The other day, Paul and I were talking about what movies he had just watched, and upon revealing one of the films, we both reacted quite loudly in the same manner - it was so sad and depressing that we could hardly stand to watch it. The movie in question was the recent Mickey Rourke flick, The Wrestler. As Paul put it, "It made me want to scream!" which was said in a rather loud voice, especially considering that our conversation was happening in the library. My response was a little more hyperbolic, which likely surprises no one. I felt it was a good thing that I didn't own a gun, 'cause bad things would have happened, mostly to me and the stuff hanging on my walls.
I've been compiling a mental list of sad movies, mostly because I spend a lot of time in the library and hear people request movies that aren't sad, while others bring movies up to the desk and ask if the movie is a good film. In particular, one of our librarians is always asking about movies and has made it clear that she does not want to watch anything depressing. She didn't always listen to my advice (not that I have great advice or anything), but now when I tell her that a movie is sad or depressing, she listens. It was her checking out and watching Into the Wild and then calling in sick to work the next day because she was "too depressed to get out of bed" (her words). I think that pretty much describes how I feel about that movie.
Sometime after Paul and I had our discussion, Elizabeth asked me what we were talking about and I told her how we had just agreed upon the third saddest movie of all time. A surprising number of people never ask me what the top one or two saddest films of all time are (well, usually I'm saying that Into the Wild is the second saddest movie of all time), they just go on their way, but Elizabeth was very nice in humoring me and asked what the saddest movie of all time is. The answer, of course, is Dancer in the Dark, starring Björk Guðmundsdóttir. I cried when I watched it in the theatre, and I've never wanted to watch it again. I can't even listen to the amazing soundtrack without first popping some Prozac.
Now, I know that there are lots of other movies that are sad or depressing. Some day I may even be able to fill out the top five, but it's not as easy as it sounds, especially since I don't really need my entertainment to make me feel more depressed than I already am (not that I'm depressed, I'm just saying). To qualify for my list, the movie can't just be sad, it's got to be an excellent film - one that I would recommend to my friends and strangers in the library. All three of these films are well-made and worth watching; worth watching exactly one time.
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