Is Requiem for a Dream the Most Depressing Movie Ever?

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The discussion centers around the emotional impact of various films, particularly those deemed depressing or disturbing. "Requiem for a Dream" is frequently mentioned as a profoundly unsettling film that evokes feelings of despair, with several participants expressing a reluctance to watch it again despite its artistic merit. Other films like "Das Boot," "Amadeus," and "Charlie" (based on "Flowers for Algernon") are also highlighted for their heavy emotional weight. The conversation touches on the subjective nature of film experiences, with some participants preferring lighter genres like comedies and adventures, while others appreciate the depth of darker narratives. David Lynch's "Eraserhead" is noted for its disturbing qualities, and discussions about the Holocaust in films like "Schindler's List" lead to debates about the portrayal of historical events in cinema. Overall, the thread reflects a diverse range of opinions on how films can evoke strong emotional responses, whether through sadness, discomfort, or introspection.
  • #51
Vincent_Rayne said:
Does it really make you want to die i like to watch tehse movies a really enjoy them the ones that hold a true depressing powerful message but they do not make me want to die they make me feel empty as if somthing is missing that always has been and there's no point in life without this thing but really you'll never find it because were here just to be here there is nothign special about anything living example if there was nothing there would be nothing to worry about were here so what changes there's still nothign to worry about i get that kind of a feeling from those movies but i do really enjoy them and this feeling.

Running short on periods and commas

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I don't like to watch depressing movies like on wars (Schindler's List). But I do enjoy watching melodic movies even one that have sad endings. Sometimes, the narrators use really stupid techniques to make happy endings (like hero defeating the antagonist/challenges even when he had no odds of doing that). I really avoid those movies which give an unreal touch in the end just to make you happy.
 
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  • #52
"When the Wind blows" That movie will make you want to blow your brains out.

But Requiem for a Dream is definitely the most intense movie I've ever seen.
 
  • #53
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114119/ - "A Petal" (South Korea), the opening soundtrack makes me cry! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62M4VkR3Y10&fmt=

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408664/ - "Nobody Knows" (Japan), just plain depressing and sad. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMP0KDKLwxw&fmt= (stupid American voice-over/trailer unfortunately)

These are both fabulous movies (of course)... also both based on true events! Anyone who is looking for real tear-jerker emotional "human drama" sort of thing, you can't go wrong with South Korean cinema. I could list heaps more. It's all happening in Asia.

"Secret Sunshine" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0817225/ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4NH0dsXzug&fmt=
"Happiness" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1048159/ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiy_4I30Iv4&fmt=
"A Moment To Remember" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428870/ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XbbiHLmBCo&fmt=
"Christmas In August" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140825/ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it9_6ILTXqk&fmt=

If anyone is genuinely interested in this sort of top-shelf cinema, you may be able to find a subtitled DVD here or there to buy, or otherwise you may want to visit the awesome collector site asiandvdclub.org for advice.

(Don't let the cheesy trailer soundtracks turn you off! This is top-notch cinema, give it a go! It SHxTS on Hollywood CRxP!)
 
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  • #54
A really depressing movie is "Oscar et la Dame Rose" if you can follow subtitles. By the end of this movie, my basement was flooded from me crying.
 
  • #55
turbo-1 said:
Most depressing for me was Charlie. It's based on the story "Flowers for Algernon" and it is heart-rending.

That is my second favourite movie (after "Birds of Prey"), and my favourite short story/novel (it was expanded).
I read only the first page of this thread, and even at that point there were a lot of films mentioned that I've never heard of. I'll try to catch up later.
The most depressing to me, going only by ones that I've watched, was "Blade Runner". As an Atheist with no belief in an afterlife, Roy Batty's desperation to remain alive tore me apart. I couldn't watch it again, or even think about it, for 20 years. Now that I've come to terms with the fact that I have less than a year to go, I would watch it again for the production values (and to see Joanna Cassidy naked). It was a brilliant movie, based upon a brilliant novel ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"), but it really hurt.
 
