Nerd 5 Presents: The Top 5 Bleakest Films

            With this weekend’s release of The Counselor the king of harsh, bleak, and unapologetically real stories is back at the movies. Cormac McCarthy is a novelist of such great books as The Road and No Country for Old and has now jumped into the screenwriting game with The Counselor. A script that got decent buzz while in pre-production. so much so that Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz (yikes!) signed on to star and Ridley Scott, a man whose career has been pretty bleak recently (Prometheus, Robin Hood and Body of Lies), is on as the director. For some reason I can’t get super psyched for this film, but only time will tell.

            What makes a film bleak? It’s more than just an ending devoid of happiness or a film that gives you no hope for its characters. A bleak can be these things, but overall it lacks a sense of warmth, comforting or kindness, a film that is simple in its cold and raw nature. A bleak film can end with hope for a character in a hopeless world or situation. For some reason bleak films have always been somewhat appealing to me (hmmm what does that say about me) even to the point where in college I tried to convince people that we should have a depressing movie marathon featuring some of the films on the list? At the bottom you can see college Josh’s recommendation for The Most Depressing Movie Marathon.

            Some of the greatest films of all time have been extremely bleak. Including best picture winner No Country for Old Men and cult and film buff classic A Clockwork Orange but you won’t find either of those films on this because while both films paint an tremendously bleak picture they transcend their bleak nature leaving the audience with a sense of catharsis that some of these other films do not. Also missing from the list is Sophie’s Choice, a film so sad and depressing that it hurts to even think about it, a very well made film and Meryl Streep (who plays Sophie) earns her Oscar win, but Sophie’s Choice is such a brutal watch and it’s hard to recommend watching the film if you’ve seen it before. The final omission from the list is probably the first bleak film that kids are exposed to nowadays. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, a film that introduces us to unhappy endings and stories. Empire is left off the list because (when the category allows for such things) I strive to broaden the film knowledge of my readers by picking films that may not be in the main stream consciousness. And now Nerd 5 presents The Top 5 Bleakest Films

5. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) – Originally titled The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (in all countries except America this film keeps the spelling of the original book) this film is set in WWII and tells the story of Nazi Germany through the eyes of two 8 year old boys, Bruno the son of a reluctant Nazi commandant (David Thewlis) and Shmuel a young Jewish boy inside a concentration camp. This small British film packs a big punch with amazing performances from its cast, especially Thewlis, Asa Butterfield (Hugo, Ender’s Game) as Bruno and Jack Scanlon as Shmuel. This film hinges on their relationship and is given the perfect tone of childhood exploration and ominous doom; director Mark Herman proves he knows how to handle himself behind the camera as well hitting all the right moments of storytelling. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas builds to its surprising and seamless climax that is pitch-perfect for this film and doesn’t allow for a dry eye in the house.

4. Night of the Living Dead (1968) – A true classic and a giant turning point in film history. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is a the birth of an entire genre of film and has one of the simplest plot lines of all time; A group of people hideout in a farmhouse while trying to survive an attack from the dead AKA bloodthirsty zombies. It’s not shocking to see death in a zombie film, but in 1968 Dead’s flesh hungry zombies were nothing short of the most extremely gruesome horror on the screen to date. What was truly surprising about the film is end, and spoiler alert for this 45 year old film, where the sole survivor of the group escapes the zombies and his barn hideout only to be mistaken as a zombie himself and killed by a group of zombie hunters; the final image of the film is of the survivor body being tossed onto the pile of zombies, a truly haunting image that shows that whoever has survived this night is at the beginning of a terrible life. End Spoiler Alert. The overall tone of the film is filled with despair, made during the Vietnam War, Night of the Living Dead represents more than just one groups fight against the undead, whom just keep coming, it represented one nations fight against a war that just kept coming.

