I started thinking about this again because of the other thread, but didn’t feel like hijacking it. The question is: what movies were actually saved by the last 10 minutes? If it hadn’t ended that way, you would’ve felt cheated?
The only one I can think of right now is Working Girl. I spent most of the movie thinking it was just another low-brow TV-quality romantic comedy, with two-dimensional characters and some painfully awful dialogue (“I am not a steak. You cannot order me”). But the last scene got me – she’s gotten her big promotion, the bad guy got the fall, she got a big corner office with her own secretary, everything she always wanted. Then, the camera pulls out and shows the whole building and how there are hundreds of other people just like her, and her whole story was insignificant. (At least that’s how I interpreted it – maybe it wasn’t supposed to be ironic in the least, and you really were supposed to be happy for her while the sweeping Carly Simon anthem plays.)
Come to think of it, another Mike Nichols movie, The Graduate, was the same way for me. I didn’t see it until after college (i.e., early 90’s), and for most of it I completely failed to see what the big deal was about. It was just your average 60’s comedy, but with better music. If it weren’t for that last scene on the bus, I would’ve thought it was a big waste of time. As it is, I think that that last scene is one of the best scenes of any movie, ever.
Prince’s movie *Purple Rain was until the end an OK movie about an artist being a butthole to everyone and stuff. Then, after Morris Day and The Time unexpectly put on a very good opening act in the final concert scene, Prince went on stage and sang the title track as if the rest of his life depended on it. The last few minutes with him, his band and the Time was the best concert scenes I’ve ever seen.
The original Night of the Living Dead would have been a so-so zombie flick, for me, but for the final reel. Granted, this wasn’t a happy ending, but it gave the flick a hell of a lot more impact. As opposed to the Tom Savini remake (can you say dashed hopes? no? howsabout shattered?) where the rescripted ending just fell flat.
Escape From NY’s ending would never make it past the cutting room, today. The good guys have to be good guys, or they get blowed-up, seems to be the rule again in Hollywood. Well, actually, the whole film wouldn’t make it past the cutting room floor today, but you know what I mean. And, of course, Escape From LA, much as some folks can’t stand it, (hey, I’m a sucker for a good anti-hero, what can I say?) ups the ante with Snake giving the whole world the finger at the end. Come to think of it, a lot of John Carpenter’s flicks fall into this pattern. (But the less said about Vampires the better.)
This one was a pretty good movie all the way through, but the end elevated it to classic status in my book: M. Night Shayalaman’s Unbreakable. I hadn’t seen the Sixth Sense before, so didn’t know Shyalaman’s style, nor even that there was going to be a twist, but even if I had I wouldn’t have spotted this one. A real shocker. And totally credible. Wish more people had seen it.
For me, the best example of this would be Jaws. The rest of the movie, like Blair Witch was merely a lead up to the final ten minutes. I might add that Benchley’s book was even more pronouncedly this way. The thing that made the movie less so was Richard Dryfuss’ portrayal of his character.
And SolGrundy, I most definitely disagree with you on the Graduate, but I am of the generation that the film was aimed at and I imagine you are probably a child of that generation (Generally, I detest posters who play the age card, but this film may well be age specific). Every part in that film is part of patchwork of Benjamin’s post-collegiate life. It wasn’t a thriller or even a love story as the final ten minutes would imply. It was more of a quest pic (or on another level an examination of the values of that quest).
As I remember, at the time few classified it as a true comedy, even though Nichols directed it and there were some very funny bits (there was such a serious undertone and a rejection of tradional values). That it seems like standard 60’s fare to you is no suprise in that it so rocked the film-going public and was such a success that many tried to copy everything about it.
Comedies before that film were basically Rock Hudson/Doris Day-type films or the even less subtle Jerry Lewis escapades.
Well, the last minute of Titan A.E. made the $4.00 I spent worthwhile…
Calling New Earth “Planet Bob”
“I think I’ll call it…Bob.”
“You can’t call a planet bob!”
“Why not?”
cut to a few years later…“New Earth (a.k.a. ‘Planet Bob’)”
Firefox – the early-1980s Clint Eastwood movie about stealing a hypersonic thought-controlled Soviet fighter jet.
Most of the movie consisted of Eastwood sneaking around the USSR and the Soviets being really mean. Then, in the last few minutes, he finally climbs aboard the experimental MiG-31 and we finally get to see the neato-keen kewl dogfight scenes we all came to see the movie for in the first place.
Carlito’s Way got on my nerves, especially Pacino’s narration, until the chase/gun battle at the train station at the end. It was exciting without having to know anything that had gone on before it in the film. It would have made a good short film on it’s own; just pure action, editing, and style. It reminded me of what Brian De Palma can get right in a film, considering how many lousy film turds he usually cranks out.
I thought Carlito’s double-cross of Sean Penn’s character was a good scene, but not enough to save the movie. Until that intense chase at the end, I wanted them to remake the whole movie with Penn’s charcter as the lead. He did such a good job with that role, that I wanted a whole other film based on him.
The problem with Firefox was that the previews mostly featured clips from the last part of the film, leading people to believe that the flight scenes were a bigger part of the film than they were. Major snow job on the audience on that one. Up until then, it was fairly faithful to the book.
