In English class recently we've touched briefly on the elements of tragedy and talked a bit about catharsis, which is a term with several meaning but is basically a "purging of emotion" that comes about by experiencing an intensely emotional story. Audience members would supposedly come to the play with an excess of emotion and the play would restore them to a more natural balance.
While medically speaking that's ridiculous, part of me believes there might be some psychological merit to it. How many people gravitate to the saddest part of a movie? How many people find themselves drawn to intensely sad stories? There are some films that are intensely sad all the way through (Like Schindler's List) and some that just have sad moments (like The Lion King).
What's interesting to me is that I don't really re-watch the intensely sad movies all that often. For example, the full movie of Schindler's List from above? I've probably really only seen it once all the way through. Everything else has been clips here and there. It's a tough pill to swallow. Instead, for my catharsis, I rely on other films that have maybe one sad portion in it. Like Homeward Bound. Man, that's a good movie.
Is that a bit wimpy? Yeah, probably. But it's not like I'm wanting to eat an entire cheese wheel of sadness. I want my films to be the cheese dip of sadness. Just enough to get a taste, and then move on to the main course.
