Badmovies.org Forum

In good movies and bad, I'm sure there are certain characters that you honestly feel for.  They may have had a great idea but it backfired on them.  Or maybe they were a great person who fell from grace hard.  Some however, you feel for more than others.  I think my number one nomination of all time is Seth Brundle from The Fly.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/SethBrundle.jpg)
A bit full of himself yes but he honestly had a genuine idea.  In order to escape the perils of motion sickness he put his best foot forward to revolutionize the world of travel with a teleportaition device.  Of course we know the story, his DNA gets spliced with that of a common housefly in a tragic mishap.  I just feel awful at the end when his human fly body gets spliced with shrapnel and wires.  His plea for his girlfriend to blow his head off pretty much puts me in a depressed mood every time I watch it. 

So is there a character in a movie who's story truly breaks your heart?

Are we talking about characters that shouldn't necessarily have our sympathy? I mean, I could say Lilja from Lilja 4 ever but anyone would feel for her or are you talking about characters like.. Cesar Luciani from A prophet...A real SOB,  He certainly didn't deserve my sympathy but I couldn't help myself. I felt bad for him.

Almost every guy who donned a red shirt in the original star trek!

William H. Macy's character 'Little Bill' in Boogie Nights.

The Jewish soldier in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.  Poor guy got nailed to the floor by a Nazi dagger, while looking his assailant right in the eye and begging for his life.

Reggie from the Phantasm movies. He never seems to have any good luck.

Will Hunting from Good Will Hunting

The bad guy in The Fly II.

He was a villain, but it would've been better to kill him than leave him as he was...

Walter Burke [Al Pacino] in The Recruit ~ a pioneering twenty year CIA veteran just tossed aside and "shoved out in the woods" to the Farm. No wonder he goes apesh*t at the end of the film.  :buggedout:

Robert DeNiro as Bruce Pearson in BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY.

I felt bad for Paul Giamatti's character in Sideways. His character wasn't exactly a good guy, but I felt sorry for him anyway.

The Ymir in 20 Million Miles To Earth.

Thought of another one.. The Moorwen in Outlander..  :bluesad:   Does that count? Its not a human character but still..

:lookingup:  I'd like to see the prequel film where we get to watch his father stub out cigarettes on his chest. 

DIRK BENEDICT's character in SSSSSSS (1973)
(http://www.omenaheights.com/sssssss_snake_boy.jpg)

Just about every slasher film victim.  For some reason, I always feel bad for these poor, horny teenagers...  :bluesad:

SEAN YOUNG ("Rachael") in BLADE RUNNER.  She's sad and pathetic needing to believe her fake memories. 

(http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI4ODgxMzE4OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNDE3Nzc4._V1._SX511_SY340_.jpg)

Tetsuo's girlfriend in Akira.  She got beaten up, possibly raped, treated like crap by everyone, then -- then -- SHE GETS CRUSHED TO DEATH!

That was one of the first times I ever said "f**k you, movie."

Jessie from Toy Story 2
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/Jessietoystory3.jpg)
Loved and cherished at one point in her life only as a toy only to be thrown under the bed by her owner. She took one last drive with her owner only to be left at a donation bin.   :bluesad:

Bob Ford in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (2007 D.: Andrew Dominik ) First I hated him, he was the kind of sucker You feel ashamed that it is called human too . . . but after the murder as he grows up . . .

I'll take this from one particular individual to one particular group of individuals, as there is no one particular individual in the group, but, as for the group as a whole . . .? Yes, brothers. We be soulmates.

And this was harder that I thought it be, as there was more than one level of feeling of badness. Thus from most to least.

You lose (your life) and your side loses.
The Alamo (2004): the Texicans
Dr. Zhivago: the Whites
Enemy of the State: the NSA employees
Glory: the officers of the 54th Massachusetts
Le Miserables (1998): the student agitators
The Messenger: the captain of the king's archers and his two young squires
The Mission: the missionaries
The Most Dangerous Game (1932): Count Zaroff's servants
Zulu Dawn: the Whites

You lose (your life), but your side wins
Bugsy Malone: Fat Sam's gangmembers
Clash of the Titans (2010): the soldiers of Argos
Dog Soldiers: the soldiers
Krull: the outlaws
The Lord of the Rings (1978): the Riders of Rohan
Waterloo: the Allies

You save (your life, if injured), but your side loses
D2: the Hawks (injured)
Dead Poets' Society: the students
Happiness: the young rape victims (injured)

You save (your life, if injured), your side wins, but you rue the loss of life on your side
The Bounty: the naval officers
Bram Stoker's Dracula: the posse members
Christopher Columbus (1992): Chris' crew
Oliver: the pickpockets
Romeo and Juliet (1968): the street brawlers (injured)
Toy Soldiers: the students

You save (your life, if injured) your side wins, and no life is lost on your side. Everone wins.
The Mighty Ducks: the Ducks (injured)
Recess (2001): King Bob's courtiers
To Sir, with Love (1967) the students

Larry Talbot, as played by Lon Chaney Jr., in The Wolf Man (1941).

