebooth shots as he spins the lies... sigh...

=

I can understand the 'Alien' thing a bit; Scott said he was going for the antithesis of the standard space movie; he wanted 'Truckers in Space' regular people who are dirty, tired, and just wanna get home. No 50s archetype earnest enthusiastic scientists in immaculate garb. No beautiful ship; he wanted function, not form. Scott wanted the ship to look lived in; so lived in some horror people call Alien a Gothic Haunted House Story, which really nails it when you think about it.

=

American Beauty was pretty depressing for the time. American History X too. To Kill a Mockingbird, when Atticus gets the news. Great Santini, the whole damn thing. Deer Hunter? I need to prepare myself.

And if your father has passed away, do not see 'Big Fish'. Youve been warned.

[Knowledged_one]

I would have to say Remember the Titans - I watch the movie right up to the point of the kid getting paralyzed then turn it off, that is to much for me

Boyz in the Hood is another one that is sad

Menace II Society also

[Yerdaddy]

Somebody said The Bicycle Thief.
The Best Years of Their Lives
The 400 Blows
Come and See - Russian movie = 2 1/2 hours of the horrors of war happening to a teenage kid. Ugh. Great movie but leaves you hating everybody.
Happiness
Love Liza
Owning Mahoney
The Lost Weekend
Trees Lounge - one of my favorite movies of all time!
The War Zone - Tim Roth's directoral debut with the great Ray Winstone banging his hot teenage daughter.
Nil By Mouth - Gary Oldman's directoral debut with the great Ray Winstone beating the living shit out of his entire family.

Notes: I never found Cuckoo's Nest or Live is Beautiful to be depressing. Tragic and sad? Absolutely. But Life Is Beautiful I find inspring in the end. He won.

But I see your point, and on the same level - of man vs. world/himself = man loses - I think you have to include some other greats that are tragic but don't depress me but maybe they should:

Cool Hand Luke
The Hustler
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Apocalypse Now
Seven Samurai
Taxi Driver

But it's the movies based on real tragedies that get me in a big way:
The Killing Fields

Hotel Rwanda
Shindler's List
Children of God
From Justin to Kelly
Black Hawk Down

Then there are the depressing movies with the happy endings that fucked me up because the loser I identify with through the whole movie gets the girl in the end - and that just reminds me that I never do:

Punch Drunk Love
The Apartment

These two fucked me up as much as the Killing Fields. I'm pathetic.

But I love every movie on this list except one. When I'm depressed - which was most of my life until the last couple years ago - I don't want to see some Walt Disney/Ron Howard feel-good and cheer-me-up piece of monkey shit. I want to see something depressing because it reminds me I'm not alone, and it reminds me that sadness is human and - like a Miles Davis piece - can be beautiful. So, with the exception of the last two, the rest of these movies are exactly what I would choose as therapy when I was depressed.

[A.J.]

From Justin to Kelly

That cracked me up.

When I was in Riyadh, we had a little store with a decent supply of DVDs to rent. I'll never forget some woman actually asking if they had that movie. And they did!

[Yerdaddy]

That cracked me up.

When I was in Riyadh, we had a little store with a decent supply of DVDs to rent. I'll never forget some woman actually asking if they had that movie. And they did!

They always do. And how about the music Arabs love? One of my teachers in Yemen's mobile rang in class once to the tune of: "At first I was afraid; I was petrified..." It's always that or Nancy Ajram. So gay.

[A.J.]

They always do. And how about the music Arabs love? One of my teachers in Yemen's mobile rang in class once to the tune of: "At first I was afraid; I was petrified..." It's always that or Nancy Ajram. So gay.

The best was the Saudi whose ringtone was a Christmas carol (I can't remember exactly which one).

Everytime his phone rings, an infidel gets his wings!

[Ritalin]

Somebody said The Bicycle Thief.
The Best Years of Their Lives
The 400 Blows
Come and See - Russian movie = 2 1/2 hours of the horrors of war happening to a teenage kid. Ugh. Great movie but leaves you hating everybody.
Happiness
Love Liza
Owning Mahoney
The Lost Weekend
Trees Lounge - one of my favorite movies of all time!
The War Zone - Tim Roth's directoral debut with the great Ray Winstone banging his hot teenage daughter.
Nil By Mouth - Gary Oldman's directoral debut with the great Ray Winstone beating the living shit out of his entire family.

Notes: I never found Cuckoo's Nest or Live is Beautiful to be depressing. Tragic and sad? Absolutely. But Life Is Beautiful I find inspring in the end. He won.

But I see your point, and on the same level - of man vs. world/himself = man loses - I think you have to include some other greats that are tragic but don't depress me but maybe they should:

Cool Hand Luke
The Hustler
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Apocalypse Now
Seven Samurai
Taxi Driver

But it's the movies based on real tragedies that get me in a big way:
The Killing Fields

Hotel Rwanda
Shindler's List
Children of God
From Justin to Kelly
Black Hawk Down

Then there are the depressing movies with the happy endings that fucked me up because the loser I identify with through the whole movie gets the girl in the end - and that just reminds me that I never do:

Punch Drunk Love
The Apartment

These two fucked me up as much as the Killing Fields. I'm pathetic.

But I love every movie on this list except one. When I'm depressed - which was most of my life until the last couple years ago - I don't want to see some Walt Disney/Ron Howard feel-good and cheer-me-up piece of monkey shit. I want to see something depressing because it reminds me I'm not alone, and it reminds me that sadness is human and - like a Miles Davis piece - can be beautiful. So, with the exception of the last two, the rest of these movies are exactly what I would choose as therapy when I was depressed.

This is the second time this month that I've brought up Love Liza in a thread, and even that freaks me out a little. It was the most depressing movie I've ever seen. Even the actual cinematic technique served to depress me. Much like you watch "Jacob's Ladder" and feel like you're on acid, watching "Love Liza" makes you feel like a cutting your arms with an exacto knife.

Holy shit is that film freaky.

[JackStraw]

The Sweet Hereafter

-wish I never saw it...too sad...

[riverofpiss]

Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" is my choice over all others. If you are way too happy then watch this and watch the glee melt away.