Child Death in Films

I may have brought this up before, I forget. But it's time to bring it up again anyway.

What are your thoughts on child death in films? For it? Against it?

It's no secret that child deaths remain one of film's taboos. Sure, it's broken fairly often but movies tend to go out of their way to treat it more tastefully (gorefest horror aside). It's typically done offscreen/shot discreetly. Rarely is the actual death shown onscreen or a body shown afterwards like is done for an adult. And often the child characters are given a free pass to survive because people just don't like killing kids off.

Now there ARE exceptions I'm sure, but they tend to be few and far between. And most of the exceptions involve a kid introduced to be killed minutes or seconds later. Very rarely will a main kid bite it like that(even though main adults die in movies all the time).

So what are your thoughts on this? I'd love to have a good discussion about this.

Bump cause I wanna see what people think.

When a movie is made, the film's ability to make money is foremost and makers know that people, especially parents, are not going to flock to a movie that is going to make them feel uneasy, and kid's deaths do make the masses uneasy.

I am certainly not a childless young adult, but I think that child deaths on film make them uneasy too because that demographic has a feeling of having the world by the balls, and doesn't like to think of how age really doesn't dictate time of death, and it is uncomfortable for them to see as well.

I don't like to watch movies that are going to make me think about kids passing away. But I don't think that when that is included it automatically makes a film a flop. They have every right to make it.

Of course the money making schemes of Hollywood seem to be working against the industry. People tend to grow tired of films designed solely for a prophet with little merit to it.

I think a lot if movies are designed to make people feel uneasy. Movies have tackled some pretty dark Plots that I don't think peOple necessarily flock to. That's not to say that killing kids is always right but sometimes I think it is taken off the table completely and sometimes it may be what a story calls for.

You are right in that it is probably often taken off the table even when it would enhance the film. But it is what it is...I don't think it is a bad thing that it is not more often addressed.

IDK, sometimes I think it'd be beneficial. We whack adults left and right but we're too afraid to even look at a child character killed? Seems double standardish to me.

Forgiveness Man wrote:Of course the money making schemes of Hollywood seem to be working against the industry. People tend to grow tired of films designed solely for a prophet with little merit to it.

I think a lot if movies are designed to make people feel uneasy. Movies have tackled some pretty dark Plots that I don't think peOple necessarily flock to. That's not to say that killing kids is always right but sometimes I think it is taken off the table completely and sometimes it may be what a story calls for.

In the entire conversation, all you can do is nitpick a typo? Lame!

Only because it's funny in the context in which you made it.

Yes, we're all laughing. Serious context now?

OK, so most adults’ sensibilities are offended or they’re made uncomfortable by a child’s death especially if they can identify somehow with the situation. Among the following titles, the one that made me most uncomfortable was pet Semetary because my daughter was about the same age. Is it really that surprising that we have a sentimentality regarding children? Beyond that, what did you expect to have a conversation about?

The Lord of the Flies - Piggy falls off a cliff
The Green Mile - The two little girls Wild Bill murders
Pet Sematary - The little boy gets hit by a truck
Trainspotting - One of the addicts infant dies from neglect
My Girl - Thomas J is killed by bees
Collateral Damage - Arnold’s wife and child are killed by a terrorist
Jaws - Alex Kintner eaten alive
It - George has his arm ripped off
Gone With The Wind - Bonnie falls off her pony and breaks her neck
World According To GARP - The younger son(?) is killed in a car crash
The Professional - Mathilda's whole family including her younger siblings are all slaughtered
Mask - Rusty finds Rocky's cold body in the morning
Exterminator2 - I'm pretty sure a little kid is shot gunned while hiding in a bathroom
Reservation Road - A 10 year old is run down by a car
Face/Off - I think a boy is shot
Assault on Precinct 13 - A girl is shot while eating ice cream
Frankenstein - The Monster drowns a little girl
Communion - I think Brooke Shields is strangled
The Cotton Club - Several children are gunned down with a machine gun

The merits of such a choice. Should it be done? More? Less? The same?

I haven't seen most of those but even among those you mentioned, they go out of their way to do it in a way that would be less disturbing than they would if it were an adult character.

It's a passionate thing when it's done. I think there's plenty to talk about.

Ugh, just caught the last part of Mask recently...sad. But that was right for that film.

Yeah, the death in My Girl was very bothersome and haunting, but it dots the end of the sentence to the whole plot of the movie, so it was worth it.