Sad/happy/bittersweet endings

[JarodRussell]

I think it is much easier to admire the human spirit in watching how people deal with adversity including death and pain. Inappropiate happy endings annoy me because they lessen the impact of how people have to deal with adversity.

If you see a character deal with death and pain, it's not an unhappy ending. That's what I meant when I said it's about overcoming obstacles. Brad Pitt didn't deal with what was in the box in Seven, for example. We are cut off after he makes the wrong choice, and we never see if he deals with it. Are we let to believe that he is going to stay that way for the rest of his life?

That's why, for example, Flight is not an unhappy ending. It would be if we didn't get Washington's monologue at the end. Without the monologue, the whole journey of the character (and the audience) was pointless.

TWOK doesn't have an unhappy ending despite Spock's death, since we see the characters dealt with it (or are starting to deal with it). Kirk feels young again, which makes a point to his journey in the film. Khan managed to get a loved one killed, but Kirk deals with it, so Khan lost the battle. Now imagine the film fading out right after Spock dies. Khan wins.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I would call the ending to Flight a bittersweet ending.

 

[JarodRussell]

Bittersweet is good, perhaps that's what I'm trying to say.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

@Locutus: Do you also think that Total Recall (the Ah-nuld version) ended with Quaid being lobotomized and the whole thing is his Rekall fantasy?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

That's why, for example, Flight is not an unhappy ending. It would be if we didn't get Washington's monologue at the end. Without the monologue, the whole journey of the character (and the audience) was pointless.

He was a borderline sociopathic dirtbag who endangered his passengers on a daily basis (regardless of what an amazing pilot he was), just possibly not in the one incident where he actually crashed. Him never being allowed to fly again and having to face the consequences of his actions is a happy ending for the hundreds of people he might have killed in the future.

@Locutus: Do you also think that Total Recall (the Ah-nuld version) ended with Quaid being lobotomized and the whole thing is his Rekall fantasy?

Well, there is the "blue sky on Mars" comment at Rekall before he even gets put under, which is pretty solid evidence, and his Martian girlfriend appearing on the screen (though that's a little more ambiguous since the effects of the memory implant had just started to take hold).

Of course the reboot only treated that reality/dream ambiguity like a secondary consideration and not the entire friggin' point. It had good action and production values, but was ultimately pretty shallow compared to the Arnie version (there's something you don't hear often). Still enjoyable, though.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I liked the Arnie version but hated the later version.

Both movie endings were extremely different from the orginal Philip K Dick short story.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

@Locutus: Do you also think that Total Recall (the Ah-nuld version) ended with Quaid being lobotomized and the whole thing is his Rekall fantasy?

Well, there is the "blue sky on Mars" comment at Rekall before he even gets put under, which is pretty solid evidence, and his Martian girlfriend appearing on the screen (though that's a little more ambiguous since the effects of the memory implant had just started to take hold).

Of course the reboot only treated that reality/dream ambiguity like a secondary consideration and not the entire friggin' point. It had good action and production values, but was ultimately pretty shallow compared to the Arnie version (there's something you don't hear often). Still enjoyable, though.

I don't understand how anything implies that Quaid is lobotomized, though. Couldn't it have just been one helluva program?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I didn't say anything about the lobotomization, just the fantasy.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

OK, it seemed to be part of the question, though.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Unlike the "blue sky on Mars" bit, there's no direct evidence to support or dismiss it, which is why I didn't address it. It all depends on if you take Dr. Sweatyhead at his word. It would seem likely to be true, if you buy into it all being a fantasy, which then lends him credence since he's describing outside events, but then at the same time Quaid's wife within the dream immediately reacts to his demise negatively, which points to him being part of the hallucination. But there's no way to prove it, either way.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Dr. Sweatyhead

That's Kolrami, right?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Yeah.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Shōgun
by author James Clavell, is superbly crafted samurai action with an ending that is truly sad, happy and bittersweet, all at once.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

If you like happy ends, I recommend "The Wedding Dress" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290104/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
One of the best bittersweet movies I've watched this year is "The Namesake" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433416/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
I believe both are currently available at Amazon.

 

[JarodRussell]

Wasn't Minority Report supposed to be some sort of sequel to Total Recall at some point? That would make the similarity even more interesting.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Wasn't Minority Report supposed to be some sort of sequel to Total Recall at some point? That would make the similarity even more interesting.

Yeah, when it was first optioned back in the late-80s along with other PKD books it was intended as a sequel to Total Recall (don't know if it would have included Arnie or not, but I assume so). Just shows how long it takes and how difficult it can be for some films to actually make to the big screen. While I love Ahnuld movies (if he would have been the star), I'm glad things turned out the way it did with Spielberg and Cruise. Arnie can certainly make a great scifi movie (and has made several), but the tone and action would have been hugely different from what we got, and I love what we got and think it's one of the best scifi films ever.