I think I've watched enough movies which make me feel nice. I'm looking for movies which are gloomy, sad or depressing. Here are some which I liked and can currently recollect:
Apocalypse Now Boy A Chinatown Into the Wild Letters From Iwo Jima Mystic River One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Requiem For A Dream The Deer Hunter The Godfather – II, III The Machinist They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Unforgiven
I find some of the British movies like "Billy Elliot", "The Full Monty" or "Brassed Off" to be rather depressing. The first ends on a happier note, and the second is pretty funny, although depressing the more I reflect upon it.
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Ulf Dittmer
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What's unhappy about "Apocalypse Now"? It's set during a war, so plenty of dead people are to be expected.
In addition to some already mentioned (especially One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Requiem For A Dream)...
Dramas:
21 Grams (2003, Alejandro Gonz�lez I��rritu)
Blue Velvet (1986, David Lynch)
Calendar (1993, Atom Egoyan)
Fat City (1972, John Huston)
Going Under (2004, Eric Werthman)
The Lords of Flatbush (1974, Martin Davidson & Stephen Verona)
Midnight Cowboy (1969, John Schlesinger)
My Dinner with Andre (1981, Louis Malle)
Virgil Bliss (2001, Joe Maggio)
Documentaries:
Brother's Keeper (1992, Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky)
Dark Days (2000, Marc Singer)
Salesman (1969, Al Maysles, David Maysles, & Charlotte Mitchell Zwerin)
Union Square (2003, Stephen Szklarski)
War Photographer (2001, Christian Frei)
(I have about 800 DVDs. When people peruse my collection, they frequently ask, "Don't you have anything happy?" Uh... No.) [ December 16, 2008: Message edited by: marc weber ]
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Anil K Chandra
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Originally posted by Ulf Dittmer: What's unhappy about "Apocalypse Now"? It's set during a war, so plenty of dead people are to be expected.
It's not about lots of dead people. Compare it with the likes of Saving Private Ryan - it has more gruesome deaths but the story was about courage, scarifice etc... whereas Apocalypse Now is just chaos and madness. Not a happy movie to watch.
Originally posted by marc weber: My Dinner with Andre (1981, Louis Malle)
What is depressing about this wonderful film? Its one of my favorites.
Someone up thread mentioned Chinatown. I saw that movie with a woman who was born and raised outside LA. She was depressed by it. I was born and raised outside Washington DC. I liked it a lot. I was not surprised about lying and corruption and politics, its how the world works.
So for me, these two get taken off the list.
Ulf Dittmer
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Compare it with the likes of Saving Private Ryan - it has more gruesome deaths but the story was about courage, scarifice etc... whereas Apocalypse Now is just chaos and madness. Not a happy movie to watch.
I think Saving Private Ryan is rather shallow in comparison; there's nothing in it that hasn't been part of every war movie since "All Quiet On The Western Front".
Apocalyse Now, on the other hand, shows the madness of man, the madness of the jungle, and the madness of war, as well as the quest of two men, both of whom are arguably successful, even though one goes off the cliff and is killed by the other at the end. It's a great story of human ambition, success and failure.
The Deer Hunter, I will agree, is a sad movie, but very well told.
Originally posted by Pat Farrell: ... What is depressing about this wonderful film? Its one of my favorites...
It's one of my favorites as well, and I'm anxious for a Criterion version.
It's a very interesting film, because I've seen it numerous times at very different points in my life, and my interpretation was quite different each time. In the 80's, I didn't have enough life experience to see it as much more than a slightly odd, arty film. Watching it over again in the 90's, the comedic aspects became hysterical to me (and still are). But returning to it again within the last year... Ouch. The theme of emptiness in people's lives -- lack of fulfillment, purpose, and connection... That really hit me.
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Sadma- This is a hindi movie. I was depressed for next two days.
Anil K Chandra
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Originally posted by Vishal Pandya: Sadma- This is a hindi movie. I was depressed for next two days.
Ah! A Kamal Hassan movie. That guy has done some pretty sad/gloomy movies. Some of my favorites are:
I have movies Boy A and Into the wild but did not watch them.I just fast forwarded them but nothing seemed interesting in those films.