Mickey Rourke's character in The Wrestler.  Simply because its an all too true tale of many pro wrestlers fallen from grace.

Macy's good at these.

I always felt kinda bad for his Jerry Lundegaard in FARGO, even though he's a selfish jerk and the reason all that there malfeasance deal in Brainard. You betcha yah.

Reptilicus in Reptilicus, he didn't asked to be brought back from being frozen and was p**sed that he was the main bad guy! the REAL bad guys are the people, as in 20 million miles to Earth!

I felt bad for Stuntman Mike at the end of Death Proof when he was sayin " I was just playing around "

Arnie Cunningham in CHRISTINE because it was the car that took over his mind.

Steve Buscemi (as Donnie) in Big Lebowski:  constantly browbeaten, then drops from a heart attack and they stuff his ashes in a coffee can.  Poor, poor Donnie!
Edie in Heat (not sure of the actress' name).  I felt bad for a lot of the characters in Heat, actually, but her especially.
Mickey Rourke's character in The Pledge:  he only has one scene, but it's definitely memorable.

Well, here's one: Tracy Mills (Gwyenth Paltrow) from Se7en.





SPOILERS!!!


 I mean, you see tons of murder victims in movies and various horror films but I think that's one that really freaking shocked you when it occurred.

Taking a break from the giant monster/action/ sci-fi movies I normally watch, I recently saw a film called My Sister's Keeper.  I really felt bad for the mian character: a 13 year old girl named Anna.

Her older sister Kate is dying from some disesase and need a lot of transplants, and Anna finds out the only reason her parents had her, was so that Kate has a viable donor.  Anna will be forced to give up organs, and undergo pain medical procedures, so she sues her parents to get medical emancipation to the rights to her own body.  Naturally, there's some backlash. 

Anna's mother (played by Cameron Diaz) is played as someone who is so desprite to save one child, she doesn't see the damage she is doing to the rest of her family. 

But what really made me feel for the character came from when I did some research on the movie.  It's based on a book.  The final plot points of the movie are sad.  What happens in the book is out right devestating.  No spoilers from me, but overall I really felt bad for her.

 

In a slightly different take:

Darth Vader and The Borg for being completely AWESOME, evil-incarnate (okay, the Borg were not really Evil, just doing their thing, but...) and then getting castrated in subsequent films/episodes.

(I'm in the SW Ep IV is the Only True Star Wars camp...Vader was evil there - became more human with the whole ESB father-son psychobabble).

So, my vote is for Vader in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and The Borg in any episode after "Q Who?" for having their true character completely undermined.

Several of the classic monster easily fit into this category:

The Frankenstein Monster
Larry Talbot aka The Wolf Man (and almost any other monster character played by Lon Chaney, Jr.)
The Phantom of the Opera
Dr. Jekyll (Mr. Hyde - not so much)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon

And King Kong, naturally.

Cheryl, the tree rape victim, in THE EVIL DEAD.  I definitely feel bad for her.

Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump

Godzilla and Dr. Serizawa in Gojira (1954)

Commander Vince Elliott in The Green Slime because he is trying to gain back his gal from this prick of a main character, Commander Jack Rankin!

Evil in FRIGHT NIGHT

Edmond Delhurst in Food of the Gods II. Yuck. Just yuck.  :buggedout:

Most people don't like anime for good reason, but Akira (subbed or the original dubb-the new dub is unbearable) is still recommended to everyone.

Everyone.

Come to think of it I feel sorry for EVERYONE in that movie.

I thought it sucked.  From a technical standpoint, the animation is excellent.  Some of the music is good.  However, I never could manage to give a rat's ass about Tetsuo, Kaneda, or any of the other characters ('cept Tetsuo's girlfriend) whose names I can't remember.  It's hard to like a movie when you don't care about anyone in it or what's going on.

I guess Akira is one of those "experience" movies, which have never appealed to me at all.

While I have mixed feelings about the movie itself, I definitely felt sorry for Lawrence in the latest version of THE WOLFMAN