DEATH ANXIETY AND PERSONIFICATIONS OF DEATH IN FILM

Abstract

For nearly a century movies have played an important role in reflecting American cultural values and norms. During that time technological changes have increased the effective life of a film to unimaginable lengths beyond the original theatre circuit. Since film has become an artistic, audio/visual reflection of American society, it is not surprising that it reveals society's fears and taboos. Film contains symbols of our fears, anxieties, and personifications of death. Although film has been studied since its inception, the thanatological aspects and perspectives of the medium have been largely unexplored. Knowledge of the representations of death issues and death anxiety in film gives the thanatologist a framework for choosing appropriate films for death education as well as bereavement support. Death-stimuli in films was operationalized as either factors found in death anxiety (Durlak and Kass, 1981) or personifications of death (Kastenbaum and Anisenberg, 1972; Kastenbaum and Herman, 1997). Two-hundred and thirty-five films as diverse as Death Takes a Holiday (1934), All That Jazz (1979), Dream with the Fishes (1997), and Memento (2001) were reviewed revealing a trend towards an avoidance of death anxiety elements or issues associated with a long dying trajectory, and a new personification of death with Death as The Mentor found in some films where a long dying trajectory is portrayed.