What Makes a Film Scene Bathetic?

Two days ago I sent out a newsletter about crying scenes with this misquote:

“It really can just tip over into completely pathetic material.”

But “pathetic” was a misspelling of “bathetic”. My apologies to Director Marcus Lindeen, whom I quoted from Filmmaker Magazine.

And thanks to filmmaker Ben Flanigan, who prompted this distinction. He says that these days, “pathetic” usually means “so miserable as to be ridiculous.”

By contrast, the dictionary defines “bathetic” as “producing an unintentional effect of anticlimax”.

And it’s not only crying scenes that can lead to an unintended lapse in mood.

Bathos can result when a documentary’s climax is a big, emotional event for the participants–but not for the audience.

For example, inexperienced directors often imagine that weddings, graduations, concerts, etc. will make dramatic climax scenes.

The problem with these celebratory culprits is that they don’t satisfy the criteria of a compelling climax: to show the protagonist struggling to achieve their goal at their darkest hour. Unless the graduate trips on stage, what’s the nail-biting whoop about being handed a diploma?

That said, weddings and graduations often work well as a denouement scene, giving us a snapshot of what the life is like now that the hero has achieved their goal—or not.

Joe Berlinger’s documentary Crude (2009) shows a masterful exception to my “no concert climax” fiat. The film follows a class action lawsuit against Chevron for polluting the Amazon rainforest.

In a rousing montage, Crude’s climax intercuts arguments from attorneys protecting the Amazon with concert footage of celebrity activists Sting and his wife Trudie Styler. The juxtaposition of angry vs. joyful, didactic vs. melodious, creates a dramatic reversal.

Study this extraordinary scene to inspire your own efforts to intentionally edit a climax that avoids, god forbid, bathos.