Tips from the Trenches: A Guide to Practical Parenting

Today Jack had a friend over to play after school and they decided to watch some cartoon Transformers on DVD. (Boy, I hope that was ok!) Anyway, Jack is very familiar with Transformers and his friend was not so much. So Jack's friend kept asking him for background...who's that? why did that happen? Who's the good guy? Who's the bad guy? Towards the end of the episode the battle of good versus evil came to its climax. Over the sounds of the cartoon battle I hear, "Who just got killed? Was he the good guy or the bad guy?" Jack announces, "That's the bad guy, of course."

So that exchange got me thinking. When does the good guy start to die in the movies? What was the first movie I saw in which the good guy bit the dust? In old Disney movies, the parents are often dead when the movie starts, with the distinct exception of Bambi (which traumatized my dad so much that I didn't get to see it). Old Yeller may be another. But the problem with these is they are animals, not people.

Now animals dying is traumatic enough to children, so I'm not dismissing this; but when did the good guy (human) make his entrance and his passing in to our youthful conscience? I would have thought that this would have been so traumatic to me that I would remember it distinctly, but I don't think I can. I do remember being very upset about Ghandi in Ghandi and John Geilgud in Arthur, but that can't possibly be the first. Do any of you remember?

Which reminds me...what was the first movie you remember having to face the ugly?