Tragedy: Isn't it Tragic?

Tragedy: Isn't it tragic?

Not many people are thrilled to go and see a tragedy.  But some of the best stories include a tragedy to help push the character through different emotions.  And then depending on these emotions he/she evolves into an even deeper (more relatable)character.  But that's a backstory.  Most backstories include a tragedy.  (Like most film writers) A film that ends in a tragedy is trying to point something deep to the audience attention.  These are the thoughts and points I came across after viewing these three short films:

                      "Small Hands" 

"Small hands" is a short film about animals in the woods with their life long mates.  Dramatically, it shows the separation of their mates.  Whether it being a snake that eats them whole, or a shot of a hunter, or a snatch of a fox: their lives were being taken away.  This made me think about life as we know it.  Sometimes we take life for granted, like those animals in the beginning.  They didn't know how good they had it, till it's gone.   

                          

                       

                       

                        "Fridge"

"Fridge" is another short film about a young boy who is running in an alley way full of the poor and homeless people.  As he's running from something (or someone) he jumps inside an old abandon fridge outside.  Two trouble makers find there way to this young boy and trap him inside the fridge, leaving him inside. Two homeless people (also alcoholics)see him being trapped inside.  They sprang up try to free the boy from the cold, sealed trap. Unable to help him, one of them runs to find help.  The other manages to stick a tube in the fridge helping the boy to breathe.  Screaming and rampaging in the streets, he could not find a single soul to help. People closed windows and doors on him not caring.  Eventually they free the little boy, with the help of his older brother (one of the trouble makers in the beginning of the film).  Out of all the three films I saw, this one made me loose hope of all humanity.  Or the hope of humanity being something greater than it was destined to be.  Not a single soul cared enough to listen to the call of a child.  Only the souls who lived their lives as a tragedy answered.  Not the ones who had life served at their fingertips.  This was the tragedy, not the boy being stuck in the fridge, but the ones who didn't answer a call for help.  That was the tragedy.

          

      

                    "World of Glory"    

    

"World of Glory" is (yet again) another short film.  This starts in the time of the Holocaust in Germany.  This is about a man's life who had to live during everything possibly horrid and living without hope.  He's living a pretend life.  Pretending he didn't see a hundred people gassed in the truck, pretending he does agree with the Nazis, pretending that life is okay.  He's playing pretend through life.  But even a kid knows when to stop play pretend.  He can never stop playing pretend, even after the holocaust.  I already have studied what happened.  I know the facts and seen the pictures.  This happened. The real tragedy is, is that he's not the only one pretending.  Even now.  We're all pretending.  The same thing is happening in the Middle East, and we're pretending not to see it.  Even if we do see it, for even just a moment, do we do anything about it.  Or try to do something.  We do something.  We pretend and that is the real tragedy.

                The Shadow and the Sunshine      

But even through these tragedies, is there hope?  Could the animals reunite and band together as one community?  Could the boy through this experience remember the drunkards who saved him and repay them by giving them a chance of new life?  Could the man living a pretend life escape and make a better life for him and his family?  There is always hope, even in tragedies.  But the main point of going through these mind shattering films is to not always see the sunshine, but also the shadow.  A man once said, "There is no such thing as darkness, only the absence of light."  So don't just look at the sunshine, but also the shadow.