The most moving and, despite the ghastly subject matter, quintessentially cinematic entrant to this list - the lonely suicide of a sweet old man whom the world has passed by. James Whitmore plays Brooks Hatlen in Frank Darabont's classic adaptation - a kindly, unassuming prison librarian and longest serving inmate of Shawshank Prison. After fifty years of imprisonment, Brooks is finally released, and what follows is nothing short of heartbreaking. We take a break from protagonist Andy Dufresne's plight of false-incarceration to follow Brooks attempting to readjust to a world he has been absent from for half a century - trying to get to grips with such everyday activities as shopping and finding that each and every one of them is not how he remembered it. Quietly resigning himself to his modest dwellings, he carves "Brooks Was Here" into the woodwork and hangs himself. It's harrowing for different reasons to the majority of this list - as the act is not depicted as gruesome or horrific, simply the final bow of an old soul selecting his own preferred method of wading out into the great hereafter. Brooks is given a final, heartwarming coda at the close of the film as recently freed Red (Morgan Freeman) visits the old man's home and carves his name beside Brooks'.
26 year old novelist and film nerd from London. Currently working on his third novel and dreaming up more list-based film articles to flood WhatCulture with.
