Movie warnings...post the movies that blindsided you.

Who dies in House?

Sex and the City is good, even when Sam gets BC, not too bad.

Who dies in House?

Sex and the City is good, even when Sam gets BC, not too bad.

OMG, look what I just found--a 1999 article in the e-magazine, "Medscape", with the title, "How Hollywood Films Portray Cancer"!:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/417741_1

Unfortunately, you will probably need to register on the Medscape website to access the article.  It's free, though, and the website is chock full of tasty morsels about medical developments.   The article does contain a table of films released between 1939 and 1999 that had "cancer themes", so I'll reproduce that list here.

[Note added in edit:  Oh, yay--I found a direct link to the original article:

http://www.moffitt.org/moffittapps/ccj//v6n5/dept7.htm] 

1939    Dark Victory...brain tumor

1948    An Act of Murder...brain tumor

1950    Crisis...brain tumor

1958    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...terminal cancer

1970    Love Story...leukemia

1973    Bang the Drum Slowly...lymphoma

1979    Promises in the Dark... osteogenic sarcoma

1983    Terms of Endearment...lymphoma

1983    Silkwood...environmental leukemia

1985    American Flyer...leukemia

1991    The Doctor...laryngeal cancer

1991    Dying Young...leukemia

1992    Medicine Man...cancer research/lymphoma

1993    My Life...renal cancer

1996    Phenomenon...brain tumor

1997    Rainmaker...leukemia

1997    Critical Care...breast cancer

1998    One True Thing...terminal cancer

1998    A Civil Action...environmental leukemia

1999    Stepmom...terminal cancer

Among the comments in the article were these:  Hollywood seems to prefer "clean" (tidy) cancers, like leukemia and brain tumors, where the viewer doesn't get to see the lesion.  They don't choose to portray common cancers, possibly because those get messy.  How do you show the results of a mastectomy without showing the bare chest?  The other thing noted in the article is the significance of the film, "The Doctor."  The authors recommended that all medical staff associated with the care of cancer patients watch that film.  Apparently, it's about a doctor who develops laryngeal cancer and is plunged into the morass of modern health care that we know so well.

So, consider yourselves forewarned!

otter 

There are some movies that are depressing but also very good, like Saving Private Ryan, Leaving Las Vegas, and Million Dollar Baby.

And I always tease my kids about an on-going story line in all the kid adventures. The mom has to be dead (Bambi, for instance) in order for the kids to have great adventures!  The dad usually is still around, but dads don't seem to stop the kids from getting into major harrowing, life-threatening, thrill-seeking adventures.  Moms seem to make kids' lives too safe and boring!

sally 

Amber, Wilson's latest love interest, died on House in the season finale.  It was very very sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I recently watched the movie "Sisterhood of the traveling pants" with the girl who stars in Ugly Betty. A young girl on that show had leukemia (I think) and she died it kinda got me too.

The fact that we can identify with some of the characters in the movies (the sick ones) is so "in our face" now especially when for a couple of hours we are trying to escape into someone else's world besides our own.

I've always had a rock-hard stomach and disposition when it comes to the movies, but since I've been dx'd with BC, I find myself incapable of going to movies that are too depressing, too violent or too sad. Fortunately I watched, "The Family Stone" BEFORE I was dx'd.......as funny as the movie is, the ending is sad when the mother dies from BC (Diane Keaton actually showed her mastectomy in a very sensitive and sad bedroom scene with her husband.......you can view the photos here:  http://www.themakeupgallery.info/disfigured/mast/stone.htm

Call me cliche...I loved 50 First Dates...The Wedding Singer...40 Year Old Virgin...Something About Mary...they all made me laugh my pants off!

Deb - this is a really good thread. I am also hyper sensitive, I even cry for commercials, songs, the American Idol finale tonight, etc.  Today at chemo, I was looking at the movie cart, and you wouldn't believe how many of these cancer, death, and sadness movies were on it. BEACHES?????  Who would want to watch that while receiving their poison, life-saving (hopefully) drip?

Marsha 

For one of the best laughs I've had in a long time I rented "Duplex" with Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore.  I thought I would pee my pants.

Bugs

I'm almost embarrassed to suggest this movie because it is so WACKY and STUPID!  But I laughed aloud at it!  It's in the same genre as Dumb and Dumber (which I also laugh at):

The Brothers Solomon with Will Arnett, 'R' rated

Brothers John and Dean Solomon are on a quest to find a woman--any woman--willing to bear their child and fulfill the wish of their dying father. After a few dating disasters, it looks as if the brothers may beat the odds and find what they ’re looking for when Dean meets a woman eager to have his baby. Unfortunately, she is flattened by a passing bus right before his eyes. Undeterred, the single-minded brothers change tactics, ditching conventional dating to try their luck with, in short succession, a street hooker, an adoption agency and finally, the Craigslist website.

The Katie Holmes film is Pieces of April--I didn't have a problem viewing that. 

The one that I had a hard time watching was called Wit. I actually felt I the need to own it and I bought it. I did watch it while going through chemo-------Could never bring myself to watch it again although it was excellent on so many levels--but my G-d the emotions.--- Be warned it's Ovarian Cancer and there's no fairy tale ending here.

It stars Emma Thompson and was originally a Pulitzer prize winning play.

It's directed by Mike Nicoles.

If you can take it---It is an amazing film.  Probably one of the best films I have seen in my life.  But it is soooo close and it is so gut wrenching. 

I remember several years ago, way before my BC diagnosis, I watched the movie "One True Thing" with Renee Zelwegger, William Hurt, and Merryl Streep.   When the movie ended I was crying my eyes out and called my mom at 2:00 am (her time) to tell her I loved her.  No movie has ever hit me as hard as that one!

I have seen "Homeward Bound - The Incredible Journey" at least 6 times and I still cry when "Sassy" (the Siamese kitty/diva) falls into the river, even though I know she survives!

My dd said I would love "Notebook."  I just ordered it.  My other dd said "Last King of Scotland" was good.  I also order "Hotel Rowanda."  Documentaries, I know.  Also order "Walk the Line"..Johnny Cash story.  I can't remember what else.  Dumb brain!

Shirley

Cold Mountain!  I love this movie but bawl my eyes out every time I see it.

Crash...a great movie but heartwrenching at the same time.

The Spiderman movies make me so sad.  Don't know if its just me and my "anti hormone state which makes me cry over pudding commercials" or what but I can't watch them.

Try...

Enchanted...cute and sweet

Over the Hedge

Cars

hmmm...lost track...but it looks like you need a list of GOOD movies too watch as well as bad ones to steer clear off.

hugs

V