Aspies For Freedom

How do you feel when you watch them?

I feel the emotions of the character in focus, and I get inspired and place my own characters in the same situation.

Sometimes, if an angsty scene is written well enough, I can cry without having to place my own characters in the situation. Like Ueda's story from Chobits. I was really touched by that story. Even the manga made me cry.

Star Wars is not good at death scenes. None of them actually created the feeling. Perhaps the best one was probably Quigon's death, but it was still pretty emotionless.

Also, what would you call the washing-over feeling you get when you watch something sad?

The only movies that can make me cry are ones that have sad parts involving animals. People do nothing for me.

I still can't watch Thomasina without sobbing...

Ninjai: The Little Ninja made me cry in some chapters, but there are also those movies, I also remember that movie about the jew and his son who was transferred to a concentration camp. Really sad in the end when the father got shot when the son was unaware of it but got saved by american soldiers, and he finally fulfilled his dream, to ride a tanks (wonder if he called belt-car or something) still unaware of his father's death.

That movie about the father and son in the concentration camps is called La Vita è Bella... It's one of my favorites.

Never made me cry though.

"Equus" with Richard Burton. Had to leave before it ended... I guess Natalie wouldn't like the film.

Were the people in the Italian movie a son and a giddy, optimistic father who pretended that the camp was a game so the boy would be happy? Because I loved that movie!

I also liked Hotel Rwanda. I thought it was a good movie.

Humans and animals give me the same feelings.

I also have empathy for technology. If a computer monitor falls out of a window and smashes, I will feel bad.

Not for Sci-Fi technology that I have never interacted with personally, such as lightsabers and starships. Unless the starship was important to the character in focus.

"Catharsis" -- it was defined by Aristotle as the vicarious inducement of "pity and fear", thus turning those who watch tragedy into better citizens. (Emotion being seen, in those times, as something which must not be shown, but recognised as something which should not be allowed to build, either.)

Actually, the Star Wars saga is probably best understood as a story based quite heavily on ancient epic. While epics did have some very bittersweet moments, (One of my favourites is the scene with Odysseus' faithful dog Argus.) emotion often takes second place to the story.

Many people also criticise the lines of Star Wars for being stilted, but this is also understandable when compared to epic poetry.

Some movies that make me cry:
Grave of the Fireflies (or Hotaru no Haka) -- Setsuko's death scene does it EVERY time. and even when I read the picture book in Japanese I wanted to cry.

Awakenings -- when the old lady starts singing.

The Crucible -- because it makes me angry that people could have been so stupid.

(I make smiley faces not sad faces because all of these are good movies.)

I saw "Bridge to Terabithia" this afternoon; I thought it was one of the best films I have seen in many months and one of the few films that has made me cry.  I won't spoil the plot here, but I would say that it bears little resemblance to the previews and television ads for it.  

It's a wonderful film and I suggest seeing it before it disappears from the theaters (especially because it's not a "mainstream" film).

I'm fairly stoic, but I can't watch any graphic violence against an animal. Humans are okay; I watched all of Kill Bill without flinching. But if a dog is shot or blown up or a deer is hit by a car or a bird crushed I'll scream and bury my face in my hands or a couch cushion.

I can sympathize with characters, but for the most part I don't feel as though I am them.

Sometimes I irritate whoever I'm watching a movie with by laughing at parts absolutely no one else finds funny (and that most likely weren't supposed to be)...and I have a LOUD laugh.

I read "Bridge to Terabithia" when I was a kid and to be honest I found it quite difficult to understand and not very interesting. Don't know how much the film is like the original story, though. Maybe it's better.

If a sad or romantic part of a film comes on I usually 'switch off'. If its on video or DVD I fast forward to the next bit of action.

Today, I saw an article in a magazine that said the lad who plays Harry Potter is going to star in a production of Equus. I don't think I would like it as the boy tortures all these horses and I am too much of an animal lover for that.

I cried during "Awakenings" and "Cocoon" and "Cocoon 2", and there are some movies such as "Flight 93" and "A Beautiful Life" that I can't bring myself to watch as I would find them too distressing.

Movies such as "Kenny" and "The Castle" are more my favourites as they have a lot of humour. There is pathos too but the underdog comes out best in the end.

New one. RENT.

But for some reason, I always run out of tears by the time Collins sings at Angel's funeral. It's usually Without You that gets me crying.

I didn't cry while watching that movie, but I loved it.

(and truthfully, the scene at the end where everything is disentigrating, and Clementine tells Joel that he doesn't have to do the same thing he did in the memory, that he can stay, brought me pretty close to tears. And right after, when he wakes up and doesn't remember anything.)