WASTELAND

It seems serendipitous that my training as a Sociologist helps me understand things that are not about Sociology at all. This happened when I watched the films I discuss in this two-part series about the aftermaths of unimaginable traumas. In part one I look at Lars, the Emo Kid, which is about a teenage boy whose best friend commits suicide, and The Bridge, a documentary that recounts the impact that people’s suicides have on those who are left behind.

Depending on who you ask, Sociology either has various paradigms, or does not have any paradigms at all. I do not know which is right. I just know that I love the rich collection of perspectives that my field offers. Two of these are conservativism, which Sociologists refer to as Structural Functional Theory, and liberalism, which we call Conflict Theory. You can think of Structural Functional Theory, which argues that social structures last because they work, as meaning “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and you can think of Conflict Theory, which contends that social structures only work for people who have wealth and power, as saying, “it is broke, and we need to fix it.” Rather than being discrete concepts, however, these ideologies exist on a complex spectrum and converge somewhere in the middle. It is this middle ground that I am interested in and will expound on in Part 2.

 

Lars the Emo Kid, 2015

Like many Indie films, Lars, the Emo Kid had such a small budget that people had to take on more than one job. For example, the screen writer Pax Gilmore also played Lars, and the director Joe Grisaffi was the executive producer, cinematographer, and editor. He even provided the voiceover for the shopping cart. There is so little biographical information about Pax that his bio is not on Wikipedia. However, IMDB reveals that he has appeared in several other films, has written screenplays, and directed two of his own short subjects Citizen Bonzo and Space Drugs. I also remember seeing somewhere that he is from Austin, Texas, which makes sense because Joe Grisaffi hails from Houston where he has a successful company named Southwest Casting. He also produced and appeared in over a hundred separate works that include film shorts, full-feature movies, videos, commercials, TV series episodes like Friday Night Lights (2008) and More Than Human (2014).

Meet the Houston Actor from Mothers Against Greg Abbott Ads | Houstonia Magazine

I tried to find a definition of Emo, but it turns out that the term is not straightforward and it has changed over time. This term describes a subgenre of punk music that expresses feelings of sadness or disappointment dates to the 1980s. However, nowadays, it often refers to a person who uses a dark appearance, attitude, literature, poetry, and/or music to express their somber emotions. Some sources say that emo people also express feelings of deep sadness through self-harm, like cutting or suicide, but that seems backward to me because I think the desire to cut or kill oneself probably leads to a person adopting the emo lifestyle instead of the other way around.

Why Are People Emo? (11 Revealing Reasons)

The movie opens in a high school History class. As the teacher gives students an assignment, Lars Hyde (Paxton Gilmore) is busy composing a poem that compares society to “an abattoir (slaughterhouse) that uses what they can and throws the rest away.” This somber opening depicts the troubled teenager as a solitary person who has become fixated on death since his best friend Evan committed suicide. Unable to express his grief in any other way, Lars fails exams, thinks in poetry, cries about the smallest things, and cuts himself. He also has become a victim of the jocks, who bully him because they consider his behavior effeminate. His biggest tormentor is Blake (Eric Schneider) who inexplicably has it in for him.

If Blake and Evan were his only problems, Lars might not be so miserable, but his home life is a wreck too. His mother Cindy (Sara Gaston) has walked out, leaving Lars alone with his father Randy (his real name is not listed anywhere) who handles his broken marriage by constantly drinking alcohol and weeping over everything. The only time Lars sees his mother is when she takes him out to eat, but she spoils their time together by flirting with waiters (Estebahn 1 and 2 (Bardia Matin and Pablo Bracho), trying on clothes, and gulping handfuls of Lars’ antidepressants. Thus, it is not surprising that he spends most of his time in his room sleeping with Evan’s shirt, drawing disturbing pictures, writing sad verses, and carving up his wrists.

Things change when he goes to the local playground one evening and meets a group of emo kids: Leonard (Tyler Tackett), Gina (Alyssa Dujmovich), Emily (Rebecca Bertot), and Donnie “Darko” (David Simpson). Their bold makeup, uncool behavior, and musical taste indicate that they also are misfits, and he starts to feel comfortable in their presence. This is particularly true of Leonard who shares opinions about life and God which reminds Lars of discussions he used to have with Evan.

