Comments on: Breathe, damnit!

By: Désirée

Désirée — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:51:15 +0000

On top of this, they never do the mouth-to-mouth correctly.

By: MDOC

MDOC — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:36:16 +0000

Having a medical background, the thing that bothers me is when someone needs CPR, the heart starts beating again and the person is fine. Other than near drowning, if you heart stopped beating, your a sick puppy. CPR may stabilize you, but it won’t heal you. John Connor’s desert heart transplant this summer in Terminator:Salvation ruined the whole movie for me. (That’s not a spoiler, is it?)

By: Thom

Thom — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:14:48 +0000

Wait! But what if it is all done in extreme slow motion? I mean, then it’s totally okay, right? :)

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:28:24 +0000

Came here to mention The Abyss too, but it looks like we've covered that pretty well.

I think Cameron is a master at upping the ante on familiar if not cliche scenes. True Lies being my favorite example.

By: David

David — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:51:26 +0000

If I watch one more TV show where they say “we need talk,” I’m gonna throw up a little in my mouth.

By: Raji Barbir

Raji Barbir — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:55:39 +0000

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/funny-pictures-squirrel-gives-friend-cpr.jpg

By: Tim W.

Tim W. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:21:37 +0000

You know, the last minute revival due to CPR scene is so common that I always expect a character to come back to life at the last minute whenever I see a scene like that, and am actually surprised when they actually die.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:49:01 +0000

@JJ:

Very true. The fact that that scene is very difficult to watch makes it all the more incredible, and defining. Nothing manufactured about it, unlike virtually all its imitators.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:26:10 +0000

Just discovered another cliché while watching Swing Vote...

"I wanna know everything about him! What he eats for breakfast, the name of his teacher in elementary school, what color his socks have..."

I just made this enumeration up, but the cliché is obvious. Just have a picture of Tommy Lee Jones in my head saying it a dozen times. *G

By: kyle

kyle — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:33:03 +0000

what’s worse is the character’s parenthetical (desperate) — well, yeah, the character’s trying to revive someone. do you really need to add that direction?? that’s soooooo annoying…

By: JJ

JJ — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:13:30 +0000

More love for The Abyss. Absolutely. I saw that movie when I was 12 and remembered that scene a couple years later when I saw Raging Bull for the first time. Not for any specific similarity but because I thought it reached levels equal levels of raw emotion. Ed Harris is so intense in that scene it's uncomfortable.

And it works on so many levels! I mean, one of the most amazing things about it is you realize that to some extent, Bud is giving vent to his darkest, most horrible feelings toward Lindsay....that all through their relationship and subsequent break-up there must have been a lot of times when, deep down, he wanted to just haul off and backhand her right in the mouth. So when he starts slapping her and saying, "You bitch, you never backed down in your life!", he's both acting on all the resentment and anger he must have at things she's said / done, and exorcising those urges too. It's almost the culmination of all the fights they've had: he's saying, you never backed down FROM ME. At that moment, they're exploring the deepest abyss of the human heart.

It's also probably worth mentioning that filming that scene supposedly really took it's toll on the cast and crew....Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio reportedly finally just stormed off the set, screaming at Cameron that she couldn't take it anymore, and Ed Harris is said to have burst into tears while driving back to the hotel that night.