A friend/fellow sound editor & I were discussing the other day about how pleasant it is to be working on a film where nobody dies. Its funny that having worked in the film industry for a dozen years or more I’ve never really thought about it, but when I go through all the films that I have worked on probably three quarters of them involve people dieing… Why is death such a common narrative device in film?
Of course someone has tracked the body count in films over the years, and the current ‘winner’?
1. LotR: Return of the King: 836
2. Kingdom of Heaven: 610
3. 300: 600
4. Troy: 572
5. The Last Samurai: 558
I’m stating the obvious, but its not about size: one virtual death that you really care about & have emotionally invested in, will always have far more impact than a whole army of CG characters…. But wait; theres a website for that as well: Best Deaths in Film although in a way I don’t think art is any substitute for the real thing; there are any number of sites listing famous last words – a few I enjoyed (although somehow that doesn’t feel like the right word)
“I must go in, the fog is rising.”
Emily Dickinson, died 1886, a poet
“I see black light.”
Victor Hugo, died May 22, 1885, a writer
“Codeine . . . bourbon.”
Tallulah Bankhead, died December 12, 1968, an actress who had such power as to have Marlon Brando fired from a film for rejecting her advances!
One film I love where death features large is Jim Jarmuschs Ghost Dog, eg this scene:
And one final thought about death – I don’t remember where I found it online, it was literally years ago, but this gravestone has the most beautiful inscription I have ever read.
Update – the inscription is from a poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye
Why is death such a common narrative device in film?
My favourite last words are from Captain Lawrence Oates.He was part of Scott’s doomed exbidition to the South Pole. He and three other men were hiking back after reaching the South Pole only to find that Amundsen had already planted the Norwegian flag there. Their only chance of survival was to reach the next supply depot 30 miles away and he had badly frost bitten feet. He realised that he was slowing them down and all four would not make it while he with them. One morning during a blizzard he told Scott;
“I’m just going outside and may be some time.”
With that he walked out of the tent to die.
Dammit! What a horrible typo! Obviously it was supposed to be expedition. That’s what you get for trying to spell thing faux-net-i-cally and not checking.