Yeah, maybe we should define “ending”. Is it the same as resolution?
Is it enough that the plot and/or the characters make some progress?
It depends on the movie. If the movie is a mystery, I want the mystery to be solved. But if the book or movie is the story of a quest or personal journey, then progress is enough for me. I don’t need to know how it all turns out.
I’m being inconsistent, but I didn’t like the ending of Time Bandits. The boy’s parents were dead, his home is destroyed, he’s all alone, and the fireman just winks and leaves?
No; only that since there’s no such thing as an ending, it’s almost impossible to get one right in a movie. Most movies end badly. Some, very few, get it right. Not impossible, just difficult. You can be true to reality, with non-ending like Limbo, or achieve the perfect artificial ending, like . . . well, like most conventional movies that get it right. Dickens; think Dickens. Extremely artificial, but still somehow perfect. Very, very hard to do.
In the case of a story with a defined objective, I’d like to know if the objective was attained or not. To me, Time Bandits ended properly but with a loose thread.
In the case of Two Lane Blacktop:I can presume that the film burning is an allegory for the driver wrecking the '55.
I tend to look at it this way: :dubious:
Okay, my guess as to what was actually happening there:
The fireman was Agamemnon. He had found his way into the time stream, never looked back, and all that. He was telling Ke that everything is going to turn out all right because God knows him personally now, he already defeated the Devil once, he knows the secrets of getting into Time and whot not… Aggie’s wink could also mean, “I know. Don’t wory.”
As for the parents, I don’t think Ke cared overmuch for his ‘real’ life. Plus he had already seen them die in the game show You Bet Your Life. Besides, they opened it. Even tho he warned them it was evil. They deserved what got. Which might not have been death, after all. Recall, this story had all sorts of jumps and fits. Maybe they just went somewhere and Aggie knew where.
I can’t possibly agree. To me, it’s always looked like the Python guys ran out of jokes or something, and then cobbled together the bit with the policeman.
Clearly not. The entire payoff runs through the film: the professor being killed by the knight, the police investigating, etc. It was a brilliantly structured surprise that was set up by what was happening within the film.
I’m having real trouble thinking of a single movie that “just quits” with no attempt at any type of resolution. Fading to black, for instance. Crawling credits maybe.
However the notion does have its appeal. People are chattering away and suddenly
Yeah, what you said. Plus His kid never really shows up. Is the kid in the VW him? If so, and he came to see Dad, how come he doesn’t.
On the whole, a big friggin’ waste. Maybe it’s incorrect to say it doesn’t have an ending, since it doesn’t have a beginning or middle either. Just another hang-dog, dull-ass Bill Murray vehicle.
The Rules of Attraction’s ending cut off mid-sentence, just like the book (though the sentence was different, if I remember correctly). Also, while it may be arguable, Chasing Amy’s ending left it hanging whether Holden Alyssa ever see each other again.
Unfortunately I haven’t seen or don’t remember clearly most of the movies being mentioned here.
How about the movie Private. It ends, arguably, leaving a seemingly major and urgent question unresolved.
*Lissener, could you give me examples of movies you think get it wrong by trying to provide an ending? I think I have an idea what you mean, but I’m not sure.
The story is about Dunbar’s time with the Lakota.
When he has to leave them, the story’s over, so the movie ends. Nothing else happens next–except what happened to the Lakota in history.
