Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Films that just end.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Films that just end.

    I watched Bonnie and Clyde tonight for the first time. I can see why it's a great film. But, wow, the ending. Talk about fade to black.

    What other classic films just end with no epilogue or last lines for the main characters? (I think Bullitt and The French Connection might be in this category but it's years since I've seen them.)

    #2
    American Werewolf in London. The first tear has hardly touched Jenny Agutter's cheek before Blue Moon comes on and the credits roll.
    Last edited by multipleman78; 02-11-2019, 01:12.

    Comment


      #3
      Easy Rider

      Comment


        #4
        Mean Streets

        Comment


          #5
          Meek’s Cutoff. It just, um, cuts off.

          Comment


            #6
            Hidden- very memorable watching in a packed cinema -stunned into silence followed by 50 loud arguments breaking out all across the auditorium

            Comment


              #7
              Burn After Reading - a massively-hyped movie with the sh*ttest ‘cut-off’ ending I can recall.

              I assume that the budget completely ran out.

              Spoilers galore on this thread, I shouldn’t wonder...

              Comment


                #8
                Five Easy Pieces.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Monty Python and the Holy Gr
                  Last edited by Guy Profumo; 02-11-2019, 10:31.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I absolutely live for those moments when, five seconds before the film end, you suddenly realise it's going to.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Seem to remember the last time was Antonioni's The Passenger.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                        Burn After Reading - a massively-hyped movie with the sh*ttest ‘cut-off’ ending I can recall.

                        I assume that the budget completely ran out.
                        Really? I though JK Simmons' final dialogue summed up a final judgment on what just happened quite well. I also don't remember this movie to be so hyped.

                        Are you sure you didn't mean No Country For Old Men?

                        Comment


                          #13
                          All The President's Men

                          Just ends with a montage of Hoffman and Redford just typing stuff on typewriters.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I remember watching a 70s film with Peter Fonda and Susan George called "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry " that just ends very abruptly.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Wouter D View Post
                              Really? I though JK Simmons' final dialogue summed up a final judgment on what just happened quite well. I also don't remember this movie to be so hyped.

                              Are you sure you didn't mean No Country For Old Men?
                              Well, the pay-off was okay - but it all just ‘happened’, really. It felt to me like somebody hadn’t paid a bill somewhere along the way.

                              (NB I always double-take at the mention of ‘J K Simmons’ - because, well, that’s ‘me’ - bar a ‘d’ in the surname...)

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Originally posted by Felicity, I guess so View Post
                                Hidden- very memorable watching in a packed cinema -stunned into silence followed by 50 loud arguments breaking out all across the auditorium
                                That’s coming up on Mubi in a few weeks. Must make sure I see it.

                                And while we’re on a Michael Haneke tack, I’d add The Piano Teacher to this thread. Isn’t Blow Up meant to be the pinnacle of “Oh, is that it?” film climaxes?
                                Last edited by kokamoa; 04-11-2019, 09:30.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Burn After Reading remains the most disappointed I've ever been by a film. Coen Brothers, stellar cast, hopeless fucking jumble of a film.

                                  It's a sign of how bad a movie it is that the hastily-cobbled-together exposition scenes between Simmons and David Rasche to explain the massive plot holes are - by far - the best thing about the film.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri'. Leaving the cinema I felt a little frustrated that the final scene was so inconclusive. Thinking about it later though I realised that its open-ended ambiguity was far truer to the narrative than a neat tying up of the loose ends would have been.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Guy Profumo View Post
                                      All The President's Men

                                      Just ends with a montage of Hoffman and Redford just typing stuff on typewriters.

                                      Was it? I thought that they were news agency telexes.
                                      Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 07-11-2019, 22:39.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by gjw100 View Post
                                        'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri'. Leaving the cinema I felt a little frustrated that the final scene was so inconclusive. Thinking about it later though I realised that its open-ended ambiguity was far truer to the narrative than a neat tying up of the loose ends would have been.
                                        I recall hearing some older people in the theater loudly exclaiming their disappointment at the ending of that film. I'm pretty sure it was the same people I heard loudly exclaiming their disappointment at the sudden ending of Meek's Cutoff in a different theater a few years earlier.

                                        I was fine with the endings of both films. Most films end with the protagonist getting what they want, it which case all of their efforts seem worthwhile in retrospect. Some stories are tragedies, in which case the audience understands how the protagonists mistakes and misdeeds lead to ruin, if they couldn't see the ending coming a mile away anyway.

                                        But ending the film before we know how it all turns out is known forestalls that teleological understanding of the story. Instead, we're forced to experience a bit of that same uncertainty and doubt that the characters were feeling throughout the story. In other words, it's about the journey not the destination. (That's literally the case in Meeks' Cutoff, which is about a group of white settlers taking a covered wagon across the American west in the 19th century).

                                        By contrast, in something like The Avengers or Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, etc, (which are all films I love, BTW) there are many points where hope is all but lost for the good guys. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn literally says "We must do without hope." But of course, nobody watching that really believes that. It's almost a kind of dramatic irony. We know that they good guys are going to win because that's the kind of film it is and, perhaps, because we've already seen this film before but are rewatching it anyway because it's fun. Worst case, a few beloved secondary characters die or maybe a main character dies, but we'll already know who that is because the Hollywood Reporter will have told us that the actor isn't under contract for another sequel.

                                        Or something like that. Not sure if "forestalls" is the best word there, but something like that.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Are there any films like those HP mentions above, where it’s all set up to be the usual “good guys eventually win” that does a rug pull right at the end?

                                          I’d love to see a film that does that although, I guess, for most people it would be deeply unsatisfying?

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Ridley Scott tried to do that with the utterly terrible Alien: Covenant.

                                            Just generally that is a film that generated rage in me more than any other emotion. It's like he took all the stupidest bits of Prometheus and intercut them with Alien Resurrection.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                              I watched Bonnie and Clyde tonight for the first time. I can see why it's a great film. But, wow, the ending. Talk about fade to black.

                                              What other classic films just end with no epilogue or last lines for the main characters? (I think Bullitt and The French Connection might be in this category but it's years since I've seen them.)
                                              The French Connection ends with credits stating what happened to the main characters, and All the President's Men similarly ends with telexes from stating the timeline covering up to Nixon's resignation and Ford's inauguration

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                As big a fan as I am of Stanley Kubrick the replacement ending of The Shining was a bit of a jarring WTF/shark jump. I thought it was OK with Jack dead in the snow. But, wait..., that's too finite for Kubes, he has to tack on photo of the guy at a New Years blow-out in the 1920s. I mean wha...?

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by tracteurgarçon View Post
                                                  Are there any films like those HP mentions above, where it’s all set up to be the usual “good guys eventually win” that does a rug pull right at the end?

                                                  I’d love to see a film that does that although, I guess, for most people it would be deeply unsatisfying?
                                                  The sudden ending of Meek’s Cutoff was a bit like that.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X