Hollywood Methods That DO NOT Work

[Help_Me]

Don't you think all these Hollywood methods are made just to lead us to failure ?

 

[Johnnythefox]

Don't you think all these Hollywood methods are made just to lead us to failure ?

I don't think so, not much is portrayed realistically in the movies. Look at older movies and there is no blood anywhere when someone gets shot.

 

[TiredHorse]

Don't you think all these Hollywood methods are made just to lead us to failure ?

As a writer, I think there are a couple things happening.

The first is that in the same way newspapers don't report the details of suicides, to discourage "copycats," Hollywood doesn't want to give accurate depictions of suicide that could lead to studios being sued. Sure, if a character dies by leaping off a cliff, there isn't much a director can do to blunt the accuracy of that depiction. But at the same time, if the method of suicide is more involved, he won't dwell on any details that might have people from here on ssf taking notes as they sit in the theater.

The other aspect is one any storyteller is aware of: the director doesn't want to dwell on the method, they want to portray the effect to evoke a response in the audience. It doesn't matter that a character cut her wrists, it matters that she was desperate and that she chose a private setting to succumb to that desperation. Over-simplifying the act of suicide allows the audience to feel what it meant to the character without the storyline being bogged down by technical details. They resort to tropes as a shorthand that keeps the story moving, and most of those tropes about suicide happen to be technically inaccurate.

BUT, the problem with using inaccurate tropes in the movies is that then people like us get inaccurate ideas about methods, or even about how difficult it really is to kill one's self. So I thought this thread might nip some of those misimpressions in the bud, so to speak.

 

[TAW122]

^ I believe all those reasons you've listed are very logical and legitimate ones especially from an organization that makes millions of dollars and not wanting to taint their image in the public's eye. Also, from an viewer's perspective, you are also correct that they don't want people to dwell and be hung up on the details but focus on the storyline itself.

BUT, the problem with using inaccurate tropes in the movies is that then people like us get inaccurate ideas about methods, or even about how difficult it really is to kill one's self. So I thought this thread might nip some of those misimpressions in the bud, so to speak.

Exactly, the less misinformation or inaccurate info or myths out there, the better it is.

 

[galaxyencrypted]

In the scene of "13 Reasons Why" she makes cutting her wrists look really easy. I hate to see impressionable young people trying to copy this ineffectual way of CTB. They're more likely to end up with horrific injuries to their arms and surviving.

if one we're to do that, just as it shows in the tv show, how could the attempt be completed? I've heard there's main veins in your wrists and I'm curious on how deep one has to cut, to cut those and finally die.

 

[OkTotti]

if one we're to do that, just as it shows in the tv show, how could the attempt be completed? I've heard there's main veins in your wrists and I'm curious on how deep one has to cut, to cut those and finally die.

Could you please read the title of this thread? These are the methods that do not work

 

[Xerxes]

if one we're to do that, just as it shows in the tv show, how could the attempt be completed? I've heard there's main veins in your wrists and I'm curious on how deep one has to cut, to cut those and finally die.

Yes, they're are arteries and veins, but also nerves, tendons, and bone. You'll hit the nerves first, which will tell your brain, "This is a bad idea, ouchie ouchie, you stupid moron". If you do make it to your goal, then blood comes out and you have wait an eternity while your pain sensors are screaming at you. By that time you've given up due to pain and get help and your wrist are screwed for life after surgery. Not a viable method no matter how well you cut it.

 

[MsM3talGamer]

if one we're to do that, just as it shows in the tv show, how could the attempt be completed? I've heard there's main veins in your wrists and I'm curious on how deep one has to cut, to cut those and finally die.

Yeah, like the others said, this is a method that you should be avoiding.

 

[JohnDoe1]

Avicii slit his wrists (or neck, according to some sources) using a broken wine bottle.

 

[TiredHorse]

Under perfect, dumb-luck conditions, most of which are beyond conscious control, almost any of the listed Hollywood methods are potentially fatal --by chance. Most of them have been used successfully --by chance.

Given how the odds have stacked up against all of us here having a good life, do we really want to rely on chance?

I wrote the OP list to provide a resource for those arriving with no clear idea of how to ctb: these are methods not worth exploring, no matter what you may have seen in your favorite movie. If someone wants to ctb effectively, they would do much better to research more proven methods/approaches. But this is a pro-choice site, and if someone wants to choose a method with a proven low success rate, far be it from me to restrain them further.

 

[TheCrow]

Sylvia Plath died this way.

I was totally just going to say this! This has always terrified me.

 

[TheCrow]

Speaking of Hollywood this reminds me of Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. He killed a guy with a pencil

I was just thinking of that, too! Get out of my head!