It is not that we have a kind of specific criteria when it comes to one character suffering more than any other, and films are never shy about pulling on our heart strings. This list is not so much ranked, but more to raise awareness of the way these fictional (and not fictional) mothers are treated.
In this list, we will show ten brave mothers, with personality and charisma, whom have to overcome terrible circumstances, always fighting to their last breath, to survive shock horrific circumstances. Ten actresses who were gave 100 percent, offering their own interpretations in works whose weight rested almost in exclusive on their shoulders. Ten suffering mothers that cinema has anchored in our memory forever. Anyone else feeling sad?
1 Uma Thurman ('Kill Bill')
We have not come here to discuss if the 'Kill Bill' series is the best thing that Quentin Tarantino has done in his career, or whether, on the contrary, it was a blunder that fed his arrogance and stroked his ego. Although many continue defending the first argument with tooth and nail, a similar argument to that demonstrated a spectacular Uma Thurman along two superb films in which her story of revenge kept us in suspense, crossing fingers so that your journey through the desert assassins, sexual and spiritual guides would end with a happy ending.
For this reason, after the brutal moment in which the plot reveals that her daughter is still alive, the feeling is multiplied by 100, boosting our (and their) motivations and bringing the character to another much stronger dramatic level. A mother who will do everything to be able to enjoy a normal life beside her child.
2 Naomi Watts ('The Impossible')
'The Impossible', the best film from Juan Antonio Bayona to date, remains a shocking and dramatic experience that remains with you from the first time you watch it, but, without a doubt, the best parts of the film were the startling intensity of Naomi Watts and Tom Holland, whom carried this film, across the screen with their looks, their complicity, their gestures, show a real and tangible love of a mother and her son united by hardship.
3 Angelina Jolie ('Changeling')
When we talk about 'Changeling', we have to rub our eyes in disbelief, as the film is actually based on true events. A single mother, whose life falls apart when her son disappears, is subject to horrific treatment from the authorities as, just three months later, she is presented with a boy that everyone say's is her son. When she argues that the boy isn't her son, the police tell her to "try him out for a while". She is then institutionalized when she further argues that the boy isn't hers.
This story is truly heartbreaking and shows the true devotion of a mother.
4 Dumbo's Mother ('Dumbo')
The death of Bambi's mother. The death of Mufasa. The (almost) death of Tinkerbell. The ending of Pocahontas. The "death" of Snow White. They're all examples of the levels of dramatism that Disney has brought to life during their history, but if we're talking images to bring a tear to any eye, we have to mention 'Dumbo'.
And we had it recorded the scene in which the young elephant's mother sings him a precious lullaby whilst rocking him back and forth. One of the most emotional moments of the history of the cinema of animation that has more than eleven decades shrinking us heart.
5 Ellen Burstyn ('Requiem for a Dream')
Loved and hated in equal parts, 'Requiem for a Dream' is, without a doubt, one of the most shocking films of the 21st century. The work of Darren Aronofsky we are presented with a group of characters whom are the furthers from normal you could meet, which highlighted by own merits a mother played by the immense Ellen Burstyn obsessed by diet and television, a fatal combo that placed it on the edge of the psychological cliff.
Her and us both.
6 Emma Suárez ('Julieta')
Pedro Almodóvar did not need in 'Julieta' anything more that a woman and two faces, the exceptional Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte, and a traumatic event that caused them to construct a magisterial labyrinth of silences, reproaches, abandonment and frustrated decisions that do not stop being, simply, a dazzling reflex of the human survival after the loss.
7 Jodie Foster ('Panic Room')
After seeing, for umpteenth time, 'Panic Room', the most undervalued movie of the impeccable trajectory of David Fincher, the temptation is that of remaining with the virtuosity of the dazzling direction, a finished formal one that seems to eclipse everything else and that, certainly, has been discovered in the last years like important influence source inside the genre. Hello, 'Don't Breathe'.
In any case, if we learn to combine the fuction with the form, you will find two female characters of undoubted strength, a mother and daughter played by Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart with a conviction and delivery to bullet-proof. A reflection of maternal protection above all things, caring for and defending the realm of what is yours and you can never remove. Everything else is secondary. And Fincher knows it.
8 Mia Farrow ('Rosemary's Baby')
Not even mentioning the terrible Spanish translation, which is, a pure spoiler, could prevent us the suffering at the time of accompany by first time to Mia Farrow in 'Rosemary's Baby', a nightmare brought about by the exemplary by Roman Polanski. It mattered little that the greatest secrets of the plot was the same poster of the film, there was still the tension, the terror and the intrigue that surrounded Farrow, in one of those roles that could have fallen into obscurity, struck a chord in many movie goers around the world
The worst pregnancy of the history of the film didn't have any vomiting or contractions, the terror of this birth has a much more sinister cause.
9 Tilda Swinton ('We Need to Talk About Kevin')
Ugly is that of establishing a kind of ranking based on the suffering, but if this special highlights a mother who passes it really badly, that's Tilda Swinton in 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'. A disturbing and cloudy, film those who stifle and sneak into your memory for each time they appear, return to produce a chill throughout the body.
Sensations that would be impossible to transmit if the protagonist were not accompanied by a character, played by a superb Ezra Miller, able to freeze the blood with a simple glance. A mother and a son, a simple but terrifying plot.
10 Nicole Kidman ('The Others')
The case of Nicole Kidman in the wonderful 'The Others' is a bit special. No, it is not that she does not suffer, but it could have all be avoided, which makes it even more tragic. We would have been without one of the best horror films in the history of cinema, but Nicole, and her sons, would have saved star in scenes that continue putting the creeps as the day of its release. Everyone, including the public passed here bad, but every minute had so much genius within that was worth suffering them. More than.