And what's the other side of the coin? Are all these characters heroes or just depressed, stressed, or mentally ill? Why didn't these characters pursue other solutions? Ben Thomas could have redeemed himself by working for an organ transplant organization or a charity. Robert Neville could have crawled into the crawlspace with the woman and the child and possibly lived. Sheriff Oleson could have locked himself in his own jail to protect others from his bloodlust. I'm not sure what options the Silver Surfer had, but is he a hero or a suicide bomber?
All of these movies were directed by different directors and the screenplays were written by different writers. And yet, both the directors and the writers of all of these movies came to the same conclusion: suicide was the best choice for these characters and the best way to end their movies.
Because of globalization, is our culture becoming more like some Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures in which suicide is more acceptable? I'm not a religious person, but recently it was reported that the United States is becoming less religious. Is that changing our society? Assisted suicide is now legal in two states. Is that an indication of how our culture and values are changing? Or were the writers and directors of these movies just being lazy or unimaginative and going for shock value?
I don't watch just happy movies. In fact, I really like Irish and Japanese movies, which commonly are scripted so that almost every character is dead by the end of the movie. Angela's Ashes is one of my favorite movies. But I'm also sure that I don't want to watch movie after movie in which the main character commits suicide at the end.
We'll see how this trend plays out. And the sad thing is that even suicide will eventually lose its shock value.
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1 - The Crow
SPOILER: I just watched Gran Torino on DVD and it also has the main character committing suicide. What is going on with these screenwriters?