It’s time to let this clich
I’m sure you’ve seen it, either in a TV show or a movie:
Character D has no pulse and is not breathing. Characters A and B try desperately to revive D using CPR or those shocky-things. But it appears to be no use.
Finally, B says, “D’s gone. We have to accept it. It’s time to let D go.”
A and B stop trying to revive D. They cry.
Then A desperately starts trying to revive D again, usually prefacing the attempt with something like, “Come on, D! You never gave up on anything in your life! Don’t give up now!”
After a few more pounds on the chest or shocks with the paddles, D coughs and sputters back to life.
Now, I don’t object to seeing characters revived through the use of CPR and/or defibrillators. (Did you really think I didn’t know what the shocky-things were called?) What I object to is the dramatic device of having A and B stop resucitation, in order to make the audience believe the character really is dead, and then allowing the character to be revived by a second effort.
Think about it. CPR scenes basically fall into three categories:
1. Initial CPR attempt succeeds.
2. Initial CPR attempt fails, and the character remains dead.
3. Initial CPR attempt fails, there’s an emotional pause, and then a desperate second attempt succeeds.
Every desperate second attempt I recall seeing seems to have been successful — which means the only reason characters in category #2 remain dead is because they didn’t have anybody desperate enough to try again. How sad.
Screenwriters should just let this clich
Yes, I was rather irritated when they did it on Lost. I’m no doctor, but isn’t there brain damage if you don’t breathe for that long? Maybe that’s why Charlie isn’t talking much anymore.
That’s funny. So true though.
Amen, brother!
The Perils of Movie Cliches
Losing his patience for movie cliches, Eric James Stone lashes out at that most cliched of scenes, the revival of a patient by an ambitious or emotional doctor after his colleagues have given up hope of doing just that. Never is the laziness of scr…
While we’re on the topic of movie cliches, can I nominate one too?
Variations of “that idea is so crazy it just might work.”
Some day I hope to see a movie where the countdown to the explosion which will incinerate the (universe, solar system, planet, continent, state, city, building, warehouse–take your pick) gets down to more than one minute left, and ………they defuse it.
Have you ever timed the countdown? Talk about the relativity of time….