Old People Movies and Old Dog Movies: a guarantee of a death?

 Hi there

When I was a kid I was horrified over the death of "Old Yeller", the dog in the Disney movie.  It took me right up until "Marley and Me" (2008) to realise that the pet in most movies - usually a dog - died at the end.

What?  Huh?  Oh, no...

I have to be the world's worst howl-iest, sob-iest, cry-iest movie-goer ever.  If there's a sad ending, I exit theatres with red eyes and a runny nose.  If an animal dies, I'm gasping and heart-broken.  The tears are often still flowing when I'm a 100 metres from the theatre.

So ... I gave up animal movies ("Watership Down", anyone?)

And then I discovered that old people in movies were also popping their clogs at a great rate. Any movie aimed at an older audience was guaranteed to have a death just before the end credits.  Poor Graham in "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" was an end-of-movie goner.  And not content with just Carter dying in "The Bucket List", we also got Edward thrown in as last-minute bonus.  Cancer, heart attacks, dementia are endings most used for movies centred around The Last Hurrah of old people.

I don't want to reveal a lot of movie plots in this blog so I'll just finish with a request to movie producers:  Hey, Mr Producer ...  how about a happy ending in an old people movie?    Oh, and while you're at it, don't forget about the doggies either....

above: stock photo of poster.