The next day Lars goes to Totali-Mart to visit Leonard at work. Glad to see his new friend, Leonard abandons his duties and takes Lars to the back of the store where he shares more about himself, like relating that he dropped out of school because he believed it messes people up. Then, while Ravel’s “Balero” plays in the background he introduces Lars to Miranda (Roxy Vandiver), the girl he is crushing on. By then it is his break time, so he takes Lars outside and while he smokes, Lars begins to talk about the things at school that bother him, especially “the jocks, the jerks, and the girls who ignore him.” In complete agreement, Leonard says he believes that “discrimination is the cherished past time of civilized humanity” because it criticizes things that it does not understand.

As if Leonard is on a campaign to introduce Lars to the seedier side of life, he takes him to meet Jerry (Jeremiah Kliesing), his father’s friend, to get some alcohol. As Leonard promised, Jerry offers them beer, then brags about getting laid the previous night (by his wife), and entertains them with racist jokes. Lars is afraid of a lot of things, but clowns really freak him out, so when he goes to the bathroom and sees a clown costume hanging on the door, he immediately tells Leonard, and they run for their lives. While they are driving away, Leonard wonders aloud how many other people are “closet clowns,” inferentially exchanging the term clown for words like racist or homophobe. Still trying to get Lars to loosen up, Leonard next introduces him to his drug dealer Adrian, but instead of smoking pot with them, Lars passively watches as the two boys get stoned.

Ms. Harvey (Anne Quackenbush) the English teacher likes to have a Poetry Day for the class each semester and as the date draws near you can see the impact that Leonard has had on Lars. He changes his appearance and swipes his dad’s booze to drink while he composes a poem to Evan which reveals that his friend committed suicide by slitting his wrists. (Is that why Lars cuts his wrist?) When he reads the poem in class, most of the kids like it, but it embarrasses Blake because he also wrote a piece about Evan, but it is so inferior to Lars’ poem that he accepts an F rather than present it. Then, Evan’s former girlfriend Rosemay (Nicole Elliott) reads a mournful poem which is clearly about Lars that insinuates he will not let anyone get close to him. Afterwards they go outside and sit on the bleachers, and she continues trying to get through to Lars by asking him to try to fit in because she thinks Evan’s self-isolation led to his suicide. Is she worried that Lars might do the same thing, or is she just attracted to sad boys?

Along with using black eyeliner and nail polish like Leonard, Lars has also started wearing skintight pants, and when Blake comes after him, he cannot get away. Blake beats him up, then rips the pages out of the notebook that contains Evan’s poem before storming off. Lars picks up the scattered pages but accidentally misses the sheet that has a suicide note he had written. A student finds it and turns it in to Ms. Harvey who sends Lars to the guidance counselor Mr. Sutherland (Dan Braverman). Unfortunately, Mr. Sutherland does not have a clue how to do his job and attempts to make Lars feel better by reassuring him that “Bullies are (just) friends that play too rough” and that the SATs are the only thing that matters. Disgusted, Lars decides that everyone is “headed to the same dead end…adulthood” and decides to ask Adrian for a bottle of pills so he can kill himself.

I will stop here. If you want to know whether Lars commits suicide or whether Leonard ever gets up the nerve to ask Miranda out, you will have to watch the movie. It is available to stream online for free.

What I Watched Tonight | INDIES | Lars the Emo Kid

Lars the Emo Kid

 

Summary

Mixing tragedy with comedy is known as dark humor, where a story pokes fun at taboo subjects. According to sidesplitterscomedy.com, this form of humor allows people to talk about things that are uncomfortable but which they need to address. As an example, Studiobinder.com references a comical scene from the movie Deadpool where Deadpool’s friend tries stop him from killing the villain by telling him that doing the right thing will make him a hero. Not interested in being a hero, however, Deadpool chooses to kill the man anyway. This scene is reminiscent of one from Schindler’s List where Oskar Schindler, an industrialist tries to stop Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), the captain of the concentration camp where Schindler’s factory is located from killing Jews by telling him that real power is forgiveness. After chewing on this for a bit, Amon tries it out by pardoning a young inmate for failing to remove a stain from the bathtub, but he does not like how this feels so he shoots the boy as he is walking away. The funny scene and the heartbreaking scene are virtually the same but elicit different emotions because of the context.

