An Awards Observation
How come it's always the rather depressing movies that get the Oscar and Academy nominations and awards? I mean, Million Dollar Baby was nominated, like, 7+ times and at the end of that she gets paralyzed and begs her trainer to help her die, and in the end she *does* die. Then we have the Aviator, and we all know how that ends even if we *didn't* see the movie (though the pretty effects might've outweighed the depressing ending in that one) and Finding Neverland, which had me bawling like a baby even though I knew the mother was going to die as soon as she started coughing , though that one had lots of happy moments to help out weigh the not so happy ones. And then we have Man Under Fire (Dakota Fanning was nominated for *something*, though I'm not sure if it was for this movie or not) where Greacy goes through hell and get's shot a half dozen times, kills a half dozen people, and then dies at the end (though at least he does get the girl back, though watching the man she's grown closer to than her own father basically die right in front of her - or at least knowing that he's *going* to die, one way or another - can't be that good for her... I mean, talk about trama! . Crouching Tiger-Hidden Dragon doesn't have the greatest of endings either, you know... And, seriously... Lord of the Rings Trilogy? Not really the happiest of plots. Granted, most people are too distracted by the "ooo, pretty fantasy" stuff to really notice, but there's this kid (and in hobbit years, Frodo really is pretty much a kid... his turning 33 or whatever it was was kind of like our turning 18 or 21) who only wants to live a happy, normal, uneventful life in his beloved Shire, who suddenly has this Huge, Monumental, Do-This-And-*SUCCEED*-Or-We-All-Die-Horrible-Painful-Deaths-Or-Get-Turned-Into-Slaves Task dropped in his lap, has seven terrible, evil, horrible creatures who's only purpose was to *stop* him from finishing the damned task after him through the entire 9 hour event, get's *stabbed* by one of aforementioned creatures and is left open to their poison for the rest of trilogy, watches his beloved mentor die right in front of him while attempting to *finish* the task (Frodo did not know that Gandolf would be coming back... to him, he watched one of his oldest, closest friends get dragged off the edge of a cliff by this huge-ass fire demon *and do it to save his life*.... I mean, seriously, just think of the weight of guilt he had to be carrying? Not to mention the fact that all the rest of his closest friends got dragged into the whole thing with him, so he put *them* in danger as well), and then has to go through any number of god-awful trials and tribulations during the process of finishing the task. Honestly? The only redeeming factor to escape all the Angst of those movies was the pretty special effects and the happy(ish) ending.
Of course, there are plenty of happy nominations, too... Pirate's of the Caribbean was pretty happy and cheerful (though it had the unfortunate end of being stuck up against LotR and didn't get a damn thing for all it's angst-relief), and though I haven't seen it A Series of Unfortunate Events probably wasn't too much of a tear-jerker, and you gotta love Shrek and the likes, but in all honesty? The majority of the awards and the nominees tend to be those movies that focus on the not-so-happy... I mean, they're no less good and I freely admit to loving Finding Neverland and Fellowship of the Rings, but yeah... a little break from the angst-fest occasionally wouldn't be out of order, you know? Cause, gosh darnit, if you're going to drag your characters through hell, the *least* you can do is give them a happy-beyond-all-belief ending! Or even a hopeful one that doesn't involve the main character - who, by the way, tends to be the one receiving the majority of the draggin-through-hell - dying rather horribly and/or painfully.
Of course, there are plenty of happy nominations, too... Pirate's of the Caribbean was pretty happy and cheerful (though it had the unfortunate end of being stuck up against LotR and didn't get a damn thing for all it's angst-relief), and though I haven't seen it A Series of Unfortunate Events probably wasn't too much of a tear-jerker, and you gotta love Shrek and the likes, but in all honesty? The majority of the awards and the nominees tend to be those movies that focus on the not-so-happy... I mean, they're no less good and I freely admit to loving Finding Neverland and Fellowship of the Rings, but yeah... a little break from the angst-fest occasionally wouldn't be out of order, you know? Cause, gosh darnit, if you're going to drag your characters through hell, the *least* you can do is give them a happy-beyond-all-belief ending! Or even a hopeful one that doesn't involve the main character - who, by the way, tends to be the one receiving the majority of the draggin-through-hell - dying rather horribly and/or painfully.