If you are really want to have the effect of movies after 2-3 days then you should go for SAW 1-5.I have seen SAW 3 and could not sleep on that night.You might not have expected anything that is shown in that film.
My Favorite movies are:
American Pie - Full series The Girl Next Door In the land of Women - i dont know why i liked this movie Hancock The Dark knight SAW 1-5 The Hills have Eyes Zombie strippers Gutterballs - The wildest movie i have ever seen. crank Transporter 1,2 Forgetting sarah marshell Step brothers - Full comedy Rocky - Full series Journey to the center of the Earth Blood Diamond - Excellent movie about diamonds Bourne ultimatum Bourne intelligent Good luck chuck The 40 year old virgin Office space Untraceable - Must see movie in this ever increasing world wide web.
Chinatown. I saw that movie with a woman who was born and raised outside LA. She was depressed by it. I was born and raised outside Washington DC. I liked it a lot. I was not surprised about lying and corruption and politics, its how the world works.
The depressing part is that the woman was raped by her father, who is a powerful man, and so her child is also her sister. The father ends up getting custody of the child and he is going to rape her, too. Depressing enough to last me a life time.
Gangster (Shiney Ahuja and Kangna Ranaut) Woh Lamhe (Shiney Ahuja and Kangna Ranaut) Kal Ho Naa Ho (Shahrukh Khan and Priety Zinta) - The ending is damn touching Zinda (Sanjay Dutt)
In english (movies with english language ) my favorite is Titanic... [ December 17, 2008: Message edited by: Ankit Garg ]
All Guru Dutt movies. When we were in college, we used to gang up at any friend's place which was parent free. The agenda was "film appreciation". People used to make themselves comfortable with their favorite drinks and play any 2 Guru Dutt movies back to back. Talking/chit chat was strictly prohibited. If someone liked a song, or a particular scene, he/she was free to rewind and play it again. [ December 19, 2008: Message edited by: Maneesh Godbole ]
Originally posted by marc weber: ...Calendar (1993, Atom Egoyan)...
Calendar is interspersed with a lot of hand-held, largely improvised footage designed to look like home movies, and these scenes feature the director's real-life wife. Upon the film's debut, friends of the director and his wife thought the footage was real, documenting their "break up." This sense of authenticity makes it very powerful.
Ulf Dittmer
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The Life of David Gale
Not a sad movie at all. Spacey's and Linney's characters achieve everything they set out to do.
American Beauty
Kind of sad, but also a "take-charge-of-your-life" movie, which I think is rather uplifting. Spacey's character in particular achieves way more than one might have guessed even one year before his death. Is that sad?
(I am deep into Kevin Spacey recently)
As am I. Spacey's way cool and talented.
Aryan Khan
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The Sweet November, Notebook, Forrest Gump are also very nice SAD movie! Aryan
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Martha Simmons
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Ulf: Not a sad movie at all. Spacey's and Linney's characters achieve everything they set out to do.
quote:American Beauty
Kind of sad, but also a "take-charge-of-your-life" movie, which I think is rather uplifting. ...
I envy your understanding of "sad", Ulf. A guy got a bullet in his head, but look at all he had achieved prior to that! Another guy let get himself executed, but before that his life became so miserable, so he didn't mind. So yes, in both cases there is something uplifting, so uplifting that I want to start screaming, and then never stop.
Speaking about "American Beauty", I remember reading somewhere that in the script the movie starts with Jane and her boyfriend getting sentenced for killing Lester, based on the tape Ricky made. Didn't made it into production, for better or worse.
Vanilla Sky would be the mother of all sad movies. On top of it, this movie just doesn't end, does it? Once it starts you can go home, eat something, go to sleep and come back to the theater, I am sure it'll still be running.
Well I have not seen pyasa or kagaz k phool. And Gangster is not about Imran Hashmi. It is a good movie. I also like Awarapan. It also has a heart touching story (and also has Imran Hashmi )...
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) my favorite is Titanic...
A guy got a bullet in his head, but look at all he had achieved prior to that! Another guy let get himself executed, but before that his life became so miserable, so he didn't mind. So yes, in both cases there is something uplifting, so uplifting that I want to start screaming, and then never stop.
