Movie characters you felt bad for.

[Tom Samborski]

Have you ever seen a character in a movie, and when something unfortunate happens (or when something unfortunate is happening), the two words that come to your mind are "poor guy/girl!" My pick would have to go to Duddits in Dreamcatcher. You can't help but feel bad for a mentally challenged person who was picked on during his childhood and is suffering from leukemia as an adult.

Other movie characters that I felt bad for:

Ted (Ben Stiller), There's Something About Mary
Billy (Brad Dourif), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Del Griffith (John Candy), Planes, Trains, And Automobiles

[A.J. Hakari]

Milton (Stephen Root), OFFICE SPACE. Just give the guy his damn stapler. :(

[MovieMan75]

Quiz Kid Donnie Smith in Magnolia.

[jackson13]

Whitey in 8 Crazy Nights.


The poor old guy lived with his sister, and worked his ass off in the community and everyone made fun of him and hurt him.


Sure, the movie sucked ass, but I felt sorry for him and didnt laugh at all when people picked on him or hurt him. I dont know why Sandler though it'd be funny to make fun of and hurt an old guy. Maybe thats why the movie didnt get good reviews nor make good money, everyone else felt the same way.

[Indiana Sev]

Originally posted by jackson13
Whitey in 8 Crazy Nights.

The poor old guy lived with his sister, and worked his ass off in the community and everyone made fun of him and hurt him.


Whitey got to me too - a lot. :(

[MacReady]

Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver
Alex when he's getting picked on constantly after the Ludovico treatment from A Clockwork Orange
Barry Egan from Punch Drunk Love

I'll think of more tommorow (at least I hope so).

[t3h Qster]

Originally posted by Adam J. Hakari
Milton (Stephen Root), OFFICE SPACE. Just give the guy his damn stapler. :(

no fucking shit and everyone gives him a hard time.......burn them all Milton!!!!!!!!!

[Guy Strong]

Donny - The Big Lebowski

Billy - One Flew Over The Cockoo's Nest

Gollum - The Two Towers

Berry Ggan - Punch-Drunk Love

[phelonious]

Off the top of my head, I can think of two:

The housekeeper in SCHINDLER'S LIST, when the job opens up, she doesn't even want it. She doesn't even volunteer for a job. And then she has to live in the same house with that fricking nazi sociopath. Poor girl.


The dopey G.I. Vincent D'Onofrio plays in FULL METAL JACKET, the drill instructor thinks he's being coy so he keeps slugging him until he wipes the smile off his face. Then later he gets ostracised by the entire platoon. Poor bastard.

[electriclite]

Officer Alex Murphy aka Robocop


I think we all know what scene I'm thinking of:(

[Sugar_Kane]

There were times when I felt bad for Christian in Moulin Rouge.

[Hannibal21]

Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane

[the saw is family]

matt fowler-in the bedroom
warren schmidt-about schmidt
bob flanagan-sick the life and death of bob flanagan supermasochist (jesus christ this movie really got to me)
nick-the deer hunter

[movieguy1021]

Originally posted by Adam J. Hakari
Milton (Stephen Root), OFFICE SPACE. Just give the guy his damn stapler. :(

I didn't feel bad for Milton about the stapler. I wanted him to get a piece of cake! Damn you Peggy, or Nina, or whoever!

[VicVega]

Originally posted by electriclite
Officer Alex Murphy aka Robocop


I think we all know what scene I'm thinking of:(

Yeah, that was one of the most cruel scenes I've ever watched.

[MasterCXtreme]

Gay Focker (Ben Stiller) from Meet The Parents.

[Valentyne]

Edward (Johnny Depp) in Edward Scissorhands.

Seymour (Steve Buscemi) in Ghost World.

Polly in Girl, Interrupted.

[Directly2Deep]

Little Bill (William.H Macy)-Boogie Nights

His wife just did not respect him at all.

[TheAxeGrinder]

Ripley in Alien Resurrection

She deserved a much better fate (and movie, for that matter).

[randythetool]

about 90% of PT Anderson's characters come to mind.

barring that...

Ben Stiller from "Meet the Parents"
William H. Macy from "Panic"
Philip Seymour Hoffman from "Owning Mahowny"
Robert Deniro from "Taxi Driver"
Harvey Keitel from "Mean Streets"
Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman from "Rushmore"

[Jerk Shapiro]

Originally posted by Tom Samborski
[B]Dreamcatcher[/B



Yeah, I felt bad for that movie, too.


