Happy Endings

[yellow.rose]

Do we really need them all the time (or damn near close)?

I watch a relatively large amount of movies and I am often struck by a "pasted on" feeling at the end, like the happy ending in the movie isn't what the original writer intended. Does anyone else get annoyed by this sometimes? It just feels fake and becomes so predictable. European movies can be refreshing from time to time because while they can be depressing, at least they're honest.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being treated as an immature child as a viewer that needs to be fed fantasy stories. I'm not talking romantic comedies where you know in advance what you're getting, I'm talking about dramas. For example, I recently watched Company Men, great movie in my opinion. The ending though felt kinda fantasy and happy-fake. Like they had to end it on a positive note though personally, I feel that was less honest than the rest of the film.

I imagine its probably an economic decision: people want to see movies that make them feel good, life sucks enough as it is. Movies that make you feel good = happy endings. Makes you feel good = buy a ticket. But still, at some point it goes too far and it just becomes boring, annoying and infantile doesn't it?

Thoughts? :)

[OvershareDude]

http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/7c240aa6-d169-4a94-816a-0f52e95896ec.jpg
(ok not about movies, but who doesn't love a 'happy ending'?)

I'm trying to think of a movie that I've seen in the last 10 years (not all that many anyway) that didn't have a happy ending...


Frankly my dear [dubbed over voice] I love you, lets remarry

[yellow.rose]

*groan* I knew I should have made the title "Hollywood Happy Endings" or something of that nature!

I'm trying to think of a movie that I've seen in the last 10 years (not all that many anyway) that didn't have a happy ending...

What about Memento? Awesome movie. The Prestige also comes to mind (I'm a Christopher Nolan fan).

[OvershareDude]

I don't watch all that many movies though.

I still get teary over Milo and Otis at 27 years old...

[Brifflez]

Movie suggestion for YR: This is England

[Surfa]

That's why most actions movies bore the fuck out of me. I'm tired of waiting for the good guy to save the day and defeat the bad guy and then get the woman. Predictable shit.

These days I can spot a movie like that a mile away. Alternate movies are the best and ones that you can see that the writer has put in a lot of effort to make the storyline original.

[Brandy]

I'm with ya. Happy endings are a snooze. I love the ones that leave you feeling uneasy at the end. Like you're not sure you should have liked it, but you do.
I agree, Memento was a great one. American Beauty also leaps to mind. Loved that one.

[foh4k]

Employee of the Month

The one with Christina Applegate and Matt Dillon now theres a turner you won't expect.

[Kuky]

What about Requiem for a Dream? I remember that one being pretty depressing at the end.

Blair Witch Project (though the movie was so shitty, just seeing that it finally ended made me happy, so not sure if it counts haha)

[English_Rose]

Ooooh that's one of the main reasons Atonement is my all time favorite movie. *******SPOILER ALERT BELOW********
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
The fact that it's not a happy ending is what makes the characters seem SO much more powerful and the bond that they share so much more realistic I think.

[exitstageright]

Do we really need them all the time (or damn near close)?

I watch a relatively large amount of movies and I am often struck by a "pasted on" feeling at the end, like the happy ending in the movie isn't what the original writer intended. Does anyone else get annoyed by this sometimes? It just feels fake and becomes so predictable. European movies can be refreshing from time to time because while they can be depressing, at least they're honest.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being treated as an immature child as a viewer that needs to be fed fantasy stories. I'm not talking romantic comedies where you know in advance what you're getting, I'm talking about dramas. For example, I recently watched Company Men, great movie in my opinion. The ending though felt kinda fantasy and happy-fake. Like they had to end it on a positive note though personally, I feel that was less honest than the rest of the film.

I imagine its probably an economic decision: people want to see movies that make them feel good, life sucks enough as it is. Movies that make you feel good = happy endings. Makes you feel good = buy a ticket. But still, at some point it goes too far and it just becomes boring, annoying and infantile doesn't it?

Thoughts? :) The first Hollywood movie that I saw that did not have a happy
ending was when I was only 14 years old. It was at the Coronet theater in San Francisco
in 1968. It was the first showing of the movie, "Planet of The Apes". At the end,I was wondering why Charlton Heston's character,Colonel Taylor,was pounding the sand with his fists in anger while cursing. When the camera panned back and the Statue of Liberty came into the scene,the whole theater was very,very quiet. Rod Sterling (of the Twilight Zone) wrote the screenplay for "Planet of the Apes." It was no surprise that this movie had an unforgettable ending.

[Angelsmom]

The Departed did not end happy. I hear a sequel is in the works, although I've no idea who will be in it cause they killed off almost everyone! lol Cold Mountain did not end happy either. I cried for an hour after that movie ended. Deep sobs that I didn't even know I could make. I was reading the book when I saw the movie, and I couldn't even finish it.

The happy endings don't bother me so much as predictability. I was ready to walk out of Thelma and Louise cause you could tell half-way through how that movie would end. Same thing with Pearl Harbor, although the effects were quite good.

[Crash Override]

I think there are tons of movies out there with unhappy endings - Arlington Road, Requiem For A Dream, A.I., American History X, and of course Leon: The Professional come immediately to mind.

I don't have any problem at all with happy endings and prefer them whenever possible - I'm not of the opinion that a happy ending is always a cop-out - because I feel like movies are, by and large, supposed to be about magic, not reality. A great example of this is the most recent Woody Allen film, Midnight In Paris. Nothing about that movie is realistic and of course you can see the happy ending a mile away, but I don't think it would have improved the movie in any way to have the movie end with all the protagonists miserable and alone.
I thought Requiem For A Dream was a great movie, sure, but I've only ever seen it once and I will never, ever, ever watch that movie again because it is too fucking depressing, and I feel that way about a lot of movies (the exception to this is Igby Goes Down, my favourite movie of all time, because I will watch it over and over again, torturing myself, just because it's so well-written and well-acted).

