# Movies you applaud for breaking the rules. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312 "2003-06-16T21:52:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/61 "2003-08-12T22:39:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tangent \* > \*\*How about in _The Ring_ when > > the mom has helped uncover the place where Samara’s body is hidden. The body is removed from the well and the audience thinks, “OK, everything’s going to be all right now.” But the little boy says, “You weren’t supposed to **help** her!” > > That was a great, creepy, unexpected moment. \*\* No, it wasn’t. It was quite unexpected in [The Ring](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0178868), though. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/62 "2003-08-12T22:58:34Z")
_Tin Soldiers_, for reasons similar to those cited for _Executive Decision_. Don’t make me use a spoiler box. ---
**Author:** ![cletus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/63 "2003-08-13T00:58:17Z")
**Being John Malkovich** and **Adaptation** were the first movies that came to mind when I saw this thread. They were great films that didn’t follow the same ole formulas. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/64 "2003-08-13T10:13:53Z")
Robert Altman’s The Player was definitely unique b/c the asshole Hollywood bigshot commits murder, benefits from it, and gets away with it. No comeuppance whatsoever! Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man is just about the strangest Western I’ve ever seen, especially when you consider that [spoiler]the entire movie is a metaphor for the afterlife.[spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/65 "2003-08-13T12:41:35Z")
I love all of Robert Altman’s cast-of-hundreds ensemble movies just because they always give the impresson of jumping in and observing a day in the life of the characters. Sometimes they just end…nothing gets resolved because nothing in life ever gets resolved. We all just go on. _Nashville_ is my favorite Altman movie [spoiler]One of the many characters is set up to give the audience the creeps–he seems to be stalking a female character. A third character is set up so as to appear to be the movie’s Mary Tyler Moore or Bob Newhart-type moral center–an ordinary guy bemused by all these wacky folks he’s meeting. At the end, the female character is shot, and the shooting is completely unexpected. We don’t see if she lives or not. The shooter was not the stalker guy–the shooter was the character we viewers thought was our eyepiece. The “stalker” guy…just looks heartbroken.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![MrMyth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19b73/32.png) [@MrMyth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMyth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/66 "2003-08-13T14:36:47Z")
**Se7en** , for the simple fact that After what was done to Mills - and his newly pregnant wife and her head - there was no way in hell that any living,breathing, in-love man would not have shot John Doe. I was glad to see it happen onscreen, instead of the protagonist being talked down. And the bad guy won. ---
**Author:** ![Lenny\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9dc877/32.png) [@Lenny\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lenny_Carl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/67 "2003-08-13T18:22:54Z")
You beat me to it, **MrMyth**! **Se7en** was the first movie I thought of when I saw the thread. If it ended _“the other”_ way, it would have been a total let down of a movie. Thank God “the powers that be” let Fincher keep the perfect non-Hollywood ending to such a great movie! It just goes to show there are still _some_ creative people left in Hollywood! ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/68 "2003-08-14T15:38:58Z")
\*\*The Big Lebowski \*\* A major, yet minor, character, Donny (Steve Bucemi) dies. The scattering of his ashes scene was comically brilliant \*\*Payback \*\* For it’s hero-antihero of Mel Gibson’s Porter. It’s possibly my favorite Gibson flick, next to Lethal Weapon. And the cinemaphotography of it was gritty too. Me like. **Snatch** For the ending of the gypsy ( hi kal!) winning the fight \*\*Best in Show \*\* For just the hysterically funny way that this crew makes superb fun of the Dog Show set. I can see why it isn’t more popular because it is so true. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/69 "2003-08-14T15:46:29Z")
Also, it was a movie that was generally panned, but I liked it. \*\*Proof of Life \*\* ( it’s more of a guy film than a chick flick) Russell Crowe’s character does not get the girl at the end. I was delighted to see a realistic ending. ---
**Author:** ![WereOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ac91a4/32.png) [@WereOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WereOtter)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/70 "2003-08-14T22:08:56Z")
John Sayles’ **Limbo** is a good example… because of the non-Hollywood ending, which probably hurt the film’s popularity. They’re standing there on the shore, knowing that there is a 50/50 chance that they’re either going to be rescued or they’re going to be murdered. I thought it was a very realistic way to end the film. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/71 "2003-08-15T01:32:07Z")
_Arlington Road_’s against-the-formula ending was a nice surprise. Mark Pellington should be shunned for his inept treatment of a decent script and a great cast, though. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312/72 "2003-08-15T01:39:24Z")
**Shirley Ujest** , the part in _The Big Lebowski_ that you mentioned actually conforms to some very _strict_ rules:Steve Buscemi’s character dies in every Cohen Bros. movie – and his mortal remains get progressively smaller in every film.(The one movie that breaks this rule is _The Hudsucker Proxy_.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-applaud-for-breaking-the-rules/182312.md?page=3)