Beetlejuice http://varnishedvalkyrie.blogspot.com/2012/09/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-beetlejuice.html
Indeed, America is definitely a country that denies death.
It could be because Americans put so much effort and attention into actually living.
America is full of ambitious, intelligent people. These people are focused on
living out the American Dream. These people want to be somebody of significance.
They will not be able to fulfill their dreams if all they think about is death.
In a way, the thought of death could become a handicap. It could possibly
become an excuse to not try to achieve or reach any type of goals. So instead,
Americans decide to just pretend to be ignorant of the fact of death. And
depending on the type of person you are, death could sometimes be a depressing
thought. Which brings us to the case in Beetlejuice.
In this film, the subject of death was just the opposite. Instead of it being
sad and gloomy, it was actually quite comedic. Many different genres were
visibly present in the film. Using comedy, made it seem as though the film was
pro-death or accepting the thought of death. Actually by using comedy, it was
made evident that the movie is not at all accepting of the thought. This is
proven by how the death of the Maitlands actually happened. Their death was much
like living. The Maitlands stayed at their house, they still did the same
things they had always done in the attic, and they still had a functioning
relationship besides the different sorts of comedic relief that was bought from
being dead. It seems as though Tim Burton was essentially selling a dream to
the fans of his films. He portrayed death as being just the same as life was,
which means that he did not accept death for what it really was. Even at the
end of the film, the Maitlands existed as if nothing had ever happened. The
fact that Tim Burton depicted death just as life shows how unwilling Americans
are to not accept death as the ultimate end. Americans choose to be ignorant to death so
that they can live how they want to.
