This is the End: The Role of Death in the Narrative Structure of Popular Movies
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View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.Popular movies often portray death as meaningful and story-terminating. Explicit death scenes encourage viewers to confront mortality, though depictions are frequently violent and unrealistic.
Area Of Science
- Film Studies
- Psychology of Death
Background
- Movies significantly influence cultural understanding of death.
- Previous research has not comprehensively analyzed death's narrative and visual roles in popular films.
Purpose Of The Study
- To quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the role and portrayal of death in popular movies.
- To explore how cinematic death influences audience perceptions of mortality and existential concerns.
Main Methods
- Quantitative analysis of death events in 60 popular movies.
- Qualitative thematic analysis of death portrayals and their narrative functions.
Main Results
- Death events are predominantly story-terminating, signifying meaning tied to the past.
- Death is depicted as a catalyst for growth, unification, and salvation.
- Most films feature explicit death scenes, prompting viewer contemplation of mortality.
- Movie deaths predominantly involve violence, presenting an unrealistic view of death.
Conclusions
- Cinematic portrayals of death offer complex meanings, from finality to transcendence.
- Movies can serve as a medium for exploring mortality and coping with existential fears.
- The unrealistic, often violent, depiction of death in film warrants critical consideration.
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