Okay, I haven’t seen the whole film, but me and a buddy surfed into I guess about the last third or so of it. Anyway, what I’m curious about (and I ain’t gonna use no stinkin’ spoiler boxes, so back out now if you don’t want the ending spoiled for you.) is the ending of the film.
Earlier in the film, Thora Birch sits down next to some old guy on a bus bench and says that he’s the only person she can count on, as he’s always there. Later on, she’s walking towards the old man on the bench, a bus pulls up, the old man gets on it (he appears to be the only person on the bus) and it leaves. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the bench reads “Not in service” which means no buses stop there. So, it seems to me that the bus ride is symbolic of death. Thora Birch a few minutes later in the film (sometime later in movie time), sits down on the bench and catches the bus herself. So, I take it that means her character committed suicide? Yes? No?
In the graphic novel, the bus stop is re-activated, and for some reason they never explain that in the movie.
In the movie Enid mentions to Seymor how she would like to get into a car, move to another city and leave everything behind. She does that in the end when everybody has moved on (Rebecca, Seymor, even Norman) except for her. In the graphic novel, Rebecca and Josh start dating at the same time she and Enid grow apart. So she leaves.
I originally thought it was a death symbol (as opposed to the comic book, where it was just getting out of town to any random locale). Now I’m inclined to see it as a bus to nowhere.
IIRC, earlier in the movie Enid told the old guy on the bench that the bus didn’t stop there anymore but he continued to sit there.
I took it as a sign of change and maybe getting what you want if you wait long enough (the bus ride for the patient old man and a way out of her current situation for Enid)?
Or maybe a sign of death.
I dunno. I thought it was a beautifully ambiguous ending either way.
Great script, amazing performances, and the Charlie’s Angels sequel killed my enjoyment for big-budget movies forever. And Scarlett Johanson, the girl who played Becky, is about to break out as a major star in the next Bill Murray movie, Lost in Translation.
Death? No. What Rabid Child said. Best movie ever, IMHO, but maybe you have to be a cynical teenage girl fresh out of 5 gruelling years of high school and completely unsure about the rest of your life to get it.
I wish the grafitti “Ghost world” guy had been in the movie: or was he? I guess that wouldn’t have worked as well in a movie of the same name as in a comic book of the same name.
Terry Zwigoff is a rising star as a director. His documentary, Crumb, was one of the most fascinating character studies I’ve ever seen and Ghost World was wonderfully observed. The Steve Buscemi character easily could have come off as creepy and pathetic but he was so self-aware and intelligent that he was sympathetic and likable instead.
Zwigoff’s next movie is called Bad Santa. It stars Billy Bob Thornton as a mall Santa who robs malls with his elf sidekick. It sounds like it will be a great, cynical, anti-Christmas movie.
If you break the image down as in the OP, it sounds like a run-of-the-mill DEATH SYMBOL. Trouble is, nothing about that movie was run of the mill, so I’m not buyin it. It was a sign of optimism and hope; a sign that, if you’re 100% nihilistic, you’re bound to be wrong sometimes; that the glass can either be half empty or half full, and this one turned out to be half full, even though she’d seen it as half empty.
It was a red herring. I spent the first 3/4ths of the movie sure that someone was going to commit suicide by the end, and the last 1/4th hoping someone would so something would finally happen in the movie… I interpreted the bus the same way you did, for what it’s worth.
Before the film was released, a couple of reviews alluded to something in the ending that was gone by the time the film opened: Someone had been following/watching Enid, and tucked well into the credits was a mind-blowing scene that reevealed the shocking inentity of this person. I guess this was cut out at the last minute, but has anyone else heard anything about this?
How interesting, because the first shot we see of Enid is through her window. I certainly haven’t heard about it, and I have both the shooting script book (which mentions a few deleted scenes, like Enid sleeping with Josh) and the graphic novel. Nor does the DVD have any alternate endings…
Although after the credits it does shows another shot of Seymour getting all nutso in the store where Josh works.
