A hard case (spoiler alert)
by chuckofish
The boy had a good idea for a blogpost which he passed on to me. What movie death were you most effected by? That’s a hard one. There are a lot of sad deaths in movies, but which ones really affected you?
He said his was Luke’s death in Cool Hand Luke (1967)…
…and I said mine was John Russell’s in Hombre (1967).
Both deaths (by characters played by Paul Newman!) come as a terrible shock the first time you see the movie. You just can’t believe it.
I would also put Steve McQueen as Jake Holman in The Sand Pebbles (1966) on my list. “What the hell happened?”
I asked the OM and he thought of the 50 escaped prisoners who are lined up and murdered by the Nazis in The Great Escape (1964). Again it is a terrible shock when this happens. He also mentioned Von Ryan (Frank Sinatra) running for the train at the end of Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and not making it.
I also thought of those movies where a parent dies, such as Life is Beautiful (1997) or How Green Was My Valley (1941). But you have to admit that of those parental deaths, this one (inexplicably) takes the cake:
I still cannot watch that without tearing up.
So what movie death most deeply affected you?
P.S. In case you were wondering, John Wayne died in seven movies. In my opinion, the most affecting is in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) because it is totally unexpected.
dual personalities 
Those are some great choices! I would add Yul’s death in the King and I — that always got me.
OF COURSE–How could I forget that!
The Land Before Time! Nooooo ðŸ˜
Ditto!!
I was thinking of Life is Beautiful before you mentioned it 😠and personally I think also Buddy’s death in Fried Greens Tomatoes shocked me a lot as a child first seeing the movie as a child!
You are definitely right about Buddy’s death. That was the beginning of the tears in that movie. I thought of when Ruth Jamison dies, but forgot Buddy!