The reality is, sometimes life sucks. It just does. Some people get shit on by life. It happens. We can all turn our heads or pretend it doesn’t exist, but it does. Hell, some of us HAVE those lives. While it may be easier to pretend they don’t exist or to not think about it, there are some movies that just grab your face and hold it up to that aspect of life. You walk away from some movies with a skip in your step because of all the wonderful things you just witnessed. Other movies you walk away from changed, aware the world could break you at any moment if it chooses. Here are six movies that make you feel awful for their lead characters (because their lives are such nonstop, flowing cesspool you cannot help but feel like you are drowning in that shit with them). Also, beware, list is FULL OF SPOILERS!
Leaving Las Vegas
Nope, not the Nic Cage character. He is at peace with what he has to do. I mean the Sera character.
What many fail to understand about this gripping and unsettling film is that it is not about the Nicholas Cage character. We may watch the movie under the pretense that it is about him as a failure, drinking himself to death, but that is a subplot. The real main character of this film is Sera (portrayed with heart breaking earnest by Elisabeth Shue) and it is a movie about her (and his) journey to find someone to connect with in a broken world.
While we do watch the film and ache for the Ben Sanderson character, we know he has an exit strategy and we know how it will play out for him. But for Sera, we know she is stuck in this world, and that final line “I really loved him” is just so brutal when you know everything else she went through, and how she now has to KEEP going. Ugh.
Dancer in the Dark
One of the saddest scenes ever? Yes. Yes it is.
Say what you want about Bjork, her music, and her quirkiness, but you see the movie Dancer in the Dark and you are pretty much beaten down by what her character of Selma Jezkova goes through in this film. She plays an Eastern European women who truly believes that taking her son to the U.S will result in it being like some perfect, Hollywood film where everyone gets rich and everyone finds love and everything works out.
What she finds is a situation that slowly goes from bad to worse to “anyone watching this will want to shoot themselves the minute the movie ends.” I won’t ruin her story for you, in case you have not seen it. Actually, I just don’t wanna go back over it because it will depress the shit out of me. It is Lars Von Trier though, so what do you expect?
Compliance
You bounce between feeling awful for her and wanting to slap her and tell her to stick up for herself. It’s a tough dichotomy to sit through.
I have talked about Compliance on many lists before, and this is a clear sign a movie f*cked me all up. It ends up being like pneumonia you can’t shake. It just stays like fluid in your lungs. What kills me (and most people) about what happens to the Sandra character in the movie Compliance is that she almost seems involved. You have to wonder why, of all the parties that were partaking in what was happening, not ONE of them thought: wait a second, this makes no sense. Well, ONE did and that’s how it all came crumbling down, thankfully.
For those who have no idea what I am talking about, essentially a prank caller called a fast food joint and convinced the owner he was a cop and that one of his female employees had been stealing money from people. This sets off a series of events that culminates with (SPOILER ALERT) the girl ultimately being kinda raped. I say kinda raped because, well…see for yourself…
Worst part is, as you see above, it’s true. Every single frame of it. You walk away from this not only feeling bad for the main character, but for all the world as well.
The Elephant Man
So sad to see how humans can treat one another based on surface and not soul.
File this one under “100% true” as well, unfortunately. There was a man, born disfigured, named Joseph Merrick, who lived a life you wouldn’t wish on an enemy. The Elephant Man tells us his story, and it isn’t easy to digest.
From being a circus freak to being chased down and taunted by people in the street, his is a heart breaking story in every single aspect. The reality was, a very kind and genuine man was treated like a monster because of how he ‘looked’, and if you can’t find tragedy in that you might be a sociopath. Honestly, like all the movies on the list, a very difficult film to watch, but one we all need to see to understand the true monsters that some humans are (inside).
Precious
Normally, I aim for witty banter with my captions, but at this point, I got nothing.
Jesus H. Christ. I am at that point when I am on the final film on the list and it is ALSO based on a true story. I thought I was writing a movie list, but by the end, my soul is aching knowing half of these were real people. In this case, Precious is about an abused girl from the inner city who is morbidly obese, gets raped by her Dad, and gets H.I.V from her Dad. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned her abusive Mom yet, so don’t worry, it gets worse.
The supposed happy ending comes from her severing ties with her evil Mom and her Dad dying of AIDS. Seriously, that is the HAPPY ending. They never go on to show us how she probably couldn’t afford the H.I.V cocktail and ended up dying slowly of AIDS. They must be saving that for the sequel. Precious Buyer’s Club.
Okay, I officially just snapped.
Resist the urge to hang yourself after reading this and come here and hang out with me. It is not some fake fan site run by some asshole. It is my site run by THIS asshole. *Points at self proudly!
The post 5 Movies That Make You Feel AWFUL For Their Lead Character appeared first on Remy Carreiro.
