I realized this because in the scene that begins with Richie saying "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow," he used a razor blade to shave his face. He used this same razor to cut himself. It dawned on me that maybe he used the blade to shave first to dull the blade a little bit first, so that the cuts wouldn't go deep enough to kill him. This is just a theory, but I think it makes a lot of sense. A common cause of depression is feeling like people do not care about you anymore. Maybe Richie felt this way and his attempt of suicide was a cry for help. This is not uncommon for people with severe depression. As sick as this sounds, sometimes people hurt themselves for attention, for either reason of getting help or making people feel bad for them. Richie may have been feeling a little bit of both, and in his depressed state of mind, thought that the only way to make people want to be more present in his life was to force them to. Sometimes it takes a near-death experience to allow yourself to re-evaluate your life and change yourself accordingly. It is sad that people who struggle with depression can't look on the bright side even if they tried, and aren't able to realize that they have so much to live for, and since suicide is more common in younger people, that they have such a long life ahead of them and they should enjoy every minute of it instead of trying to cut it off short.
I thought that the way this scene was shot was interesting as well, because a part of it is shot from behind him, staring into the mirror as he shaves his face. As he does this, I think he was reflecting on his life (the cutaways to the Mordecai the bird, Margot, and flashbacks to his childhood) and the decision he was about to make. Shot from a closeup, we couldn't see that he was actually staring into the mirror because he is just looking at the camera, so I like the way this was done.
Would Richie still feel depressed if people showed that they cared about him?
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ReplyDeleteI agree, I don't think Richie would have become as depressed if he had better support and attention from his family and loved ones. Since his career failed no one really recognized any lack of motivation and aspiration for future hopes as a sign of a problem. This could have been a warning sign. Considering Margot ended up being his entire future hope and goal he put all his sorrows on her. Since she did not realize or understand this she had no control over his actions in being so depressed to the point of no care of anything else.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything written here. Even though I turned away during the suicide scene (I get easily nauseous at the sight of blood) I can assume that based one what I knew of Richie in the movie, he was emotionally in pain and probably saw nothing else going for him. I like that you made the parallel between the razor he used to shave himself with and the razor he attempted to kill himself with - I never thought of possible symbolism and I like your thinking! To answer your question at the end, I don't know if he would feel as depressed. In my opinion, though I know not much about it, depression is a psychological condition, not one that happens as a result of external situations. I feel that if a person is psychologically screwed up, no matter how sunny and happy the world is, that person will still feel sad until he chooses to help himself. Therefore, my answer would be that yes, I still think Richie would've been depressed if people showed that the cared about him. Good blog!
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of your points. I think it was especially creative and actually possible that you stated that Richie did shave first to dull the blade. In the beginning I thought it was just because Richie wanted to change a part of himself quickly, yet now I see how this could be a possibility. I also thought it was interesting how you connected this scene to real life problems such as how suicide is more common in younger people. Also, to answer your question I think Richie would feel better if people cared more about him but I think what lead him to suicide was the lack of love he felt from Margot Tenenbaum.
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