Exploring the Five Stages of Death in the Movie 'My Life'

This essay provides an analysis of the movie 'My Life,' focusing on the portrayal of death and dying through the lens of the Kubler-Ross model's five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The essay examines how the protagonist, Bob Jones, confronts his terminal illness and impending death while also dealing with the birth of his unborn child. It discusses how the film illustrates the emotional and psychological processes individuals experience when facing death. The essay explores specific scenes from the movie to highlight the progression through each stage, including Bob's initial denial, expressions of anger, attempts at bargaining, periods of depression, and eventual acceptance of his fate. The essay also considers how the movie reflects the changing behavior and emotional responses of a person nearing death and the impact of parenthood on his perspective. Furthermore, the essay references supporting literature to validate its claims and provide a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Running Head: MY LIFE
How Death Viewed in the Movie ‘My Life’
Essay
System04104
3/12/2020

MY LIFE
1
My Life: How Death viewed in the Movie
‘My life’ is a beautiful American film that shows the reality of life that how a person
fighting with kidney cancer and after knowing this he want to show his unborn baby about his
life and tell the son who his father was. This is a wonderful movie starrer by Michael Keaton
(Bob Jones) and Nicole Kidman (Gail) and directed by Bruce Joel Rubin in 1993. The essay
is about the view of Bob Jones about his death and facing a serious issue of Cancer and he
had no life expectance more than four months.
In the movie Bob’s wife Gail is pregnant with their first child and it is impossible to
save Bob from the cancer before the baby arrive in the world. The doctor Mr. Ho (Haing S.
Nagor) tells him that Cancer is too far developed and only way to die peacefully is to forget
all the anger and fear that Bob has trapped within himself. Bob started to make videotaped of
himself, in which he talk with his unborn baby child and telling him about his life and belief.
Bob tells his unborn child that he has great anger and fear inside and he dislikes his own
family. The Bob also tells his child that even his real name is not Jones and his real name is
Ivanovich. Bob tells almost everything about his life in front of a camera and record
everything for his unborn baby so he can see the video that how his father was in his real life
and learn how his father was fighting with a dreadful cancer disease (Wyatt, 2012).
The Movie helps to understand and analyse five stages of death and dying through
narrative of the movie. One can easily understand that how this movie is based on the
qualitative approach and the movie is based on the possible pedagogical byword of the death
and dying process. The movie generally shows the five stages such as denial, anger,
bargaining, depression, and acceptance (Corr, 2019). It has been filmed in the movie how
Bob denied the doctors provide them bad news about him that he was suffering from kidney

MY LIFE
2
cancer and he totally denied from this and he want to cure the cancer without taking cure or
treatment. The second incident where Bob shows his anger is the scene in which Bob entered
in to the main office of the hospital and show his anger on non-conformism of the diagnosis
(Corr, 2019). However, the third stage in which the Bob pray to the God to give him little bit
longer life so he can see his baby and see his birth. The fourth stage is related to the
depression in which Bob is facing issue related to depression and his sleep was deregulated
and he continuously watch television. However, it is really essential and necessary for the
Bob to overcome agony and anxiety, in order to die under the acceptance and peace.
However, in the last stage of the death, Bob explains to his baby that he should not regret
about his (Bob’s) departure and feeling grateful for the time he spend with his father. This is
the great evidence when a person accepts the reality of death and accepts what he gets in
return from the God before death. The reactions in the end of the movie shows how Bob
accepted his finitude and the lesson learned from his life transfer it to his unborn son. The
movies beautifully portray these five stages of death and dying and the changing behaviour of
Bob that how he prays from the government to let him live longer to see his children to born
(Corr, 2019). Keaton shows a strong feeling to the people and shows an intelligent
performance of a person who is not good at feelings but how he changes after knowing about
his death and listen that he will become a fatherhood of an unborn baby. The entire movie
shows the hidden love of Bob who is near the death and shows his changing love and
behaviour towards his family and toward his unborn son.
The movie shows how in the end of the movie Bob accept that his anger resides with
his family and in the end of life he embarks upon the journey of making peace and saying
goodbye. The movie shows the reality of life and portrays how people get emotional while
dying or when they know about the death. The movie also shows that how a person can die
peacefully by just leaving the anger and fear that resides within a person (Fenwick, Lovelace,

MY LIFE
3
& Brayne, 2010). The film depicts that how Bob leave the anger and fear in the end but in his
entire life, he got angered on the family members and he was really hoping that his family
will changed rather than willing to change himself. However, the film is emotional as well as
comic because Bob also recoded about his love, sex, and mistakes of his life for his child and
want to share everything in a brief video. The emotions and love of Bob for his unborn
children force him to think everything he did wrong in his life. In the end of the movie, he
was ready to leave fear and anger which resides within him to die peacefully (Salah, Hussain,
Ahmed, Azam, & Rafique, 2019).
In conclusion, it can be said that the movie shows five stages of death and dying. It
can also be said that movie reflects the changing nature and behaviour of a person nearer the
death and how a person using everything to avoid death in the life. The movie shows the
feeling and situation of a person near the death and also persuades people about the five
stages of death and dying. The movie also shows the parenthood love for his unborn children
and the death that distract everyone who watch the movie. The movie also shows the reality
of life and how individual changes when he knows, he is going to die.

MY LIFE
4
References
Wyatt, M. K. (2012). End-to-life movie review: My Life. Retrieved from:
https://www.karenwyattmd.com/apps/blog/show/14492346-end-of-life-movie-review-
my-life
Salah, S., Hussain, S., Ahmed, A., Azam, A., & Rafique, D. (2019). Death as
Transformation: Examining Grief Under the Perspective of the Kubler-Ross in the
Selected Movies. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(1), 448-454.
Corr, C. A. (2019). The ‘five stages’ in coping with dying and bereavement: strengths,
weaknesses and some alternatives. Mortality, 24(4), 405-417.
Fenwick, P., Lovelace, H., & Brayne, S. (2010). Comfort for the dying: five year
retrospective and one year prospective studies of end of life experiences. Archives of
gerontology and geriatrics, 51(2), 173-179.