We’ve all said it: if I had directed this movie, I’d have had it end this way…
Glory - This is a beautiful film, but the ending, maybe the last fifteen minutes or so, when Matthew Broderick is leading his men into certain slaughter, is simply overkill. Yeah, I get it: War is Hell. Pointless violence.
It may be cliche, but I would’ve frozen the image of the troops as they marched to their deaths, a la Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Shorten the length of a too-long-as-it-is movie.
Fatal Attraction - I haven’t seen a version with the alternate original ending, but even though Lyne telegraphed the “suicide-by-means-of-knife-covered-with-Dan’s-fingerprints” twist from miles away, it still would’ve been infinitely more interesting than the ending it was eventually stuck with. (I know: preview audiences wanted Anne Archer’s character to exact her revenge, but the last gasp “I’m not dead yet” bathtub scene is ridiculous.)
Funny, I was thinking of starting a similar thread yesterday for fiction novels. As for movies, I would change any number of those late 70s / early 80s lamentations, especially Ordinary People. The evil mother leaving is so unsatisfactory that the movie leaves me feeling cold and empty. I suppose that was its point, but had I known that up front, I could have saved myself a lot of emotional investment only to be robbed at the end. I would have engineered a reconciliation.
And now, this reminds me of a career plunge. Headed to that thread…
In the same category as Glory, I’d have to nominate Das Boot. Yes, War is Hell (again). Yes, they were Germans fighting for the Nazis. But to have them go through the hell that made up the first 98% of this film, only to have them gunned down by a strafing plane just seemed wrong.
And I’m sure people will disagree with this, but I think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon could have used a slightly happier ending. It’s like I was watching Legends of the Fall all over again (Okay, we’re at the end of the story. Let’s see, you’re dead, he’s dead, she’s dead. Hey you, hiding behind the bush, you’re dead too).
Let’s talk Disney. I’d like to see The Little Mermaid end the way it did in the book. For Pocahontas, an ending somewhat resembling real life would have been nice. Sure, the kids would cry, but they cried at Bambi and Snow White. All part of growing up.
How was the ending of “Pocahontas” so far from real life? John Smith left and the two were separated, just like the way things happened?
I also disagree on “Glory.” The shot of Matthew Broderick being buried with the rest of his men was a powerful image of equality.
It’s not a movie, but I’d really like to rewrite the ending of “Rent,” which is cheap and ludicrous pandering to the audence and a terrible cop-out.
On a technical basis, the shot in “Jagged Edge” that reveals the killer at the end is too short and from too strange an angle, so it’s easy to be confused about the identity.
as far as Pocahantas goes, (and I’m just going by memory of word-of-mouth), iirc, she was taken to Europe, where the pollution and poor diet killed her within 2 years… she was 16.
Star Trek: Generations - While I always had mixed feelings about TNG as a series, this first movie surprised me with how good it was, right up until the most abrupt self-destruction in movie history, the moment the “cosmic string” hits the planet and Picard finds himself in his very own dreamland.
Where there had been well-paced action and special effects, an engaging battle with the evil Klingon sisters, and the pretty spectacular demise/crash-landing of the Enterprise… everything comes screeching to a halt as Picard and Kirk travel back in time for a bland running fist-fight with Malcolm McDowell on a gratuitously elaborate maze of stairs and catwalks that looks as if it could have been the action climax of some '70s cop movie. Ill-conceived, ill-executed, and pointless.
The obvious better ending would have been for Picard to locate within the string, not Kirk, but Soren (McDowell). He should have been just as likely to have a duplicate in the string as Guinan was. There was great melodramatic potential in having to convince the Soren that had been enjoying his own personal heaven for all these years to leave it in order to stop his “evil twin” from destroying an inhabited planet (oh, by the way, actually showing the civilization that was threatened with destruction, so that the audience has some reason to care about their fate, wouldn’t have hurt either…). After a confrontation between the two Sorens, the “evil” Soren would end up refusing to be reasoned with, and trying to continue with his plan. After a brief fight around the rocket, the “good” Soren ends up sacrificing his own life to kill and stop his twin – great tragic ending echoing the one from TOS with the guy who ends up battling his anti-matter twin for all eternity.
But, that creates a great, meaty role for Malcolm McDowell, while leaving nothing for Shatner to do.
I’ll go with Star Trek Generations, for slightly different reasons.
My feeling is that if you’re gonna put Kirk/Shatner in the movie, you’re gonna have to make it Kirk/Shatner’s movie or it’s never going to work.
The makers of this film treated Kirk/Shatner like a supporting character. Can’t do that. Better, for the movie’s sake, not to have him in it at all than to have him in it in a half-assed way. When he’s at the center of a film, the scene chewing is charming. Not so charming, otherwise.
Plus, Kirk/Shatner’d be alive, and not have died that stupid, unfitting, undignified death (which still made me tear up).
Umbriel raises a good possible way to do it. I’d have liked to have seen that. Malcolm McDowell’s cool, too.
Actually, I think I’d change the ending of Star Trek VI. Remember that part where Kirk saves the Federation president from getting assassinated? I’d have Kirk sacrifice his life doing that – a more heroic death than the one he actually got. Higher stakes and all.
Then we could do Generations as Umbriel suggests (sans Kirk at the beginning, natch), and all is just spiffy-keen.
A Simple Plan. I’m not sure how I’d end it, but having Hank (Bill Pullman) accede to his brother’s (Billy Bob Thorton) request was too unbelievable, and destroyed any sympathy I had for him. Most of the film was thought provoking in a “what would I do if I were in that situation?” or a “oh shit, that could happen to me” kind of way. The last scene was more “Come on. No one would ever do that!!”
This is exactly what I first thought when I opened this thread. When he’s trapped under the ferris wheel and they fade out, the movie should’ve ended right there.
Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet. While I love Luhrman’s concept piece of Shakespeare’s play, and while I enjoy the guns in place of swords in the rest of the movie, I want Juliet to die by dagger, not gun. And Romeo should already be DEAD when Juliet awakes. Giving them the opportunity to say goodbye seriously alters the tragic irony of the whole situation.
How about two cases where the original ending was better but not released?
Pretty in Pink. She picks the wrong guy. They originally filmed it with Cryer getting the girl, tested it, and switched to Andrew the Wimp. Big Mistake. Ruins the whole purpose of the movie.
Blade Runner. (I know, I know.) Ford didn’t want Decker to be a replicant and overruled the director and writers. Semi-fixed in the director’s cut.
Examples like these made “The Player” that much more “it’s funny because it’s true.”
Boxing Helena. Any other damned ending.
I love all the Wizard of Oz refences in David Lynch’s stuff, so you’d think I’d love Jennifer Lynch for the “it was all a dream” thing, but… uh… no.
I’d change the ending of the movie version of **Circle of Friends ** to match the book – so that she ditches the cheating jerk and starts up with a nice guy.
Up until the ending, I was thinking LA Confidential was one of the 10 best films I’d ever seen. But that ridiculous shoot out scene in that house just about ruined it for me.