  • #56
Danger said:
The most depressing to me, going only by ones that I've watched, was "Blade Runner". As an Atheist with no belief in an afterlife, Roy Batty's desperation to remain alive tore me apart.
Worlds. Best. Quote.
 
  • #57
Empire of the Sun somebody mentioned yesterday. Very, very sad movie. No wonder that kid grew up to be The Dark Knight.


Bicentennial Man, I've liked a lot; but it's another depressing flick. A lot of Robin Williams' movies are like that.


I would have to say though, that my favorite sad ending movie of all time is Ragtime. I just feel a strong connection to that movie. It's a visual aid of sorts to a lot of stories my grandparents retold of my great-grandparents generation. I knew my great-grandmother (she lived to be in her 90's, and died when I was 6) and she was a teenager around 1910.
 
  • #58
Some decent bleak movies which come to mind :

Tideland
Martin
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Bugs (this movie disturbed me for weeks)
1984
Brazil (if you count the original intended ending)
Visitor Q

I liked all of them.
 
  • #59
I think that it comes down to the fact that once in a rare while an artist, singer, filmmaker, or such produces something that resonates with something in the observer's mind and triggers a serious emotional response. If, as a "for instance", when you were 5 years old you witnessed your baby sister drowning in a river, anything related to water could set off such feelings in your adult life.
This thread, I believe, is very closely related to the one about "musical chills". Beauty (or fear, or discomfort, or love) is in the eye (or some other sense) of the beholder.
 
  • #60
9/11, a film by Jules & Gideon Naudet and James Hanlon. I couldn't even buy it for five years. When I did, I watched it that night. Haven't been able to watch it since.
 
  • #61
Hotel Rwanda made me deeply sad. Great film, though.
 
  • #62
"The Exorcist" made me very sad, but only due my shocked disbelief that anyone would pay money to watch it. That film was pretty much the turn-around point of society's spiral into stupidity.
 
  • #63
Danger said:
"The Exorcist" made me very sad, but only due my shocked disbelief that anyone would pay money to watch it. That film was pretty much the turn-around point of society's spiral into stupidity.

That was an evocative piece of music at least...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmrVlGgPum8&feature



Alright, well here's the real one (pity someone who misspelled it)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZcCxRDtTyM
 
  • #64
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120070/" , with Dennis Quaid. the sledgehammer scene tears me up.
 
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  • #65
"I am Legend"... he shot his own dog. a scene like that in a movie is just not right. I had to make my dog a steak dinner after watching that, and we played fetch for a while.
 
  • #66
Danger said:
"The Exorcist" made me very sad, but only due my shocked disbelief that anyone would pay money to watch it. That film was pretty much the turn-around point of society's spiral into stupidity.

As opposed to what, Night of the Living Dead, or all of the crap people bought into in the sixties? :rolleyes:
 
  • #67
Star Trek Generations

The death of Kirk... I still can't talk about it.
 
  • #68
Ivan Seeking said:
As opposed to what, Night of the Living Dead, or all of the crap people bought into in the sixties? :rolleyes:

Different critters entirely. "The Exorcist", like "The Amityville Horror" later on, was total ******** advertised as a true story. Neither one ever happened, and yet to this day nobody involved in the productions admits that they were pure fiction.
George Romero's stuff, along with blobs, werewolves, etc. were marketed as escapism, and served that role quite well.

edit: And once again the forum software replaced "bovine excrement" with asterisks. That is becoming annoying.
 
  • #69
DaveC426913 said:
Worlds. Best. Quote.
"Too bad she won't live, but then again who does?" :wink:

I thought Once Upon a Time in America, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull & Vanishing Point were all pretty depressing. Maybe not soul-crushing or anything but still depressing.
 
  • #70
Ivan Seeking said:
Star Trek Generations

The death of Kirk... I still can't talk about it.

Too funny. This is why I love this site. Bravo.
 
  • #71
One of them has got to be "Brian's Song" another "Romeo and Juliette" - I much prefer happy, adventurous, or sci fi though.
 
  • #72
oh yeah, the bad lieutenant with harvey keitel is another good (or bad) one
 
  • #73
Danger said:
"The Exorcist" made me very sad, but only due my shocked disbelief that anyone would pay money to watch it. That film was pretty much the turn-around point of society's spiral into stupidity.