Sometimes I even think that an "unhappy ending" can feel forced or tacked on for the sake of making a shallow movie seem "deep" and "thought-provoking," like the truly atrocious City Of Angels starring Nicolas Cage. That unhappy ending was so utterly predictable and so poorly executed that I almost would have enjoyed the movie more had they ended it happily ever after.

My point is, really, I'd take a well-done movie with a happy ending over a poorly-done film with a sad ending any day of the week, and movies where the happy ending feels "tacked on" reflect poorly on the writer/director, not on a society that "prefers" pleasant resolutions to cinematic conflicts. :)

[Sonny]

Hmm maybe hollywood should take note. This is England is my all time favourite movie and maybe the unhappy (realistic) ending has someting to do with that.

I think the most unhappy ending ever written has to be to 1984 (don't know if there is a movie, Im just saying) I seriously had to turn on some happy music afterwards to avoid instantly catching chronic depression after reading that.

[Brifflez]

There is a movie yes, though I couldn't say how closely it follows the text. Of course, if we're talking about book adaptation, there are a hell of a lot of books turned movie that don't have happy endings. Of Mice and Men, Seven Little Australians and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest come to mind straight away...

[Gezus]

The people who made the movie Layer Cake had a happy Hollywood ending pushed on them where the main character drives into the sunset in a convertible with a hot woman. They managed to side-step this and change the ending without their superiors noticing till they couldn't do anything about it, I don't remember how, but kudos to them!

Other movies to add to the list: Glengarry Glen Ross, The Rules of Attraction, The Diary of Anne Frank, Five Easy Pieces, Leaving Las Vegas...

[Kuky]

Heh yeah the Layer Cake ending was interesting. :lol:

As someone watching the film, unaware of the novel, I thought it deserved the happy ending, and the way they did it felt a little awkward, like "let's throw that in at the end, that'll mess with the audience!"

Then I just looked up the novel, and the same thing happens, except the novel continues on for one more chapter.

[Gezus]

Heh yeah the Layer Cake ending was interesting. :lol:

As someone watching the film, unaware of the novel, I thought it deserved the happy ending, and the way they did it felt a little awkward, like "let's throw that in at the end, that'll mess with the audience!"

Then I just looked up the novel, and the same thing happens, except the novel continues on for one more chapter.

Not to hijack the thread here, but I think the point is to show that if you get involved in that life too deeply it most likely won't end well and there's rarely a way out.

[Kuky]

I get it, but the point was made kind of abruptly in the movie. Probably because the slow-ass last chapter of the novel is not a good climax for a movie. :)

[Asphodelle13]

Yeah Crash has a good point. There are some movies that are so depressing that I could never see myself watching again even though I think they're brilliant. Like Requiem. The first movie I thought of was Schindlers List..but that's a true story so maybe that doesn't count? :P There are movies that have a realistic satisfying ending, like Forrest Gump. There are many movies that have happy endings like Shawshank Redemption..and I was so glad it ended that way even if it was a long painful journey. I think if an ending provokes an emotion other then disgust then it can't be a total loss. Like when I first saw the end of The Sixth Sense and was surprised (what a dope I was!) and then sad.. I don't know what but the end of that still brings tears to my eyes. Or the cheeky last words of Hannibal Lecter at the end of Silence of the Lambs. Or the bittersweet touching goodbye in E.T. These types of movies don't have perfectly happy endings or horribly depressing ones, but they are memorable.

Yellow rose, I like Nolan too. Inception is one of my favorites. I think the ending suits the movie.

[Teag]

Buried.

[yellow.rose]

Crash Override, you bring up some great points. Also to all those that responded with movies that had unhappy endings, I agree with you those movies do exist. I don't have a problem with happy endings, actually most of the time I like them. I guess what I really have a problem with is dishonesty and lacking faith in an audience. As though we can't handle some tough reality in a film and everything needs to have a storybook ending because we can't get that in real life.

To be fair, maybe that's true. I imagine a lot of those movies that tacked on / changed the original ending to be happy, sold more tickets because of it. I know my mother for one will not watch a movie with an unhappy ending. She is the kind to read the last few pages of a book before starting it so she knows she won't be disappointed, otherwise she doesn't bother. Perhaps its all our [viewers] fault after all?

In which case, what makes European audiences so different? Sure Hollywood has some "unhappy" endings. Not nearly as many as European films, at least in the films I have seen.

True, some Hollywood movies have sad endings tacked on. They are far less frequent than tacked on happy endings, though. I guess I honed in on tacked on happy endings because they seem to be the most prevalent in Hollywood movies. In my viewing experience at least, the vast majority of Hollywood movies end well, even when that ending doesn't really fit the original storyline.

Yellow rose, I like Nolan too.

Awesome! My boyfriend was the one that got me hooked on him and now I keep trying to get others hooked on his films as well :D Great to meet another Nolan fan.

[mban62]

Looking for a girl that won't drive me crazy !!

[stashfx]

The best film I have to see date for pure escapism is Pans labyrinth, doesn't have a happy ending but its kind of magical :) I don't like films that are run of the mill or predictable.

[john007007]

hi friend !
I have seen image on the page given by you.
thank u


Event Management Company