3. The Road (2009) – This is the films that actually made me respect Viggo Mortensen as an actor; he gives a performance that is compassionate, strong and heartbreaking as a father who is trying to survive and teach his son to survive by any means necessary in a post-apocalyptic world. The Road, novel by Cormac McCarthy, is haunting at every turn, brutal in moments and heart wrenching at its best. Beautifully shot by director John Hilcoat The Road is a journey that works well when you know very little about it; thus why I stop here and suggest you seek it out. Heads up it’s currently streaming on Netflix.

2. Ace in the Hole (1951) – This film is just another reason why Billy Wilder is an amazing director, who knew how to make exactly the film he wanted even within the oppressive and money drive studio system of the 1950s; Ace in the Hole (renamed The Big Carnival for it theatrical release as the studio thought it would draw better, but now goes by it’s given title) was easily the darkest and most depressing film of Wilders career, which included Sunset Blvd., The Apartment and Some Like it Hot. Ace in the Hole stands a stark contrast to most of Wilder’s other films. For our plot summary this time I’m quoting the words of West Anthony of The Auteurcast “Chuck Tatum is an amoral, cynical, muckraking scumbag and a wretched excuse for a reporter whose ruthless ambition and lust for success at any cost drives him to distort the truth, make up outright lies and put human life in mortal peril. Fortunately for him this is exactly the kind of thing America has been waiting for! And his results turn out to be wildly successful, even if they do make a mockery of journalist integrity, undermined the value of the reporter as a crusader for truth and get someone killed. In short, Ace in the Hole is a documentary about the early start up days of FOX News.” This is the start of a great episode of this great podcast, check out the show at this website, http://battleshippretension.com/?p=9016.

Ace in the Hole, staring Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling, was a film far ahead of its time calling out the media for its sensationalism and need to create news for profit. It serves a hard-hitting examination of the newspaper industry and is semi-based on several true stories of people who fell into a deep hole and were not saved but covered heavily by the news instead of helping the victim. Even though Ace is firmly set in its own time, the 50s, it only becomes more and more relevant as each day passes. It presents a completely bleak look at the media and it’s relation to its stories. Wilder visuals are great and his shots are constructed with the highest precision and can only be called darkly clever. The story and characters are equally strong, and Douglas and Sterling on top of their games, on top of it all this film holds up. If I had one word to describe the film it would be “cynical”.

1. Requiem for a Dream (2000) --Show this film to middle school students, stop D.A.R.E. and start therapy. Darren Aronofsky’s second film is the bleakest film I’ve ever seen. Devoid of hope, all happiness is sucked from these characters by their own bad choices. Requiem for a Dream is the story of four Coney Island residents who lives are torn to pieces and dreams are tossed to the wayside as their lives deteriorate right in front of your eyes.  Following the lives of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) her son Harry (Jared Leto) his girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) and their best friend Tyrone Love (Marlon Wayans) Requiem’s bleakness comes from its paring of stories with these 4 characters. While Harry, Marion and Tyrone are heroin addicts; Sara’s addiction comes out of the idea that she needs to fulfill the American dream. By putting these two stories side by side Aronofsky asks us the question “what is the real drug?” A question that Aronofsky gives a very disturbing answer to.  A great film full of memorable and moving performances, but Burstyn is the stand out. She is perfection on screen when portraying Sara and although she was nominated for an Oscar it’s one of the biggest snubs in the history of the ceremony that she didn't win. Sorry Julia Roberts, that’s a true statement.

College Josh’s Most Depressing Movie Marathon:

1^st Requiem for a dream – Start the night with Requiem and realize that all things will kill you in overt amounts, get sad, pop some popcorn.

2^nd Sophie’s Choice – put in Sophie’s Choice realize all the good things you have in your life, including the popcorn.

3^rd Se7en – put in Se7en realize that the world is full of crazies, but be okay with because Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman will be there, start to enjoy your popcorn; realize what’s in the box, lose faith in humanity, give up on the popcorn.

4^th Empire Strikes Back – because you need a pick me up, and seeing a boy find his father, lose his hand, his best friend get frozen in carbonate and his annoying robot be disassembled isn’t all that bad in retrospect, finally enjoy the popcorn.