Which one? The original?

It's not fair to watch a film decades old through modern-day-coloured glasses.
 
  • #74
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a very well done but very drepressing movie
The ending scenes of Schindler's List and American History X
 
  • #76
Movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113540/" was extremely depressing
 
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  • #77
DaveC426913 said:
Which one? The original?

It's not fair to watch a film decades old through modern-day-coloured glasses.

:bugeye:
I hope to hell that your aren't saying that someone did a remake! ****, man, the first one was bad enough.
And my assessment was on-the-spot, not a retrospective view. My friend and I were threatened with removal from the theatre by a usher because we couldn't stop laughing during the movie. I actually spewed cola through my nose when Linda puked the pea soup on the priest.
 
  • #78
Danger said:
Different critters entirely. "The Exorcist", like "The Amityville Horror" later on, was total ******** advertised as a true story.

Well, the Amityville horror was based on a hoax, and the Exorcist was not based on a single story. But to suggest that the notion of exorcism, or the idea of possession, was invented in the early 1970's, is pretty silly. In fact the primary story on which it was based took place in 1949.

Neither one ever happened, and yet to this day nobody involved in the productions admits that they were pure fiction.

The people involved in the production of the movies were not the source of the claims.

George Romero's stuff, along with blobs, werewolves, etc. were marketed as escapism, and served that role quite well.

edit: And once again the forum software replaced "bovine excrement" with asterisks. That is becoming annoying.

As opposed to movies about Custer, Lincoln, or almost any significant event in US history? I will have to put on some Beatles albums, take some LSD, tune in, turn on, drop out, chant while playing my satar, and think about that one for a bit. I'm sure the ghost of Timothy Leary will provide some guidance here.
 
  • #79
Ivan Seeking said:
As opposed to movies about Custer, Lincoln, or almost any significant event in US history?

What on Earth possesses you to think that a Canadian could possibly give a **** about any of those?
 
  • #80
Danger said:
And my assessment was on-the-spot, not a retrospective view.

What I mean is: did you see it recently, or in the 70's?

The same thing could be said about Jaws, if you look at it through 21st-century eyes.
 
  • #81
I'd rate "Magnolia" as the most depressing movie I've seen.

"Hotel Rwanda" would probably rank second.

"Charlie" and "On the Beach" rank up there, as well.

If you expand from feature movies to documentary movies, then "Siege of Leningrad" has to be on the list. What a horrible experience for an entire city to go through! The documentary is very moving. It's kind of choppy since it's the compilation of several real life short films documenting the siege, but the choppiness just adds to the mood. Edward Murrow did the English language narration for the documentary.

Looking for the link, I just noticed there is a recent independent feature film about the siege: "Leningrad". That looks like it might be interesting.
 
  • #82
the wrestler and schindler`s list are at the top for me
 
  • #83
What Dreams May Come.

It is on my Movie List, under the heading:

"Movies to see if you want your heart pulled out of the your chest, tossed on the floor and stomped on."

I kid you not. It really is.
 
  • #84
precious was pretty depressing too now that I think of it.
 
  • #85
Ladder 49 (2004), Angels in America (2003) single best movie I ever saw. What Dreams May Come (1998) is very disturbing and thought provoking. And there was one about the trade center collapse that I remember I bawled all the way through, especially when a trapped fire fighter look up and saw Jesus.
 
  • #86
I agree with On the Beach, both versions, and would like to nominate Betty Blue.
 
  • #87
Oh yeah, and I Am Legend (2007), which I am watching for the second time in a row because I am allowed to watch tv and play on the computer on this day because I have depression. So I Am Legend twice in a row is making me feel wowie terrific. :frown: They also tied up our block (all the way around and the park for weeks to make that movie and no one I know even saw Will Smith.) Several of us got parts as extras though. No one from my building had to wear any makeup. :redface:
 
  • #88
Lacy33 said:
What Dreams May Come (1998) is very disturbing and thought provoking.

What is your fascination with Robin Williams?
 

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