Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 April 28

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April 28

Films in which the hero dies

Just finished watching Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, and it reminded me to some extent of films such as Electra Glide in Blue, in which the hero dies needlessly at the end. It seems to me to be a 70's thing. Is there a name for this type of film? DuncanHill (talk) 21:57, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

For some reason it's also common in wuxia films. I don't know if there's a general name for this feature. AlexTiefling (talk) 22:01, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

As usual, TVtropes lists a number of occurrences but unfortunately doesn't name it. Dismas|^(talk) 22:08, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III (play), Macbeth and Julius Caesar (play) have all been filmed many times. They were indeed a '70s thing - the 1570s, that is (near enuf).  :) They're all usually classified as "tragedies". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:14, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

I wouldn't call Macbeth or Richard III the hero of their respective works, just because they're the protagonist. The idea of a clearly heroic character dying overlaps with conventional western tragedy, but it's far from the same thing. Also, the OP mentioned the idea that the hero's death is needless; in a well-constructed tragedy, the protagonist's demise is built up to by most of the foregoing action. Macbeth's fate is apparent from his soliloquy on the night of Duncan's murder onwards. AlexTiefling (talk) 22:21, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes, the point is that in the films I'm thinking of there is nothing inevitable about the deaths - Larry doesn't notice the train in time, a cop returns a driving licence to a random killer... whereas for Macbeth and the like death is essential to the resolution of the story. DuncanHill (talk) 22:34, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

Are you looking for "hero" In the classic sense, or just a protagonist/main character dying? My Girl (film) and Steel Magnolias both feature main characters dying, but they were from the late 80's - early 90's. --Jayron32 01:35, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Night of the living dead was made in the late 60s and (spoiler alert) the hero dies at the end. --Roisterer (talk) 01:59, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Sci Fi has several Silent Running - except for Dewey - The Last Man on Earth (1964 film), The Omega Man and other versions of I Am Legend (novel), Beneath the Planet of the Apes sees both heroes (and the whole planet at the end) die. 2001: A Space Odyssey (film) might be included if you (as some do) consider Hal the most likeable character. MarnetteD | Talk 04:38, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

You will also find many war films where the hero dies The Bridge on the River Kwai and the various films about the Alamo. MarnetteD | Talk 04:41, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Does Terminator 2 count? Evan ^{(talk|contribs)} 04:47, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Were the writer(s) of that film influenced by the story of Joe Magarac? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:54, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

For a rather more recent example, Layer Cake (film) MChesterMC (talk) 08:24, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

The OP's request was not to name more such films. It was to name the category they belong to. Jack's suggestion of "tragedies" seems right to me. HiLo48 (talk) 08:24, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Well, it depends on how narrow the definition of "tradegy" is. E.g. to some, tragedies must display Ate, Hubris and Nemesis: if it doesn't have all that, it's not a tragedy. Similarly, some definitions of comedy include "must end with a marriage". SemanticMantis (talk) 15:18, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Chevy Chase's character dies at the end of Dirty Work in a funny and nonchalant epilogue line. He wasn't quite "main", but something like it. In a way, the movie was a comedy, but so many dead hookers. There's gotta be a more specific genre, somewhere. The Internet loves genres. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:37, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

I'd just file them under "drama" because the trope was around before the 1970s (although the 1970s does seem to have been some kind of peak for this nihilism). Some earlier examples include Detour (1945 film), an old noir film; Germany, Year Zero which has been described as "neorealism"; the French New Wave classic Breathless (1960 film). OttawaAC (talk) 00:07, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. DuncanHill (talk) 14:47, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

A topical one - The Long Good Friday. 87.113.250.159 (talk) 08:59, 1 May 2014 (UTC)