What is Black Comedy? Definition and Examples for Filmmakers

Bing Videos

Schindler's List (power/forgiveness) | TheSource4YM

Personally, I do not get dark humor, but I do believe that teenage suicide is a genuine problem and if a film like Lars the Emo Kid can start a conversation about it, it is worth seeing at least once. Paxton Gilmore never attempts to explain why Evan killed himself. Perhaps he does not know or does not think it matters. Nevertheless, his film makes interesting points. First, there is someone for everyone. Even though Lars thinks he is alone, Leonard and Rosemary both strive to be his friend. Second, once is not enough. Although Lars repeatedly rejects their entreaties, Leonard and Rosemary keep trying. Third, things are not always what they seem. Blake might appear to have life figured out, but his irrational aggression suggests otherwise. Fourth, no matter how much you admire someone, you do not have to follow his example. Rosemary reminds Lars that imitating Evan could result in disastrous consequences. Overall, the film’s message is that Lars should think for himself rather than following someone else’s example. Hmmm, that is heavy for a ‘comedy.’ Wondering if these suggestions have any validity, I chose the following documentary for a comparison. 

What is Black Comedy? Definition and Examples for Filmmakers

Why We Use Dark Humor: The Psychology of Comedy - Sidesplitters

Shortened: RMY806v4-YT-16x9-af-24s-POD-HK1485.mp4

 

The Bridge, 2015

The CDC reports that between 35,000 and 50,000 people in the United States commit suicide every year and hundreds of thousands more make failed attempts. Although those over the age of 85 are the most likely to take their own lives, nearly a third of the people who commit suicide are between the ages of 15 and 34. Since males are nearly four times more likely to kill themselves than females, the most popular methods chosen are guns, suffocation, or poison, actions which typically are thought of as masculine. Eight percent of suicides, however, are via another method, including jumping from bridges. I couldn’t find statistics for the average number of American who kill themselves that way, but the bridges people prefer are the George Washington Memorial Bridge in Seattle, the George Washington Bridge in New York City, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, and the Coronado Bridge in San Diego. Overall, however, in 2004 when Steel collected the footage for this film the most popular bridge to jump from was the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Suicide Data and Statistics | Suicide Prevention | CDC

List of suicide locations - Wikipedia

Golden Gate Bridge suicides: A tragic history - Los Angeles Times

According to ranker.com, The Bridge is one of the fifteen most disturbing documentaries streaming because it shows footage of twenty-three of the twenty-four suicides that took place on the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. Eric Steel, who produced the award-winning movie Angela’s Ashes, chose to pursue the project after he read Tad Friend’s 2003 article “Jumpers” in the New Yorker Magazine. 

Considered one of the wonders of the modern world, the Golden Gate Bridge gained a less flattering reputation three months after it was completed when Harold Wabbor jumped from the ledge adding a certain mystique to the iconic structure. A more attractive factor for people who want to kill themselves, however, is the four-foot-high railing which is easy to transverse. Aware that numerous communities have added safety measures to prevent people from jumping off high locations, Friend collected data on the Golden Gate Bridge because nothing has been done to make it safer.  Steel picks up where he left off.

 Bridges and Suicide | Means Matter | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Bridge Rail Foundation - Golden Gate Bridge Suicides - History

Since the Golden Gate Bridge District Board ignored people's recommendations, Steel decided to try a different tactic by filming people jumping off the bridge into the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay. Aware that it would be hard to get permission, however, he simply claimed that his goal was to "capture the powerful, spectacular intersection of monument and nature that takes place every day at the Golden Gate Bridge" and the board agreed. He set up cameras and began to record everything that occurred on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway twenty-four hours a day for a full year. Then he enriched the footage of the people who jumped by interviewing their friends, families, and inadvertent witnesses. He also spoke with two people that bystanders saved and one jumper who survived. (The film crew prevented six suicides, but Steel does not show them.)

When the film opens, the camera pans across the Golden Gate Bridge enshrouded in an eerie cloud of dense fog. The site is a fundamental part of the San Francisco Bay coastline and draws throngs of people every day. Golfers practice on the shore, angler's fish in tides, families picnic on the grass, and luxurious cruise ships pass by, cast in the monolithic bridge’s shadow. While kayakers, boaters, and competitive swimmers plunge through the rolling waves, two hundred and forty-five feet above them pedestrians photograph the churning waters and cyclers pedal across the structure’s 1.07-mile span. Then, in juxtaposition to the shots of people enjoying themselves, Steel introduces clips of those that succumb to the bridge’s deadly siren song. Sometimes you only hear a splash or see a swirling eddy of froth usually you see people studying the dark abyss below, contemplating what it will feel like to jump, then resolutely pulling themselves over the rail and plunging down.

