Yeah but,
The villian goes free. And the protagonist is left with horrible memories, deillusionment, and unfulfilled dreams.
I have been trying to remember the name of a movie I saw in 1961 that had absolutely the most depressing conclusion I have ever seen. It was a French movie about a bright, young woman with a daughter who is abandoned by her drunken lover. The woman sinks into drunkeness and prostitution. And in the last scene her daughter, now a very young teenager, leaves her drunken mother in an alley and goes out on the street to begin her own career. I was depressed for a week after seeing it!
You nailed it. In addition, I always thought Timothy Hutton’s acting was severely affected. It was a caricature of The Method. I didn’t like Donald Sutherland at the time, either. (Though I’ve come to respect him lately.) And there was something so very wrong with seeing Mary Tyler Moore as a fatalistic lush and cold-hearted mother. So, it was the casting, the acting, the screenplay, the timing, and the story along with the inexplicable Academy brain-fart.
Just to make it clear, not only is Raging Bull a fine movie, but it also satisfies the criteria of the OP - not even close to having a happy ending.
pre-war?
:dubious:
Other good films that year were Tess, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Fame, the Stunt Man, and Elephant Man.
It was filmed before American involvement in actual combat in the European/North African theatre in WWII (released to conincide with Allied invasion of Casablanca, French Morocco to get free publicity) and marketed almost exclusively to an American audience. Europe, including Britain, had been embroiled in war since 1940, and ostensibly the war began with the Septermber 1, 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany. The sentiment is very much pre-war, or at least, early in the war, with everyone trying to get Rick (an avatar for the United States) to stop being a disinterested party. (“I stick my neck out for nobody.”) The film ends with a note of optimism about the defeat of European fascism and the joining of nations with a common interest in democracy, as Lazlo indicates in his final words to Rick (“Welcome back to the fight. This time, I know our side will win.”) Even though Rick has to sacrifice his alleged love for dim-bulb Ilsa, he persuades (or rather, is persuaded by) the self-serving Capt. Renault, who “bends whichever way the wind blows” to go to the garrison in Bougainsville where they can fight together. (Some not-so-subtle homosexual overtones in their relationship make for amusement.) So, for the intended audience it was pre-war, or rather, prior to heavy US involvement.
The Third Man, on the other hand, which is set in the fractured, corrupt ruins of the once “little Paris” of Vienna, is very much a post-war film. The city is divided by four powers (Britian, France, the US, and Russia) which are “united only by the lack of a common language” and who are largely indifferent to the underground economy except for Major Calloway who desires to arrest and try blackmarketeer Harry Lime for selling tainted penicillian, despite the protests of best friend and ingenue dime-store novelist Holy Martins and the pining love of Lime’s pining Czech girlfriend Anna (whose uncovery of forged papers will return her to Russian control). In the end of the film, Martins betrays and shoots his bests friend, loses any interest or respect of Anna, and is left without friend or job. Everybody is disillusioned and depressed, save for Martins who still foolishly holds out hope of getting together with Anna in the ruined Vienna. Truly a Cold War movie, and a nearly perfect example of the type.
Stranger
“Brokeback Mountain” - I hated that bastard, Ang Lee, at the end of the movie because he had the guts to end it exactly as it had to end.
My husband nominates every version of “Hamlet” ever put on film.
I think that should be Fredo gets whacked. Frodo was in a different trilogy.
My choice (“House of Sand and Fog”) has already been mentioned, so other than that, I got nothin’…
12 Monkeys… or wait… did “I’m in insurance…” mean that it DID end happy,
or not… (Sometimes I hate Terry Gillam, but not for long)
Regards
FMl
I like the ambiguity of the 12 Monkeys ending.
Regardless of political bent, Das Boot Is an unhappy ending. The crew are the protagonists of the story and they get shafted just as they finally think they’re safe. Does anyone really think that the writers and directors intended that ending as a hurrah?
Another downer film is The Days of Wine and Roses. The last shot of recovering alcoholic Jack Lemmon watching his still alcoholic wife walk down the street is grim. He has nothing ahead of him but a future of harsh discipline and self-denial. And that’s if everything goes well.
So many of the films listed here make me say, “D’oh! of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” Se7en in particular is pretty damn harsh. The bad guy totally plays the police and gets everything he wants in the end.
I’ll go ahead and put Fallen out there.
The Ring
A metric ton of Eastern European dramas fall into this category. You really get a feel for how bleak that region must be:
Lilja 4-ever - Okay, technically it’s a Swedish film, written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, but the main characters are Russian, and much of it takes place there. If you’ve never seen it, do so now. If it doesn’t make you cry, you might just be a robot. One of the most powerful endings I’ve ever seen.
Come and See - As one of the IMDB reviews said, the title is practically a dare. A deeply disturbing movie about WWII as seen from the perspective of Belorussian villagers.
I don’t remember all the details but I’m pretty sure The Parallax View doesn’t offer any uplifting sentiments at the end.
One thing which bugged me: you see several law enforcement types approaching the cabin where you’ve just spent the entire previous night fighting off the living dead. Instead of jumping up and down and shouting, “Oh thank God you’re here-you won’t believe what happened to me!”, he just aimlessly wanders around inside the house, where one of the cops mistakes him for a zombie and pops him. Could never figure that one out.
That’s what I was going to post. After all, the happiest interpetation of the ending is that everyone dies. If either of the two men alive ( for the moment ) at the end are Things, then not only did the rest die for nothing, but humanity is probably doomed, as soon as a rescue team lets the “body” unfreeze.
I nominate The Sand Pebbles.
As a director, Ang Lee is not known for anything happier than a bittersweet ending. It’s part of what makes his movies so good, IMO. Then again, some of my favorite movies are Mandarin Chinese dramas. There is no “happily ever after” in movies like Raise the Red Lantern, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, and Together. Together is as close as it gets to a happy ending, but it’s a bit bittersweet, as the movie is completely about a choice of what things a child must sacrifice in order to have a happy and successful future life. Yimou Zhang and Kaige Chen are two of my favorite directors because of the way they make a bittersweet reality come to life in their films.
Dr. Strangelove