In the rhetorical sense, pathos is a tool used by writers to inspire an emotional reaction in the reader--usually feelings of pity, but sometimes anger, humor, joy, or any one of dozens of other emotions. In its more commonplace sense, pathos refers to a scene or passage intended to inspire feelings of sympathetic pity or sorrow in a viewer or reader. Certain filmmakers like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were famous for effectively balancing pathos and comedy. As Chaplin said, "Funny without pathos is a pie in the face. And a pie in the face is funny, but I want more." And Chaplin described his desire to avoid pure tragedy as well: "I dislike tragedy. Life is sad enough. I only use pathos as a means of effecting beauty, for so much of the tragic is in all beauty." The "more" Chaplin hoped to achieve was to have viewers always care about his character, to feel pity when he falls victim to another mistake or injustice, while still allowing us to laugh at his pratfalls and mistakes. How do you see this same technique at work in Mary and Max? What particular moments or events best reflect this balance of humor and pathos? Do you think this is an effective way of telling Mary and Max's story? Does the film's ending balance these two emotions? Or does it become purely tragic by the film's end?
The pathos idea in this movie wants us (audience) to sympathize with the characters and we’re definitely sympathizing for Mary and Max. First of all, we feel a sense of sympathy for Max because of his disorder. Max thinks that people are weird and that they look at him as a weird person. To us, it is funny because Max doesn’t quite understand why regular people make fun of him. As viewers, we feel for Max because we know what he’s going through. When he was a kid, he was attacked by a bird and that’s how he started wearing a hat to protect himself. People don’t know about his situation. It is humorous in a way because he’s scared of a bird or he just doesn’t realize things around him as clearly as he should. Mary on the other hand, we sympathize for her because of her lonely childhood and unstable life. We are happy for her when she was on her feet and was very confident to do anything. It’s very humorous of her to think that babies came from cola cans. However, when she realized that she had made Max upset by publishing a book about Max’s syndrome, her world turned up-side down and she became a whole blub of mess. We felt sorry for her because her husband left her and Max wasn’t responding to her letters anymore and she became alone again and lost confidence. This movie being a Claymation film, the director did a great job of showing us the life of Mary and Max. With it being an animation film, the story line is just like a regular film but with a voice-over narration. It is somewhat special because the tone and the emotions the way the narrator told the story put a lot of feelings to it so that we can feel the characters and get a sense of the whole story. The film also showed a balance of humor and pathos and the ending was not really tragic. They somehow found their happiness and peace, and were thankful for each other all those times that they wrote to each other. Mary and Max are both important to each other and became best friends for a long time until the end.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the film Mary and Max did a fine job of balancing pathos and humor throughout much of the film, but by the end it was primarily tragedy and pathos which shone through. For much of the film, the correspondence between the two showed the characters in a way that was quite touching and real, but still managed to present them in a humorous fashion. For example, when Max was writing to Mary about his seven jobs, much of what she was telling her was dismal, but it still managed to be funny in a way that was probably unintentional on Max’s part. When he talked about cleaning up litter and then pretending to be a robot, watching him and the reactions of the people to what he was doing was humorous. The pathos was still there getting the audience to care about Max and his jobs, but it was presented in a humorous way. But then there was a shift in the film as Mary grew up, and grew cocky. Personally, I found it hard to watch as she became her mother. The humor which was previously used in the film to balance out the tragedy was gone, and what was left was a something which felt very sad and very real. However, I think that taking away the humor in the end made the film more meaningful. There wasn’t humor to distract from what the characters were feeling, and that made Max’s death more poignant to me. It was tragic, but you could tell how much they cared about each other, and there was no humor to distract from that feeling. This helped to make the movie well balanced in a different way that effectively told Mary and Max’s story.
ReplyDeleteIn Mary and Max, the director has balanced the comedy and pathos into one movie. Right off the bat we start to sympathize for Mary when she is very lonely, has no friends, and has a lot of hope which makes the audience’s heartbeat. With Max the audience notices that he is also lonely, but it is not til later that the audience finds out that he has Asperger’s syndrome. He starts to see their own personalities come out through their letters they write to each other and through their friendship that they are creating throughout time. Both Mary and Max have created such a unique friendship and the crazy part is, is that they never met each other in person. Mary ends up at the end of the movie having a child and Max ends up passing away before he got the chance to meet his best friend. The audience can see comedy and tragedy throughout the movie. The tragic parts come from the entire movie with the different situations that each of them endure and also the ending is very tragic at the end, but the author tries to still keep the pathos comedy by saying that Max smells like liquorish. This movie makes the audience feels for both characters which in how at the beginning and at the end of the movie they have both characters being sympathized for. Mary and Max really hit home in the sections of friendship, hard times, and overcoming obstacles.
