Dusty Ayres
Commodore
^Hey, you went to a lot of trouble insisting that True Grit have a happy ending-I just showed you why it shouldn't, along with some other examples that I knew of. Tit for tat.
True Grit remake
- Thread starter A beaker full of death
- Start date
No, that's NOT what I said. I could tell by your response that you really didn't read what I wrote. I said I liked both movies but I preferred the 69 version ending better because it was more of a happy ending than the 2010 version. And I said that was MY personal preference in general, not a condemnation of the 2010 version. At NO TIME DID I INSIST it have a happy ending. I just said I liked that one version that had that ending better. My own personal preference, nothing to be projected upon anybody but me. Your mileage may very.
In any event, I sure as hell didn't presume tell someone else what they "need to do" as you did with me. I REALLY don't appreciate that.
In any event, I sure as hell didn't presume tell someone else what they "need to do" as you did with me. I REALLY don't appreciate that.
Dusty Ayres
Commodore
Ummm, correct me of I'm wrong but how does "True Grit" translate into "depressing ending."
In the new movie Mattie called Rooster that because of the way he handled himself in court as an aloof, gritty, and bold man. the kind she needed for her quest.
So I don't see what the title has to do with anything concerning the ending nor do I think it should as it would be a lot like judging a book by its cover.
In the new movie Mattie called Rooster that because of the way he handled himself in court as an aloof, gritty, and bold man. the kind she needed for her quest.
So I don't see what the title has to do with anything concerning the ending nor do I think it should as it would be a lot like judging a book by its cover.
Agreed, the "grit" in the title refers to personal characteristics of determination, fortitude, courage, etc. A different definition from the one used in phrases like "dark and gritty."
--Justin
A happy ending in a Coen brothers' movie? Never without a twist of lemon in the eye.
Yeah, it doesn't really, but how about this: only those in the audience with True Grit will be able to enjoy it.
O' Brother Where Art Thou?
Big Lebowski (maybe not a "happy" ending more of a netural one.)
Just to name two off the top of my head.
True enough for OBWAT if you consider spending the rest of your life singing Country & Western music a happy ending.
It was less C&W and more "Bluegrass" and even more it was the music of the times it being decades before the invention of Rock 'n' Roll. But, joke noted.
Still, movie ended with the main characters suffering no consequences for breaking out of prison (they got a pardon), Everett getting back with his ball-busting wife and his herd of little girls, the KKK supporting "bad" politician goes down (not that Pappy was any better.) The only thing that would've made the ending "happier" was if we saw Delmar buy back his family farm.
The Big Lebowski ends fairly neutrally as nothing good, or bad, really happens to any of the characters other than Steve Buscemi's character dying due to natural causes but his two friends showing him a degree of respect in a final resting space. (Wind and a coffee tin not withstanding.)
Hell, one could argue that "Fargo" doesn't end on a "sad" ending since all of the bad guys get their comeuppance, the sheriff lady saves the day and doesn't her husband even get the stamp deal he was painting for?
So there's three Coen Brothers movies off the top of my head, that are most clear in my memory, where the endings are in a "happy" or at least "netural" tone. So I'm not sure I "get" the rep the poster above said about them not doing happy endings.
It doesn't -- but there again, I didn't find the ending all that depressing.
If by "aloof, gritty, and bold," you mean, "most ruthless," sure. That's the quality that was specifically cited by the sheriff for Rooster, after all.
Rooster was specifically identified as the U.S. Marshall who was most ruthless by the sheriff in the opening scenes before being called someone with "true grit." Seems pretty obvious to me that it's not going to be a film with a happy ending when they introduce the main character that way, or when the film is specifically named after that kind of ruthless "grit."
I concede you are correct about OBWAT and maybe TBL. But not Fargo - Marge Gunderson and her family are okay, but a lot of innocent people have died by the time the film ends. My original statement was intended more along the lines of "The Coen Brothers make a movie that doesn't have a nice, cosy, they all lived happily ever after ending. Shock, horror." I'm glad that the CB have the freedom to make movies that unsettle people.
^It's been a while since I watched it but I don't remember there being much of a body count in that film, just the wife and Steve Buscemi's character (again.) Though I agree it wasn't a "happy" ending with all sunshine and rainbows, but I wouldn't call it much of a downer either. IIRC The Hudsucker Proxy also ended on the positive side and hell, even Raising Arizona's ending wasn't exactly doom and gloom. Coen brothers films can be surprisingly light hearted for all the crime, murder and mayhem! 
^It's been a while since I watched it but I don't remember there being much of a body count in that film, just the wife and Steve Buscemi's character (again.) ... Coen brothers films can be surprisingly light hearted for all the crime, murder and mayhem!
I seem to recall that the wife, the father-in-law, a policeman, and the attendant at a parking lot were murdered. There might have been others that I don't recall. Dark comedy certainly.
If innocent people dying is enough to make a movie's ending "unhappy" then there's a lot of action movies out there where the hero wins but has a "unhappy ending" due to collateral damage of our hero and the villain. In Fargo the ending is at least "happy" on the front that the villains die or are captured and the hero "wins." Although, yeah, the innocent kidnapped wife is killed in the process, our "hero" still "wins" and the bad guys are all still killed/don't get their payday and their comeuppance.
