spoiler : killing off the main character is a trend (1 Viewer)

[felix_suwarno]

dont read if you dont want to read any spoiler.

i just saw the last castle today. after alien3, titanic, armageddon, etc etc etc, i just realized today that to kill the main character in a movie has become a trend.

let me put it this way : what do you think if the main character was not killed in the end? would the movie still had the same impact?

in my opinion, killing the main character is just a cheap way to make more "impact" to the viewer. whether it is good or not, i got a mixed feeling about it. what do you guys think?

 

[Robert Crawford]

felix,

I don't know how much you're into classic films but killing off the main character in films goes all the way back to the silent era and is not just a part of a recent trend in films.

Crawdaddy

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Actually something I've noticed alot in films of the past few years is that the bad guy usually gets away.

Some quick examples off the top of my head:

Fallen

Con Air

Swordfish

Arlington Road

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

It's called "setting up for the sequel", Jason. If the first movie makes a lot of money, they'll want to make another.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

That's true Wayne, except the examples I mentioned probably won't have sequels. The bad guys got away for shock value and story twists rather than setting up the sequel. Not that it can't or won't happen.

Another one from last year which definately was setting up for the sequel is:

The Fast and the Furious

 

[felix_suwarno]

but.

i was wondering whether it would be better to kill the main character in the end, or keep them alive. killing the main character, for some movies, are just a way to create some stupid emotional atmosphere. i hate armageddon and pearl harbor because of it.

imagine if jack didnt die in the end of titanic : the movie wont sell like hotcake, i think. i still like titanic though.

 

[Mitty]

Actually something I've noticed alot in films of the past few years is that the bad guy usually gets away.

That might've happened in more "classic" films, except that the Hayes code wouldn't allow it. The times we live in are cynical, to be sure, but the movies during some of the more bleak times of the 20th Century (depression, World Wars, etc.) might have had a very different feel had the production code not enforced such a strict moral code on Hollywood films.
When I first read the title of this thread, I first thought of Hitchcock's Psycho, where the main character was killed off less than halfway through the film, which at the time would've been very disorienting for the audience.

 

[DustinDavis]

I don't know how much you're into classic films but killing off the main character in films goes all the way back to the silent era and is not just a part of a recent trend in films.

This is a good point, but you can also go way back before film for this--you guys have heard of Greek tragedy, right? It's nothing new.

 

[felix_suwarno]

and seems like you guys enjoy greek tragedy. i hope i could enjoy it as much as you guys could. i got bored with it already.

 

[Shane Gralaw]

If you haven't seen Donnie Darko AND The Others, skip this post....

******MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD******************

It seems the hottest trend right now is killing off the main character BEFORE the movie or at the beginning. When I saw The Sixth Sense I didn't catch on until the end. With The Others I was suspicious much earlier on. I just saw Donnie Darko and caught on at the very begining- he must be dead and the entire film was just a hallucination or whatever. Hey, this whole dead lead character with the big shocking reveal at the end thing is getting a little played out!

 

[felix_suwarno]

oh i see. just like american beauty. or twelve monkeys and al pacino's carlito's way.

 

[Shane Gralaw]

Naw, in those cases the lead characters are dying and flashing back to the main narrative. In the examples I mentioned, the lead characters THINK that they're alive, but due to increasing freakiness realize that they are in fact dead, like in Jacob's Ladder.