"Ken, if I had killed a little kid, accidentally or otherwise, I wouldn't have thought twice. I'd killed myself on the fucking spot. On the fucking spot. I would've stuck the gun in me mouth. On the fucking spot!"
- Harry, In Bruges
I don't actually remember when it was exactly that I discovered this about myself, but I cannot watch films in which children die. And if I do, I tend to like them less for the same reason. Now In Bruges isn't really an exception to the rule as the characters feel the same way as I do.
I guess it must have started when I was a little kid myself and I expected all kids movies to be like Home Alone and Baby's Day Out, in which the child is the father of the man in the sense that he kicks ass of the big bad guys. I cannot recall exactly which film it was that first affected me so; possibly a Bollywood film called Mr. India (who is the only Indian superhero in my opinion) where the death of a girl causes our hero to fight for the good. It was inconceivable that someone so young can be gone just like that. It frightened me then, it frightens me now. Also, things like Child's Play which freaked out the kid in me.
Right now, I was catching up to what I thought was my long-overdue viewing of the Holocaust movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. For those who know me, I quite like Holocaust movies, but for me it is all about the hope that survives. *SPOILERS* So can you imagine having had watched this film almost till the end, only to be told by my friend that the children die?!!!! I mean, how can this be? I literally just sat throughout the film calling darling little Asa Butterfield my imaginary adopted child, and this! I am devastated. Why would they kill the children? In Sophie's Choice, it is all in the past tense, and we never really meet the children. But Asa Butterfield, with his big blue eyes and that way he says "Shmuel"? Ruined, traumatised, forever.
Do you have any strong feelings like this? Will I ever recover? Must see Hugo ASAP!
The original Assault on Precint 13 has a totally unnecessary (except maybe to show these are BAAAAAD men) killing of a kid eating an ice cream.
ReplyDeleteWierdly I just watched the documentary Paradise Lost which had awful real footage of 3 real murdered children which though it was a good doc, was in terrible taste. Bit disgraceful I thought.
My Girl was also a shocker when I was a kid, couldn't believe how that ended!
there are two things that always get to me in movies - when kids die and when animals die. It's their innocence that makes it so heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteBtw I love In Bruges, Fiennes is amazing in this movie.
@Pete- Wow, I do not think I will be watching Paradise Lost anytime soon then.
ReplyDeleteI never watch the ending of My Girl. I know I will go into depression if I see little Macaulay Culkin die. It was sort of okay for him to die in the Good Son as he was seriously evil there, like Chucky mental.
@Sati- I don't watch animal movies generally because I am not a big fan of animals. I am mostly scared of them, and I have a tendency to not find them as cute as everyone else does.
In Bruges is brilliance, as is Fiennes :)