It seems like every commercial break on TV is committed to airing the trailer for the upcoming Fame remake. And it's driving me crazy... not because I necessarily think the movie looks bad, but because of that incessant song "I'm Gonna Live Forever". With the understanding that I'm often a cynic, I'm continually bothered by this song's teenage-thumping naïveté. Why? Because my retort to that song's title is simply this: No You're Not.
So, in light of this charming topic, here are some wonderful films that deal with death:
About Schmidt: With possibly Jack Nicholson's biggest departure from his acting oeuvre, here he plays Warren Schmidt, a retired actuary insurance agent with the knowledge that his life will soon be over. It's a poignant - if not shockingly real - look at a man who knows he'll be leaving this earth with nothing more than an unsatisfying career. Favorite death moment: while seated at a funeral, Warren sadly regards a man spraying down a cattle trailer at a nearby warehouse... realizing that life goes on.
Elizabethtown: Drew Baylor single-handedly collapses a shoe company just before learning of his father's death. Sure, it borders on sugar-coated optimism at times - but Cameron Crowe grounds it so well. How so? When Drew visits the funeral home and touches the hand of his recently-deceased father. And it hits him like it'd hit any of us.
Man on the Moon: Another masterful biopic by Milos Forman, this time about love-him-or-hate-him comedian Andy Kaufman. As Andy's life wound down in the face of cancer, the public wrote off his impending demise as a publicity stunt. But a stunt it was not - Forman captures the truth beautifully when Andy travels to the Philippines for one of those "miracle surgeries" where a "doctor" removes your "infected organs" right before your eyes. In this moment, Andy realizes the fact in the fiction when he spots the doctor's slight of hand... and like Andy's stand-up, you don't know whether to laugh or to simply shake your head.
The Fountain: A film that, in its entirety, deals with death up front and possibly, to some, a little too personally. Every time I watch this movie, it's a wake-up call when Hugh Jackman's character admits point-blank to the camera "I am going to die." He's finally accepted the fact. Have we?
Harold and Maude: And lastly, we'll end on an enlightening note. Like the character of Maude, this film is more interested in the prospect of life than death. Possibly the best moment to highlight this theme is when Maude leaves a rainy-day funeral... she carries the brightest colored umbrella around. There's joy in everything. Even death.
Last movie Scott watched: Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)