 

Those Left Behind

Steel interviewed friends and family members who struggled to understand why their loved ones committed suicide and why they chose the bridge to do so. For instance, Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Smith’s mother, Rachel Marker, sister, Tara Harrell, and brother Kyle Smith all acknowledge that Lisa struggled with schizophrenia and drug abuse for years before she killed herself but disagree why she jumped. Rachel believes her daughter was tired of suffering, and that death must have been a relief for her. Tara thinks Lisa became despondent when a love interest rejected her, and that choosing something as terrifying as jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge indicated how strongly she wanted to die. On the other hand, Kyle, who Tara describes as deeply religious, refuses to believe that his sister killed herself intentionally, but thinks she fell accidentally, or someone encouraged her to jump, and she went along to get attention.

Steel also went to Virginia to speak with Philip Manikow’s parents Wally and Mary. The couple recounts how awful it was to watch helplessly while their son endured repeated hospitalizations for his mental health. Wally recalls that Philp asked if he thought God would forgive him if he killed himself and Wally is glad that he said, “Yes.” Philip’s doctor prescribed medications to help control his symptoms, but his parents felt they helped him plan his death, instead. In fact, Wally and Mary recall that Philip was so determined to die that he spent hours on the computer researching ways to kill himself. When he finished, he told them that he was going to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and if he did not die immediately, he would swim so deep he would not be able to make it back to the surface. So that they would not blame themselves, he told them how much he loved them and reassured them that none of this was their fault. Then one day they got home from work, and he was gone. Certain that he had taken a bus to San Francisco, Wally considered calling the police there but decided not to. He figured if someone stopped Philip from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, he would just end his life another way and Wally did not want to put his son through that.

Steel goes on to share the stories of David Paige, Daniel ‘Ruby’ Rubenstein, and James ‘Jimmy’ Singer who also killed themselves by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. David’s friends describe him as a handsome man and a good dresser. They had always considered him a boisterous person who was the “life of the party” until one evening they were eating dinner, and he informed them that he was on antidepressants. This worried them because even though David knew he needed help, he was “rudderless” when it came to doing something about it. He could not stick with a treatment plan or talk about his problems. David’s roommate Gordon Smith says that David emailed his friends and told them he was going to commit suicide, instead of trying to get help. Gordon even arranged David’s pills to see if he was taking them and saw that David had not touched them. Overall, he does not believe anyone else could have helped David if he would not help himself. “There's obviously a fuzzy line between doing nothing and doing what would have prevented it and who knows where that line is? He was a grownup. I could not tell him what to do with his life.” Gordon has considered that David might still be alive if they had put him in the hospital, but there is not any way of knowing for sure. He finally concludes that although he’s sad David is gone, he is mostly angry with him for killing himself.

Ruby was another person who friends describe as the life of the party, someone who loved people and someone that people loved being around. Somehow, he lost his partner, job, and health insurance around the same time, and became disheartened. One of his friends who had done a lot of thinking about the suicide agreed to share her thoughts if she remained anonymous. She recalls giving Ruby her antidepressants because they had not helped her, but instead of making him feel better they made him worse. On their last night together, she took him to see a movie, but instead of watching it, he started weeping and she became worried that he might want to kill himself. Yet, when he asked if she would take him home with her, she told him no because she thought he needed time “to recover.” Later, after Ruby had jumped, she regretted not calling the police about having him admitted to the hospital, “I will never again not intrude.” Ultimately, she blames the bridge for her friend’s death. SAs far as she is concerned the Golden Gate Bridge has a reputation for being a romantic place to commit suicide, and she believes that the myth beckons to people who are depressed. They think that jumping from it will make them part of something special, instead of realizing that they will not enjoy being part of the legend if they are dead.

Like David and Ruby, “Jimmy” Singer’ had friends who loved him, and he loved bringing people together. Then according to Shelley Albar, he lost a lot of money and started saying things like "Well, if I don't sell these (Japanese ceramic) pots, I'm just gonna have to commit hara-kiri." When he jumped from the Golden Gate on March 9, 2004, people had difficulty coping with it, because they either worried that they would do the same thing or that they should have tried harder to save him. In the end, however, Shelley accepts that there was not anything she could have done, because his suicide was not her decision. As another friend reminded her, “(Jim) was warning you but he was not asking for help.”