As for as characters:

Ben Stiller ~ Meet the Parents

Any slave character...

Damn, there's lots more, but I just can't think of them now. It makes me sad just thinking of them, though.

[San Quentin]

in this animated disney movie, i think it was the sword in the stone, some kid turns into a squirrel and plays around with this firl squirrel and the girl squirrel falls in love with the kid but then the kid turns back into a human and the girl squirrel cries. thats the saddest moment of all time.

[X-Nightcrawler]

Cherita Chen in Donnie Darko.


Ben Stiller in Meet The Parents...he just did EVERYTHING wrong. Right from not knowing how to greet his parents in law.

[TheDeadWalk]

Peter Washington (Dawn of the dead)

With the only other female around being knocked up and attached to another lead character, you cannot help but feel sorry for him and his possibility of never being able to put that Alabama blacksnake to use again.

[Squid Vicious]

John C. Reilly's and Philip Seymour Hoffman's characters in Magnolia. They were the only two in the movie who weren't utter morons.

[Jon Lyrik]

Originally posted by TheDeadWalk
Peter Washington (Dawn of the dead)

With the only other female around being knocked up and attached to another lead character, you cannot help but feel sorry for him and his possibility of never being able to put that Alabama blacksnake to use again.

Oh my god, I spat my popcorn there. Brilliant.

[Psychocandy]

Originally posted by TheDeadWalk
Peter Washington (Dawn of the dead)

With the only other female around being knocked up and attached to another lead character, you cannot help but feel sorry for him and his possibility of never being able to put that Alabama blacksnake to use again.

That is some funny shite. Cheers for that. :D

Anyway...

I felt bad for Selma as played by Bjork in Lars Von Trier's brilliant but damn depressing Dancer In The Dark.

[NuclearMisfit]

Dante from Clerks He wasnt even supposed to be there that day

[Rob Feature]

Leonard - Memento
Mike - Swingers
Seymour - Ghost World
Donny - The Big Lebowski

Poor Steve Buscemi. :(

[SkyNet]

im going to say Ed Nortons Character from American History X (Spoilers Ahead) Because at the end when his brother was shot and killed, he thought it was because of him, because of actions in his past had copme back to haunt him. He thought he killed his brother. And he was just trying to get his life together and all the shit kept goin on that sucked him back in.

[one_crow_sorrow]

Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver

[dillhead005]

I always feel bad for the Ben Stiller character. He always plays those kinds of roles. And Oh yeah, The Quiz Kid, Donnie Smith from Magnolia.

[Scarface98.9]

Michael Corleone from The Godfather trilogy.

His whole future was determined by his admirable goal of wanting to protect his father. After he did what was needed, he was never able to live his life, free of sin again :(

[Annie Hall]

Aside from the many mentioned that I agree with (among them Michael Corleone, Christian and Selma)

I felt bad for Léon. Poor bastard just wanted to live his life, drink his milk, and kill people...maybe

SPOILERS for THE PROFESSIONAL


Run away with his 12 year old and be in love and stuff...



END spoilers

But, noooo. It's just, all, bad and...:(

[Dorff]

Sy Parrish in One Hour Photo
Joe Black in Meet Joe Black
Fredo in The Godfather I, II

[BadCoverVersion]

Del Griffith - Planes, Trains & Automobiles

[NormanBates]

A real-life movie character:

Uncle Bill from American Movie.

Every time he's on screen, I want to laugh and cry simultaneously. But these polar opposites in feeling sort of cancel each other out, so I just feel stuck.

"It's all right, it's okay, um..."


MARK: Whoa, Bill, that's a WICKED toenail dair.
UNCLE BILL: I know.
MARK: Dat thing's a quarter of an inch thick! It looks like a science photo!
UNCLE BILL: Science photo?
MARK: Yeah, looks like some kinda science experiment.
UNCLE BILL: Science experiment?

[LedFloyd]

William H. Macy in Fargo - Man, talk about a plan going bad.

Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream - Need I say more?
And last but not least......
That guy(s) whos balls get squeezed in The Exorcist

[Lindsey]

Michael Clarke Duncan (John Coffey) - The Green Mile
Bubba - Day of the Dead
Forest Whitaker (Burnham) - Panic Room
Nick Stahl (Bobby) - Bully
Ernie Hudson (Solomon) - The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

[Briare Rabbit]

I don't know... the only characters I've ever felt bad for were Bo Bridges and Christian Slater in The Wizard and this guys named Jake in Friday the 13th Part 5.

[gyro_44]

Originally posted by Directly2Deep
Little Bill (William.H Macy)-Boogie Nights

His wife just did not respect him at all.
Ditto on that.

"Bill... you're embarassing me!" CLASSIC!

Actually, as others have pointed out, lots of Macy characters fit into this category. In "Fargo", you did feel bad for him, but that was sustained somewhat by the fact that he was masterminding the kidnapping of his own wife. Great actor.

[CyclicNightmare]

Even though he's not even a main character, I certainly felt bad for the Howard Marks in the opening of Minority Report.

First, he attempts to spend more time with his wife. -- "I've been working too much anyway."

He is also very naive. -- "He looked familiar ... a man standing in the park across the street. I've seen him before." "I guess that's why you look so nice."

The actor does a wonderful job portraying the anger and hurt that the man must be feeling. You can't help but feel bad for him as the Precrime cops are taking him away. "I didn't do anything! I wasn't gonna do anything!"

Not to mention that fucking paper boy throws the goddamn newspaper right next to the fucking sprinkler!!

[Costanza]

Michael Jeter's character in The Green Mile.

[Saruman]

Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver)
Angelo (Scarface)
Lt. Dan (Forrest Gump)

[spacemonkey]

Cherita Chan in Donnie Darko- they didnt respect her, just because she was fat and from another country, I felt sorry when shes doing her performance and someone screams "Get of the stage Cherita!" and she just gives this look that really gets to me. Then they show her outside of the school crying. Thats just not right.

[Weird_Kitty_Cat]

Nick Andros from The Stand (felt more for him in the book tho)
Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause
Cal from East of Eden
Jett Rink from Giant
the chick in Vault of Horror with the clean freak for a husband, it was like no matter how hard she tried nothing was ever good enough or somethin else went wrong.
Johnny in Poolhall Junkies
Walter in Kalifornia
Johnny in The Dead Zone
Junior in Last House on the Left that last part was just...damn man

-meghan

[jackson13]

Its not a person, but I feel sorry for the cat in 'Eight Legged Freaks' everytime I watch it. I am a major cat/animal lover, and hate seeing animals mistreated, and apparently the makers of the movie thought it would be funny if they had a cute little kitty cat slammed into a wall a bajillion times by a mutant spider, while the family watches in horror as their only, and much beloved pet, is being brutally slaughtered in front of their own eyes. Just a sick, sick, sick scene to me, and totally uncalled for. I liked the movie, but because of this reason, and this reason alone, It knocked my rating of the movie was down.

Sometimes I wonder what goes through writers minds when they are coming up with script ideas, but with Adam Sandler thinking it would be funny having a poor lonely old man get beat up and disrespected in 8 Crazy Nights and whoever wrote Eight Legged Freaks having a cat get brutally slaughtered inside a wall by a mutant spider, and trying to make it comical by having the cat get imprinted in the drywall everytime it gets slammed into it by the spider, and by yowling each time, I feel that they need a dose of their own medicine and see how it feels. Fuckers.

[DeadSkinMask]

Sylvester Stallone in First Blood, especially towards the end. The cop (Brian Dennehy) was a real dick. The sad part is that most small towns have a cop or two that act just like that.

[TheDeadWalk]

Originally posted by jackson13
Its not a person, but I feel sorry for the cat in 'Eight Legged Freaks' everytime I watch it. I am a major cat/animal lover, and hate seeing animals mistreated, and apparently the makers of the movie thought it would be funny if they had a cute little kitty cat slammed into a wall a bajillion times by a mutant spider, while the family watches in horror as their only, and much beloved pet, is being brutally slaughtered in front of their own eyes. Just a sick, sick, sick scene to me, and totally uncalled for. I liked the movie, but because of this reason, and this reason alone, It knocked my rating of the movie was down.

