Why is it in today's teen movies, someone has to die in order for the kids to figure their lives out?
I just finished watching Step Up which really should have been called Step Out because that's what I would have done in the theatre. I love dance so I normally rent these kinds of movies. Thing is, there was nothing in this movie that I hadn't seen before and the dancing was just, meh.
But, that's not the point. This is the second teen movie in two weeks that I've seen with the death of another kid from gun violence or gang related crime. When did the death of another person become a cliche in todays movies?
In Dirty Dancing they just put Baby in a corner.
Now, Baby would have had her sister shot and killed by a rival gang, her daddy would be an alcoholic wannabe and her mom well, she would have committed suicide just shortly after her birth. Yeah. That should do it.
All this and she suddenly discovers she can have more out of life.
'kay.
Teen movies in my day (OMG! I'm officially old!) where kids died were like The Outsiders where the ending was not a smiley face tacked on for the kids seeing the film. These kids were fucked up and they were screwed and they died. We didn't leave the movie thinking, 'man, I should go to dance class more often!'. There was a story and a reason for what happened.
Today, I have come to expect that secondary character to do something stupid or be in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up dead. No weeping necessary. Oh, there's some crying and maybe a coffin scene but, c'mon, let's stop using this as a plot point.
Someone might say, 'hey, that's the way I turned my life around'.
Fair enough.
I'm sure that person wouldn't downplay their loved one's death or how it changed their life. I would expect that the person would honour their memory.
This isn't the case with these teen movies today. It is quite clearly a plot point to make the main character realize they can have more out of life.
Enough already.
Maybe I've become jaded.
Maybe I should have just turned the movie off.
4 comments:
You know, I've recently seen quite a few movies with this plot device as well.
It's true that bad things happen in real life, and that as a result we have the choice of moving on from them and stepping up, or going downhill. It's a hard life lesson, but there it is.
But for Hollywood to almost romanticize such scenarios just chaps my ass. Ugh.
I'm with you, babe. ;)
Maybe you should quite with the teen movies while you're ahead. LOL. OK, to be fair it isn't just teen movies. It's all the lifetime-movie-of-the-week ltype drama.
Like every sports movie ever written about some underdog kid/man finding his "poytential".
You've seen one underdog/misunderstood-guy-from-the-wrong-side-of-track movie you've seen them all.
I seriously need to start checking what I wrote BEFORE I hit that publish button. Look at all those typos!!! LOL.
apparently, that's what sell (shrug) or maybe, directors want to make it less "perfect" but don't have the guts to kill main characters. Anyway, I stopped watching those movies :P maybe you should do the same :D
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