Early in the documentary Steel zooms in on man wearing a black leather jacket who is casually leaning on the bridge’s railing. For the next ninety-three minutes (the length of the film) as the ocean breeze tugs at his long dark hair, he paces back and forth gazing into the water, then walking across the roadway, then coming back until he finally climbs onto the railing and falls to his death. This is Gene Sprague who his mother’s lifelong friend, Caroline Pressley, describes as “not of this world as we know it.” Caroline recalls that Gene’s mother always said she did not want children, but when she got pregnant in 1970, she could not get an abortion, so she had the baby and the two became inseparable. Caroline says that Gene started telling his mother that he wanted to die when he was very young, but she prevented it by scolding, "I didn't invest a lifetime in you to have you die on me, kill yourself, and walk away. You do not have a right to do that while I am alive.” Then she died of cancer, and Gene started saying that he could “finally end it all.”

Along with Caroline, Steel also interviewed Gene’s friends Dave Williams, and Matt and Jen Rossi with whom he was living. Dave recalls that Gene always wore black clothes and long hair and looked like “a cool rocker type” that attracted a lot of girls. Yet, he had problems with relationships because he would meet women on the internet, have sex with them and then would start falling in love without getting to know them. It got to the point that Gene thought getting out of California would help, as if somewhere else would be “a certain magical wonderland,” so he met a girl online who lived in St. Louis and moved there to be with her. Then one day Gene called Dave “in despair” because his relationship was falling apart. Since he was threatening to kill himself by lying his head on a train track or jumping off a bridge, Dave sent money, and Gene bought a bus ticket and came back home. Regarding his friend’s suicide, Dave says that his strongest emotion is anger, because he could not believe that his best friend would do that to him.

Matt and Jen describe Gene as “overly dramatic” in general so whenever he talked about dying, they did not take him seriously. Besides, even though he complained about his inability to find a job and establish a relationship, he nevertheless was fun to be around. On the day that Gene jumped, he was writing “End Me” on the driveway with the kids’ sidewalk chalk. This upset Jen’s son so much that he asked her why Gene was doing that. Looking back Matt remembers that as he was leaving for work, he told Gene to cheer up, that everything would be okay. Jen recounts how frustrated she felt with him because he was smart but did not seem to be trying to find a job. She sadly reminisces that on the morning he died, there was a message on the answering machine from a company he was interested in working for offering him the management position that really wanted. Her final thought is that she wonders whether he heard it or if it would have made any difference if he had.

Like others whose loved ones killed themselves, Caroline reports feeling relieved that Gene does not have to suffer any longer. “I don’t have any answers anymore, just a bunch of observations and a bunch of experience of feeling disturbed about that situation.” In fact, she believes that most people find their lives dissatisfying at one time or another, but they let the feeling pass and get on with it. As to why Gene chose to jump from the bridge, she speculates, “Maybe he just wanted to fly one time.”

Suicide by jumping from height - Wikipedia

Jumpers | The New Yorker

The Bridge (2006) | Watch Free Documentaries Online

 

Witnesses

The first interviews Steel presents are with Chris Brown and Eric Geleynse who describe an encounter they had while they were kiting, which involves attaching a kite to a surfboard and letting the wind pull it across the water or into the air. Chris recounts that he saw a “mass” falling at him but fortunately was able to get out of the way. Then when he realized the mass was a person, he went closer to see if he could help, but “the current sucked (the man) under” before he could do anything.

Next Steel interviews Susan Ginwala, who recalls that she was driving across the bridge and thinking that the day was exceptionally perfect, when she saw a man stand on the railing, put out his arms and disappear over the side. Her heart started racing and she felt like crying because she was probably the last person to see him alive. Wanting to report what she had witnessed, Susan went to the tower, spoke to a highway patrolman, and asked if what she saw was a rare occurrence. Surprisingly, he smiled sadly and responded, “it happens all the time.” Steel does not include the dates that these incidents occurred so there is no way to know who the jumper was, but I strongly suspect that Susan saw Gene because he is the only person in the documentary that stands on the railing to commit suicide.  

