Pietà Plagiarism/Film

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Examples of Pietà Plagiarism in Film include:

Film - Animated

  • Nearing the end of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack lies defeated in the arms of a graveyard statue of an angel.
  • Meg's death in |Hercules. And it's not just Hercules cradling her in his arms as a powered mortal, but he also holds her spirit once he is restored to godhood as well.
  • In Tangled, Rapunzel is holding Eugene/Flynn after his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • At the very beginning of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Archdeacon actually does this to Quasimodo's mother after she has been trampled to death by Frollo for being a Gypsy and is about to drown baby Quasimodo by dropping him into a well because of his hideous appearance.


Film - Live Action

  • The live-action Chop Sockey movie The Protector ends with the hero and the lead villain falling through a skylight onto the mounted skeleton of the elephant he was supposed to be protecting from poachers; his body ends up cradled in the elephant's tusks.
  • The last scene of Dead Ringers.
  • The film version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has this. The twist is, they're both dead.
  • The Jane Howell film of Richard III ends with a reversed Pietà pose: Margaret holding Richard's body with its head cradled in her left arm, laughing.
  • Superbad, when Seth carries a drunk Evan out of the party.
  • Happens in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with Rocky holding Frank-n-Furter. Considering the nature of the movie/play...
  • Used blatantly, and intentionally, in the Argentinian film Hombre Mirando al Sudeste (Man Looking Southeast), because one of its many, many possible interpretations is that the character Rantes is what he says he is, The Messiah (or rather, a messiah).
  • The first example of this in film is, predictably enough, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, as Cesare kidnaps Jane
  • At the very end of Dogma, Silent Bob and Bethany mimic this, with Bethany playing the role of Christ. Don't worry, she's not dead.
    • Well, not very, anyway.
    • And it's incredibly appropriate, considering she's the last living relative of Christ.
  • Another Kevin Smith example: the last "Bluntman and Chronic" in-universe comic shows Bluntman cradling Chronic in a similar way.
  • Used intentionally in Children of Men, with a refugee mother holding her dead (or at least severely wounded) son. The commentary reveals this was a reference both to Michelangelo's sculpture and a real-life photograph.
  • Parodied at the end of Wayne's World when Wayne stumbles out of the burning house cradling the dead Garth and shouting "Why, God?! Why?!"
  • Used blatantly and purposely in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, when the dead Christ is removed from the cross. Mary cradles him in Michaelangelo's pose while the camera slowly pulls away.
  • In Hannibal, the title character carries Clarice this way towards the end.
  • Inverted In Tom Yum Goong (The Protector).
  • Parodied in the Strangers with Candy movie when Noblet attacks Jerri over the science fair and then collapses backward into the arms of the other students.
  • Starman carrying Jenny away from an explosion. She gets better.
  • Parodied in Mr. Bean's Holiday - Bean attempts to earn some money by dancing to music from a CD stall, then the music switches to an opera piece, prompting Bean to stage his own improvised opera, with himself and his new friend in the roles of Mary and Jesus. It's Better Than It Sounds.
  • Scott cradles Mike in My Own Private Idaho - more than once. However he's only sleeping. He suffers from narcolepsy and it's up to Scott to look after him, and yes, carry him about when he's asleep.
  • In the Australian film Animal Kingdom, Pope carries Nicole out of the house like this. he just killed her by smothering and proceeds to dump her body under a bridge
  • In We Were Soldiers, an American helicopter returns to base carrying dead and wounded from an intense ongoing battle during the early stages of the Vietnam War. A large black soldier picks up a dead white soldier and carries him away while weeping. Truth in Television, as the authors of the book the movie was based on indicate that it actually happened.
  • In The Fugitive, Richard Kimble holds his dead (or dying) wife in his arms this way.
  • In Don Juan Demarco, the pose is enacted when John's father is fatally wounded in a sword duel, and dies in the arms of John's mother.
  • The Incredible Hulk carries Betty away from the battle on the college campus.
  • In RoboCop 3, the titular character carries the dying Anne Lewis into a church in this fashion, and sets them down on the altar before she finally succumbs to her gunshot wound.
  • Used in Robot Monster, as immortalized on the poster.
  • Scotty carrying his dead nephew Ensign Prescott onto the bridge in The Wrath of Khan
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Severus Snape cradles Lily Potter's body after finding her dead.
  • Used in Transformers: Dark of the Moon when Optimus holds Sentinel's body, which has been on the moon since The Sixties and is locked in stasis due to lack of Energon.
  • Erik cradles a wounded Charles on the beach in X-Men: First Class.
  • The last shot of The Roaring Twenties leaves Eddie dead in Panama's arms after his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • The spectacular shot of Sam cradling Frodo on the slopes of Mount Doom in The Return of the King.
  • In Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Sim does this to her brother after they collapsed from a poisoned dart.
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