10 Heart-Breaking Moments Of Self-Realisation That Defined Great Movies

9. The Shawshank Redemption - Brooks Can't Cope

Brooks' suicide in The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most subversively heart-breaking moments in all of cinema: we're presented with a criminal, whose crime was enough to see him imprisoned for life, and yet we are utterly, irresistibly flawed by the revelation that his institutionalism drives him tragically to take his own life.

That tragedy, simply and evocatively driven by the unspeakable hell of the world advancing without you, thrives entirely on the strength of James Whitmore's exceptional, devastating performance as Brooks. He slides easily from harmless, helpful supporting character to the emotional and moral heart of the film when he is given his unwanted freedom, and the impact of his awfully quick descent into abject depression is such that it eclipses the rest of Whitmore's excellent career.

The moment of self-realisation plays slowly: we are first fed the sight of a desperate Brooks attacking fellow inmate William Sadler so he may stay in jail, and then on the outside, Brooks is given his own episode within the narrative. We learn that he can't cope working in his halfway job, or with the advances of the world, and he feels utterly alien, which leads of course to the devastatingly frank admission that he has "decided not to stay."

Even with the sequence setting out Brooks' freedom, and the moment of revelation when we come to realise his unhappiness, the ultimate moment of suicide is nonetheless massively affecting.