Later in the documentary Steel speaks with a couple that decided to spend Easter Sunday with their children on the Golden Gate Bridge. They were taking pictures when a young woman approached, set a parcel down, smiled at them, and leaped off. This had to be Lisa because she is the only person that jumped from the bridge on Easter Sunday that year. There is also footage of Steve Meronek and Keith Glenn relating an encounter they had with a man who committed suicide. Even though he was well dressed, they felt like something was off because he acted extremely nervous and was unwilling to make eye contact. Although they did not see him jump, when they found out what had happened, they realized that they had interrupted him as he was preparing to kill himself. That man might have been Philip because Steel inserts the witness’ statement during his interview with Philip’s parents.

 

Rescues

Thankfully, Steel included stories about potential suicides that did not happen. For instance, his footage captures the moments when photographer Richard Waters pulls a would-be jumper back over the railing and hands her over to security. Richard notes that she did not fight him hard and says he believes that she wanted someone to stop her. Later in the documentary Steel interviews an anonymous woman who says came to San Francisco specifically to jump off the bridge but could not. She describes all the preparations it took to get there, like choosing the date, buying the airline tickets, and flying all the way from Houston. However, when the time came, she discovered that while climbing over the railing was easy, letting go was extremely hard. Steel does not specify whether she is the woman that Richard saved, but that is not what is important. What really matters is that she is glad someone stopped her before it was too late.

Another survivor who spoke anonymously recounted the downward spiral he and his girlfriend experienced when they became addicted to crystal meth. First, they lost their jobs, then they lost their apartment and became homeless. The final straw was when he learned that his girlfriend had cheated on him…again. Devastated, he started walking and found himself on the bridge. He reached the ledge but hesitated just long enough for patrol officers to convince him to climb back over the railing so they could take him to the hospital for help. The movie shows this incident.

Lastly, Steel presents the saga of Kevin Hines, the man who jumped and lived to tell about it. According to Kevin’s father Pat, his son started having serious behavioral problems in high school. His symptoms included wild mood swings as well as auditory and visual hallucinations. Kevin admits that he had suicidal ideations for years, but they did not become serious until 1999, when he began to think about death all the time. Finally, after having a bad night, he woke up one morning, said goodbye to his parents, and made his way to the Golden Gate Bridge. While working his way to the center, he cried openly but no one who saw him bothered to ask what was wrong, which led Kevin to conclude that nobody cared. Certain that he wanted to die, Kevin swung over the railing, hurled himself off the ledge, then instantly regretted it. Thinking he might be able to survive if he landed feet first, Kevin twisted his body and was in a sort of sitting position when he hit the water at around 120 miles per hour. Even though seriously injured, he remained alert and was able to get back to the surface. Just as he started to call for help, something brushed against his body. He immediately concluded that a shard was going to eat him, but then someone rescued him, and took him to the hospital. Years later Kevin found out that what he felt was a seal that had circled around him to keep him afloat. He says he still has mental health problems but will never kill himself.

 

Summary

When making The Bridge Steel gained important insights, including the fact that the jumpers were at particularly low points in their lives. Many not only had mental health problems but had relationships that failed or had lost their income or housing. Most surprising is that many of the jumpers had friends and family that not only loved them but went out of their way to help them. He also found that of the twenty-four people who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004, sixteen were male. Thus, his results agree with findings from a study done by Roberto Meril and Alessandra Costanza in Europe (April 2024) who determined that most jumpers experienced social strife like high unemployment or an unstable economy. They also were likely to be male possibly due to the tendency for men to participate in high-risk behaviors.

However, I think one of the most important things he learned was the ease with which people could access the bridge’s ledge, was not just dangerous for those who are but also pose a serious threat to innocent bystanders. Jumpers could fall on someone like Chris Davis or Eric Geleynse in the water, they could cause a witness like Susan Ginwala to have an accident or a panic attack, the image of them jumping could haunt people like the Figueroa family, Steve Meronek, Richard Waters, or Keith Glenn for the rest of their lives, or their suicides could plague friends and family members with feelings of doubt or guilt. Although it is not reasonable to expect someone who is suicidal to worry about other people when things are so dire, they need to be protected, nevertheless. 

The obvious answer is to keep people from jumping in the first place. The biggest problem with the Golden Gate Bridge is that low railing. In his article Friend noted that people asked the Golden Gate Bridge District Board of Directors to construct a suicide barrier in the 1950s and held a rally to request a safety net in the 1970s. Instead of complying, the board claimed that people would choose another site (known as location substitution), that construction would be too expensive, and that a barrier would detract from the aesthetics. However, research has shown that location substitution is rare because jumper are using "magical thinking" and when they are stopped, generally change their minds. In fact, rather than seeing an increase in location substitution, popular jumping sites that have added barriers have reduced the number of jumpers, some to zero.