ReplyDeleteMary and Max was very different than many of the other animated films I have seen in the past, and I believe the balance of humor and pathos that was achieved in the film was the main component that caused the dramatic distinction between this animated film and many others that I have seen. Both Mary and Max experience a great sense of sadness and loneness throughout their lives, but a variety of lighthearted moments create a balanced feel that makes the film touching and enjoyable to watch. There are two specific events from the film that reflected this balance of humor and pathos very well. First, the scene in which Mary explains that her father told her babies are found at the bottom of beers and asks Max where babies in America come from. Max responds to Mary and explains that he was told it depends on your religious beliefs. For example, if you are catholic a nun sits on an egg until it hatches, but if you are atheist the hatching of the egg is the responsibly of a prostitute. Max’s response is very humorous, but at the same time points out his lack of understanding for the world around him. The scene in which Max writes Mary and tells her to explain to the bully she is dealing with at school that her birthmark means that she will be in charge of all the chocolate in heaven (and he won’t be getting any) is another example of well balanced humor and pathos. The subject of bullying is a serious one, and it is clear that Mary feels incredibly hurt and isolated by the boy who bullies her at school. At the same time Max’s solution for the problem is humorous and brings a lighthearted feel to a serious and sad situation. The films’ ending seems to follow the same formula as the rest of the film. Although it is tragic that Max dies shortly before getting the chance to meet his life long pen pal in person, as a viewer I also experienced a sense of comfort and contentment. I was happy to see that Mary had overcome her attempted suicide and had given birth to her child (meaning she would never experience the sense of loneliness she had so often in the past – she would always have her child to keep her company). It was also nice to see that although Max died alone he was surrounded by letters and other objects that reminded him of his favorite person in the world. I believe he was comforted by the feeling that he had someone out in the world that cared so deeply for him. Overall Mary and Max far exceeded my expectations, and the balance between humor and pathos was an extremely effective way of telling the story of both characters.
ReplyDeleteMary and Max has a distinct balance between comedy and pathos. The most explicit way in which the film conducts this balance is the use of stop motion animation to convey a story that could otherwise be taken as much more sullen. For example, the scene in which Mary plans to take her own life with a bottle of pills and a rope around her neck. The audience is even made aware that Mary is pregnant. If this scene were shot with a live actor, I believe the audience response would be much more morose. Another example of a balance between pathos and comedy can be found within the letters that Max and Mary exchange. Mary and Max discuss deep issues within their letters, such as feelings of loneliness, not fitting in, etc., but there is always a dose of comedy within the letters as well, especially when Mary was younger and didn’t know how to spell certain words, or was unaware of the meaning of words. For example, Mary discusses her neighbor’s “homophobia” and believes that babies are found at the bottom of beer glasses. These all provide comic relief for the much deeper issues the pair discuss. The film’s ending evokes more of a pathos ending, than comedic. Mary finally makes it to see Max in person, with her baby, and when she walks in she finds Max has died. I did not find this ending purely tragic, because Mary is able to see what an important part of Max’s life that she was, and Max died with a smile on his face looking at all of the letters and pictures he had exchanged with Mary. Mary and Max were each the friend that the other needed, they saved one another from loneliness, and this is solidified in the ending.
ReplyDeleteMary and Max had a very strong connection between pathos and comedy. Although you felt pity for both Mary and Max, there was also humor in the way they went about life and dealt with certain things. For instance, their food choices and responses to other people. You felt pathos for their situations but also had to smile at their choices and ways of handling things. Eating condensed milk or chocolate hot dogs was a prime example. On one hand you felt pity for them, especially Max with him trying to lose weight but also comedy at what he is eating and how he dealt with his weight with the meetings and eating even more. This was a great way to tell the story of Mary and Max and it balanced the two emotions very well.
ReplyDeleteMary and Max is a film full of comedic and emotional pathos. The two characters are constantly interacting with terrible and cruel people that see them go through. Mary is worried about many things that children worry about while Max sees the world through a frightening and strange perspective. When the two interact, it causes Max no end of grief and puts him on a roller coaster of panic that the audience both pities and laughs at. Mary has strange surroundings yet manages to look at them innocently. The precarious balance of comedy and pity keeps the audience watching and waiting for more of both lovable characters.
ReplyDelete