Family Time Movie Theater: Suicide and Suicide Attempts

In The Blog by Dr James Wellborn

When it comes to family movie time don’t shy away from films that have serious issues like those that have suicide or suicide attempts in the story line.  Watch them WITH your kid so you can talk about the issues involved and find out what they think (and how they feel) about stress, disappointment and despair.  Most will be somewhat intense experiences, which makes them worth viewing together.  Here are a few good ones with that theme.

Dead Poets Society (PG)

An idealistic liDead Poets Society movie posterterature teacher returns to his boarding school alma mater to help students learn to follow their own dreams.  He runs into the hoary traditions of the prestigious school and the oppressive expectations of some of the parents for their kids.  One student kills himself in response to his parents lack of support and the teacher gets the blame.  It is not a tidy ending.  This is a good movie to watch with your kids to talk about following your own path and dealing with disappointment.
Here are a few other movies that deal with suicide, completed or attempted: Ordinary People (the grand daddy of suicide movies), Perks of Being A Wallflower, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Odd girl out, Cyberbully
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