That film is one of my favorites, but it’s ending comes from a long tradition in war films going back at least as far as All Quiet on the Western Front.
I was going to mention that. I don’t know how many people saw the movie 1984 without reading the book, but there is not even a glimmer of hope in either case.
I’d be the first person in line to buy tickets for this!
Re Freaks- I’ve long wanted a remake. It would be done with special effects rather than actual sideshow performers and
The end would reveal not simply how horribly mutilated she is, but that she’s much happier this way.
Wasn’t there an entire genre of late 60’s/ early 70’s films that adopted that sort of ending as a nihilistic statement?
Vanishing Point
Yeah, and @xizor mentioned “Easy Rider” upthread (I’m reading this thread backwards for Reasons).
The Ring’s the ending is pretty dark. Naomi Watts and the kid driving off with a bunch of copies of the tape, dooming who knows how many more people to save themselves.
Slight hi-jack - I love this movie and think it’s almost perfect - but for the final scene when Morgan Freeman says tro Lee Ermy -‘whatever he needs’ etc. as Pitt is loaded into the back of the police car.
Just a soppy ill-fitting coda that for me, doesn’t belong at all.
Mim
The ending to Splice is pretty messed up.
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are scientists who create a fast-growing human-animal hybrid that they basically raise like a daughter. Brody ends up having sex with it. It later switches genders to male and rapes Polley, impregnating her.
yeah, you may be right. You could think of “The Wild Bunch” as being a part of that movement as well.
Ah, yes. I haven’t thought of her in a while. My first thoughts when I was watching her works in art houses was she doesn’t like sex much and men even less. On further reflection it was more what society expects of young women damaging them.
Either way her films tend to be in the ‘want to look away but cannot stop’ variety.
Le Salaire de la peur (1953). Four very desperate men are hired to transport nitroglycerin in two trucks to put out an oil well fire 300 miles away. They face numerous hazards, and every bump in the road could end their lives in an instant. Only one of them survives the trip. As he’s driving back to the start point, he’s weaving gleefully across the road, crashes through a guardrail and is killed.
Not just nihilism, French nihilism.
This made me think of Brazil, where the hero is rescued by Harry Tuttle minutes before he is about to be tortured. After a bizarre pursuit by government agents, he is again rescued by the woman he loves. And as they drive happily out of the city…
…the scene returns to the torture chamber, where he is still strapped into the chair and has gone completely insane.
A German film called “The Seventh Continent” had a pretty horrifying ending, too, but that was not surprising all along.
I saw it in the theater, and, no, it didn’t work there either. I totally agree on Pitt in that scene! His whiny voice “What’s in the bo-o-ox?” was like a little kid asking mommy where his milk and cookies were.
Actually, I thought the entire movie was predictable, and I knew pretty much how it was going to end from nearly the very beginning. I don’t see why so many people liked it. It was fairly stylish, but dumb and formulaic.
I do agree with Atonement. So desperately sad. I recently started watching it again (got called away and didn’t finish), and I’d completely forgotten that creep who married her cousin was Benedict Cumberbatch.
For your reading pleasure, here’s a (gift) link to a New York Times article from a few days ago that discusses the impact of Freaks in disability representation.
Why the 1932 Movie ‘Freaks’ Is a Touchstone for Disability Representation Why ‘Freaks’ Is a Milestone for Disability Representation - The New York Times
I just saw that for the first time a couple weeks ago! The ending comes out of nowhere and is such a complete departure from the rest of the film. It felt like it was from some other film. I really am not sure what meaning I was supposed to get from it.
I love films with endings that leave you stunned. Seven is one of my favorites of all time.
You didn’t like the part at the end where he’s vacillating between grief and vengeance, with pistol in hand? Mind you, I don’t think it’s the best of performances, but going back and forth between those extremes over 20 or 30 seconds can’t be easy for any actor. I thought he pulled it off convincingly.