Sometimes I wonder what goes through writers minds when they are coming up with script ideas, but with Adam Sandler thinking it would be funny having a poor lonely old man get beat up and disrespected in 8 Crazy Nights and whoever wrote Eight Legged Freaks having a cat get brutally slaughtered inside a wall by a mutant spider, and trying to make it comical by having the cat get imprinted in the drywall everytime it gets slammed into it by the spider, and by yowling each time, I feel that they need a dose of their own medicine and see how it feels. Fuckers.

I can understand feeling sympathy for the animals as characters, but why is it wrong to kill/brutalize animals in films? Even the original Halloween featured Michael Myers killing a dog, and Jason Voorhees himself has killed multiple canines in his duration.

Someone from the horror forum even posted the question, why is it commonly acceptable to show humans being butchered in films, but we gasp in revolt should it happen to an animal? If they were really killing the animal I would understand, but it's just cinema here.

And as for giving the fuckers a dose of their own medicine, that would probably have them retort with "Put me through drywall via CGI?!?! I THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER FUCKING ASK!!!"

Followed by shouting chorus of "Excellent!" finalized with some air guitar motions Bill and Ted style.

[gyro_44]

Originally posted by jackson13
Its not a person, but I feel sorry for the cat in 'Eight Legged Freaks' everytime I watch it. I am a major cat/animal lover, and hate seeing animals mistreated, and apparently the makers of the movie thought it would be funny if they had a cute little kitty cat slammed into a wall a bajillion times by a mutant spider, while the family watches in horror as their only, and much beloved pet, is being brutally slaughtered in front of their own eyes.
Well, I'm a major animal lover as well, and I often hate seeing an animal being hurt or killed in a film more than a human being. Having said that, I thought that scene in "Eight Legged Freaks" was funny. It's just plain goofy, and the imprints the cat is making as it is slammed into the wall are downright cartoonish. For this reason I have no problem with it.

How about a few of the soldiers in "Saving Private Ryan", like Giovanni Ribisi and Adam Goldberg as that German plunges the knife into his chest. Scary stuff.

[MonkeyGoat]

Did anyone else feel bad for the Duke in Moulin Rouge? I mean he got played hardcore. Poor fellow. He wasn't that bad looking.

[Jim H]

The stereotype I call "basically nice guy who tries to do good and gets fucked in the ass over and over again for his troubles, before a miraculously happy ending wraps everything up", or BNGWTTDGAGFITAOAOAFHTBAMHEWEU for short.

A good example of this would be Whitey as mentioned, or in other Sandler flick, Anger Management.

There are other movies like this, but I can't think of them. They're almost always comedies.

[spacemonkey]

I just thought of another one I felt really sorry for:

Liz in Starship Troopers...she never gave up on being with Ricco, she really did love him and he kinda warmed up to her and they were together for one night.

But then on a bug attack on Planet P a bug kills her....just before she dies...she says "at least I got to have you.." and then gags and dies...

Man that scene allways gets that actress did a damn fine job. Her name eludes me right now, but she was great on that scene.

[arby19]

Bobby Kent in Bully - He was a complete asshole but he didnt deserve to die like that.

Like every character is Magnolia.

[Tagia_Romero]

O-Ren Ishii (Kill Bill). She wasn't BAD per se, not at all. She had seen many traumatic things since she was a child and she managed to learn self control even though inside of her, her emotions were storming. Only once or twice did she come close to letting it go.
T-101 (T2) When he gets lowered into the lead... that sequence has never failed to bring a tear to my eye because he was benevolent. Sarah said that he would never get drunk, abuse or yell at John, it would always be there to protect him.
Kyle Reese (The Terminator) He did his job and he loved Sarah, but he knew deep down that he was never meant to see the world before the war, to see it's thriving vitality with all of it's healthy people living normal lives.
Mathilda (The Professional) A world wise 12 year old girl who wanted to avenge the death of her little brother from her otherwise trashed up family)

[Dead Halloween]

The testicular cancer guys from Fight Club. And from the same movie, that lady with cancer who wanted to have sex before she dies. :(

[Anthony4sho]

John Nash - A beautiful Mind

I feel bad when they throw him in the mental institution and from then on its all down hill for him.

[flowrchild]

Originally posted by Lindsey
Nick Stahl (Bobby) - Bully

Interesting choice.

Some characters I felt bad for: (warning: very random)

Forrest Gump: He was a genuinelly good guy, and he had to deal with the Jennie the bitch running in and out of his life at her convenience. He wanted to be taken seriously and it seems like everyone was just always talking down to him.