As to cost, the Golden Gate Bridge District has faced hefty lawsuits brought by families who accused the board of assisting suicides. Further, Roberto Meril and Alessandra Costanza believe that barriers actually are cost effective. For example, when Australians calculated the cost of adding safety barriers to twenty-six “easily accessible bridges and cliff sites” they discovered they would realize a return on their investment over the first ten years of at least 300 million dollars. Finally, regarding aesthetics, societies have added barriers to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto, and the Empire State Building in New York City without ruining the visual appeal.

In 2014, ten years after Steel's project, the Golden Gate Bridge District Board approved funding for a barricade, and construction began in 2018. The barrier which is tautly woven "marine grade stainless steel" extends twenty feet out at the sides, is twenty feet below the ledge, and extends across the full length of the bridge was completed January 2024. The net which can causse serious injuries like sprains, broken bones and even concussions were chosen to discourage people from using the bridge to commit suicide. So far, it appears to be working as only eight people jumped to their deaths in 2024. Sometimes people have to see hard truths to understand them.

Effectiveness of physical barriers to prevent suicide by jumping from high-risk bridges: From an integrative review to a northern Italian province’s paradigm - PMC

Bridge Rail Foundation - Golden Gate Bridge Suicides - The Net Fact Sheet

Every Picture Tells A Story: Bridging the Gap: How Suicide Barriers Save Lives at the Golden Gate | American Council on Science and Health

 

Conclusion

I did not choose these two films because I was interested in understanding why people decide to kill themselves. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that they chose me. I stumbled on Lars, the Emo Kid by accident, and after thinking about the impact that Evan’s death had on Lars, I decided that when it comes to suicide, a significant but rarely discussed subject is the impact that a person's death has on the people who are left behind. Lars is so grief stricken by his best friend’s death, that he starts to contemplate killing himself. His feelings are exacerbated by his parents being too caught up in their own drama to notice that what is happening to their son, the other students torment rather than empathize with him, and the guidance counselor completely misreads the entire situation. The film's message is that what Lars needs is people who care.

However, statements in The Bridge suggest that it is common for people who kill themselves to have friends and families that have spent years supporting them, emotionally and financially, but it did not make a difference. The loved one is gone, and they are left wondering what more they could (should?) have done. Rather than expressing their grief with suicidal ideation like Lars does, however the typically express relief that what is was a lengthy grueling process has finally ended or anger at that their loved one abandoned them. However, both films make a crucial point which is that a person’s suicide can endanger others. Evan’s act results in Lars deciding to kill himself and jumpers endanger people nearby physically, psychologically or both.

Right now, you can watch both films online for free. I have included links, but they did not always work right so I am also including other ways to see them. Lars, the Emo Kid is streaming free on The Roku Channel and Fawsome, it is streaming for $1.99 on Amazon Prime or for $3.99 on Apple TV. If you want to see it, you should watch it now because the DVD (if there ever was one) is not available anywhere. The version of The Bridge that is streaming for free online has glitches and it might be easier to watch it on Kino Film, the Criterion Channel, AMC+, or Apple TV, but you will need a subscription to do so. You can buy the movie on Amazon Prime for $2.99 but remember when you do that you just get rights to the license; you are not purchasing the film. There is a DVD but it si hard to find and can be expensive. Someone on eBay is selling a used copy for $12.99 and Amazon has it used for $23.99 or new for $53.67.

IMDB gives The Bridge a 72% rating. While the Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes is the same, critics found the subject matter distasteful and only gave it a score of 67%. Lars, the Emo Kid had a respectable rating of 76% on IMDB, but Rotten Tomatoes doesn't have any ratings for it. This is odd because neither film is a loser. Both of them were nominated for lesser awards: Paxton Gilmore won best actor for both the Austin Revolution and the Lake Charles Film Festivals, and the movie won Best of Show. The Bridge was nominated for Best Documentary at the Chicago International and The Tribeca Film Festivals although it did not bring home any statues.

To recap, this is a series about aftermaths. Part 1 is about the impact that people’s suicides have on those they leave behind. Part 2 will look at movies that deal with the aftermath of school shootings.  Until next time.

 

 

 

 

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