The death of a genre
The other day, while I was chatting with Olinda about movies and we both realized that the "Tragedy" genre has all but died out in the recent years. No more of those movies with sorrow at every turn, with the protagonists forced to endure the most improbable sorts of torture.
The best examples of these movies that had a "sad ending" were probably the Hindi movies made in the period 1960-1980 and also every Malayalam movie ever made (It seems like !). And Bengali movies too.
We were racking our brains trying to remember the last tragedy to come out of Hollywood and the only one we can up with was "The English Patient" - which arguably was not a mainstream movie (Studio: Miramax).
Some other movies in the recent years with strains of tragedy are
Moulin Rouge
Mystic River
Gladiator &
Hotel Rwanda
I wonder why this genre is being run over so dramatically by the action/comedy/romance genres ?
9 Comments:
There are lots of movies in the "Drama/Tragedy" genre being released every year, but they don't receive as much attention as they should, in my opinion. The Academy Awards have become the poster child of increased retardation of Hollywood "culture" with special effects and terrible plots. Some good movies that come to mind are
Titanic
Cold Mountain
Big Fish
Closer
XX/XY
The Notebook
etc.
But you're right about them not being very mainstream. They are, albeit, Hollywood products. It is for this reason alone that I cancelled my subscription to HBO/Showtime/Starz early this year and got the Sundance/Encore package. Mainstream Hollywood products are stupid.
I feel "Troy" can also be added....
Probably b'cos there's enough tragedy in the world?
@Gargs - Theres a bunch of bullshit thats made by independent moviemakers too !
@Cipher - I dont know about that !
@Shyamala - Thats what I always thought, but maybe a really sad movie can be cathartic
What about Life is Beautiful?? I'm not sure if thatis mainstream, but it was pretty darn sad. Although bittersweet.
I was just thinking, in terms of Indian "mainstream" movies, Kannathil Muthamittal didn't have a perfectly-wrapped up ending either...
Nayagan was quite sad too, but that dates back to the 80s, no?
Most of the movies being mentioned here are sad in parts - I am referring to the intensely sad movies where there is no brightness/joy for even a second !
Movies are meant to entertain people ... why in thw world do u want want it to depress people... its a good to see Tragedy" genre die out
i dont sit in movies that make me sad, i simply walk out...
"Movies are meant to entertain people" - I dont agree.
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