Rosie Perez in Fearless: Self explanatory to anyone who saw this amazing movie.

Josh Hartnett in Here On Earth: Now now, I am not saying pap about the quality of this movie, but I did feel very bad for his character. He was madly in love with the girl and not only does she die, but first she breaks his heart to be with some generic yuppie WASP. Talk about being kicked when you're down.

Jena Malone in Bastard Out Of Carolina: Also self explanatory.

Martha Dumptruck in Heathers. She had to attend school with a bunch of morons, and got constantly teased for her weight.

[phallusinchains]

michael myers-halloween ressurection

[syxxpac]

- Lester Burnham in American Beauty. The poor guy gets basically trampled, ridiculed and mistreated by everybody in his life, which is exactly why I loved watching him exact his form of revenge.

- T-101 in T2 and Kyle Reese in T1, for the same reasons described above by Tagia.

- The T-Rex in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It just wanted its child back :(

- Kate Brewster in T3. She had her entire life around her destroyed within a span of 24 hours.

[jackson13]

Got a new one.

Possible Spoilers.


Therman Murman (the little kid) in Bad Santa.

I just felt so bad for the kid. His dad was in Jail, his mom died, his Grandma took care of him, he was overweight, picked on a lot, slightly retarded.....the list just goes on and on. All he wants is to be Santas friend and Santa treats him and talks to him like crap. He gets beat up by the skater kids, cuts his own hand trying to make a present for Santa, gets his Advent Calendar, that he loved, destroyed. I just felt bad for the kid the whole movie. I still liked the movie, and thought it was funny as hell, but the poor kid just really made me sad.

[NuclearMisfit]

Originally posted by jackson13
Its not a person, but I feel sorry for the cat in 'Eight Legged Freaks' everytime I watch it. I am a major cat/animal lover, and hate seeing animals mistreated, and apparently the makers of the movie thought it would be funny if they had a cute little kitty cat slammed into a wall a bajillion times by a mutant spider, while the family watches in horror as their only, and much beloved pet, is being brutally slaughtered in front of their own eyes. Just a sick, sick, sick scene to me, and totally uncalled for. I liked the movie, but because of this reason, and this reason alone, It knocked my rating of the movie was down.

Sometimes I wonder what goes through writers minds when they are coming up with script ideas, but with Adam Sandler thinking it would be funny having a poor lonely old man get beat up and disrespected in 8 Crazy Nights and whoever wrote Eight Legged Freaks having a cat get brutally slaughtered inside a wall by a mutant spider, and trying to make it comical by having the cat get imprinted in the drywall everytime it gets slammed into it by the spider, and by yowling each time, I feel that they need a dose of their own medicine and see how it feels. Fuckers.


agreed big time, I hate any movie with animal cruelity, especially when the animal whimpers when the evil deed is happening it just gets to me and I hate that shit. I dont find that funny at all what happened to the cat or the dog. assholes. Ive only seen a couple minutes of 8LF and I refuse to watch it.

[Jim H]

Originally posted by NuclearMisfit
agreed big time, I hate any movie with animal cruelity, especially when the animal whimpers when the evil deed is happening it just gets to me and I hate that shit. I dont find that funny at all what happened to the cat or the dog. assholes. Ive only seen a couple minutes of 8LF and I refuse to watch it.

Yeah, as we all know... 100 people being killed = Funny. 1 cat being killed = Not funny.

[Christoph]

The kid from Bad Santa, Thurman Murman.

[thompsoncory]

I felt so bad for Emma Thompson's character in LOVE ACTUALLY when she gets the Christmas gift. Her reaction is so sad that your heart literally feel sore afterwards.

[FILMaster]

I felt awful for...

Jennifer Connolly as "Marion" in Requiem for a Dream
Ellen Burstyn as "Sara" in Requiem for a Dream
William H Macy as "Donnie" in Magnolia
Nicole Kidman as "Grace" in Dogville (of course, until the end, lol)

[MacReady]

Ken Pile from A Fish Called Wanda
Phil Connors from Groundhog Day
Alot of characters from The Pianist

I also agree with everybody about who talked about animals getting killed. I didn't even like when those cartoons dogs we're killed in Akira.

[meccajay]

Harold Carvey(veterinarian) The Getaway(1994)