Cormac McCarthy didn’t want to give us closure. I understand why the ending was not satisfying, but it wasn’t SUPPOSED to be satisfying.
Jim Ed quits law enforcement, because he realizes he’s a tired old man who’s unequipped to deal with the new world of crime and the new breed of criminal (like Chigurh) he’s faced with. He’s Andy Taylor, but Mayberry is now crawling with drugs and violence he can’t fathom, and he chooses to flee from it.
As for the freak car crash that hits Chigurh… That was probably just a reminder that
a) Chigurh is NOT an indestructible Superman- he’s a man who can be hurt or killed like any other
Oh, yeah, he was going to self destruct. I just think it’s ridiculous how much everyone applauds him for self destructing. Another golfer asks his girlfriend, also his psychologist, for her card. Seriously, he wants to think, and play, like Roy?
Plus, I don’t buy that first shot rolling backwards. If a three wood doesn’t stay on the front of that green, ain’t nothing stayin’ on the front of that green.
Just as long as you don’t go slagging the spiffy ending of Best in Show (well, the very final shot, anyway) with the pug expressing sweet love on that lucky therapist’s leg.
Well, (re: my bolding) JPL’s smug scoundrel laugh every 18.5 minutes didn’t exactly win him any favours in my John Philip Law Oracle Cubicle Be-In Orb Destiny Miasma Consciousness Collective Fan Club, but wow that soundtrack with the Dick Dale-ish guitar-pickin stylings, and then that haunting, trippy “deep, deep down…deeeeeeeep down, deep, deep down…” singing.
At the end, JPL gets covered in gold, as well as all the walls of whatever bloody underground “lair” or whatever he’s in. Basically, everything, sealed in gold, forever. Or so the bad guy authorities think. After they leave, JPL’s hot g/f checks him out, and SEES HIM ;)-INGAT HER!!!
Well, cool, he’s kickin, but still sort of encased in gold. I guess it wouldn’t have been too glamorous to continue on, and have some cigar-stub-chewin, phlegm-hackin, sort of Avery-Schreiber-lookin joe come in with a high-powered circular saw, and so, instead, we have the film end with the annoying above link.
And that laugh.
One of my favourite films, Five Easy Pieces, has Jack Nicholson ditching Karen Black at some roadside diner to finish off the movie. Sure I get it that it’s a statement that he’ll probably always be rootless, shiftless, and most likely not amount to a whole lot, but still, manoman, just seeing KB walk out of the diner can and into the parking lot, wondering where he is, and then, credits.
Still trying to process the ending of Death and the Maiden, where Ben Kingsley gives the creepiest, prolonged eye-fuck in the history of cinema to Sigourney Weaver at a performance of Schubert’s eponymous piece.
Not a fan of the little-too-pat-for-my-liking end with the three-way shooting death in Reservoir Dogs
At the end of The Cooler William H. Macy and the sultry hot Maria Bello are about to get their brains blown out when some not-in-the-least-bit-deus-ex-machina offering of a shitty truck driver happens to swerve by to save the day and run over the gunman.
How bout that Big ending?
Sometimes, an unhappy ending is exactly the right ending.
We’re SUPPOSED to feel awful at the end of “Five Easy Pieces.” That’s an extremely uncomfortable ending, but NOT a " bad" ending. If the movie ended with Jack Nicholson doing something impossible, wholly implausible, or totally out of character, THAT would be a bad ending. But abandoning his pregnant girlfriend? That is exactly the kind of thing the whole movie should have led us to expect.
Sports have very different groups of fans. SOME care about winning first and foremost, and they would roll their eyes and call Roy an idiot. But other fans love seeing cool stuff they’ve never seen before, and will embrace athletes who are obviously self-destructive fools.
John Daly comes to mind. Perhaps he could and should have been an all time great if he’d been smarter and more disciplined. But loads of fans loved him precisely BECAUSE he was a fat, drunken redneck who just did things his way, dam n the consequences.
Yeah. but Tiger Woods didn’t go to John Daly’s dietitian and ask for her business card.
And you’re right that sports heroes in real life aren’t always the most skilled or successful. I’m reminded of the end of Jerry Maguire as well (only seen it once, ages ago); Cuba Gooding’s character has been grouchy and surly for most of the movie, and his redemptive moment is when he scores a touchdown then starts dancing on the field and mugging for the cameras. That’s the side of sports that I hate. I can agree that a movie’s ending is plausible and still think it sucks.
Here’s my major issue with this read. Chigurh ISN’T the new breed of criminal. He’s a weird super-villain serial killer. He’s almost quaint.
The uncaged animal brutality of the cartels that murder teaching students by burning them in a ditch is the new breed. The random gun violence and targeting of “civilians” is the new breed.
The new breed that good ol’ sheriff Jim runs from doesn’t wipe their boots after leaving the murder scene. They give zero effs and leave that wife’s body decapitated on the lawn.
That’s why the ending seemed so unsatisfying…it rang untrue for me.
The ending of City of Angles (1998) annoyed the crap out of me the first and only time I watched the film. The first 90% of the film is spent building up the love Nic Cage has for Meg Ryan’s character only to have her die less than 24 hours after he “falls” for her. The fact that she dies in an incredibly stupid way made it even worse.
I actually love that movie and the ending. Terrible things happen.
It’s not personal…things just happen.
He gave up eternity for someone…and then that someone is gone. It’s extreme stakes, but that’s love.
This… I got so mad at the ending of this movie that I threw something at the TV. It was only a throw pillow but still (that’s what throw pillows are for, right?).
I get what Push You Down is saying that bad things happen but I didn’t want to see it there.
She was PREGNANT? I totally missed that. Granted I saw it nearly 40 years ago in college, stoned, and all I registered were that Karen Black’s legs looked really really good in that miniskirt.
The ending implied, did not state, but implied something TOTALLY at odds with the book-- something that, were it true, would destroy the narrative structure of the book. I read the book before I saw the movie, and I wanted to beat the stage with my cane.
But then, they made a lot of, IMHO, poor choices in bringing that book to the screen, like cutting out all the black characters, except the one who commits a crime, and the one who goes on trial for the crime (and gets rescued by a white person-- there’s no self-reliance among the black characters at all).
I was disappointed with this movie for a lot of reasons, but the ending accounts for about 50% of my disappointment.
This. The original end was true to the book as TOTAL SPOILER The protaganist realises that the Darkseekers are sentient, and in his killing and torture of them HE is the monster, and stories about him will be told by the Darkseekers for years to come, hence the title of the book.
Test audiences didn’t like the ending so they changed it thus making the title of the book and film meaningless. Grrrrr.
The 2014 Australian Movie Paper Planes may be a bit obscure outside this country - it’s about a kid entering paper plane flying competitions while dealing with the crap in his life. Think “Karate Kid” - except that the crap is not bullying, but the death of his mother, and his dad’s subsequent disconnection with life. Nominated for multiple local awards, won Best Screenplay. Hugely popular.
All through the movie, as he wins the district competition (unexpectedly) and then the national one (also unexpectedly), people blow past to say to him “you know, it’s not about winning. That’s not important. It’s people that are important.” Which is a great message, an he has a lot of “people” stuff to sort out, especially with his dad.
And then it comes to the final, very last competition, and…
He wins it. Of course.
I’ve never been so disappointed at a movie failing to have the courage of its convictions. Dudes! If winning isn’t what really important, then have him not win and be okay anyway. Anything else is totally undercutting the actual message of the film. But apparently having your protagonist win is important after all. To the bottom line, I suspect.
