Carmel

I have watched some film's that the ending's are so disapointing after sitting through a hole film you can scream, one i know of is Take a girl like you although i enjoyed the film the ending was awful you just wanted to know did he get the girl or not, there have been many a film that i have sat through and ended up screaming at the end as it was so so awful.

Joenoir

I'm sorry but it's another US film The Woman in the Window, one of the most irritating endings ever.

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

batman

Agreed ... what a let down that was for me.

Although I love the film, the changed ending of Brighton Rock has always irritated me.

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

clitheroekid

Abel Gance's Napoleon* - it finished just as I was getting into it


* (originally 9 hours, although only a 7 1/2 hour version survives)

smudge

After loads of atmosphere and spookiness the ending of THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE was a complete letdown for me...

Smudge

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Carmel

I agree Legend of Hell house was a great film but they could of done a better ending

Aaryk Noctivagus

The ending of 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire'... those bells ringing... it would have been better had there just been silence - which was what the Director wanted... but others insisted it needed the suggestion of a happy ending.

Steven Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds' where Tom Cruise's son happens to turn up just so the ending is completely happy for that family whilst tragedy reigns all around them. It would have been much better had the son not been there and the question as to whether or not he survived left up to the audience to debate.

ChristineCB

I'm never sure why good stories are ruined by an incongruent ending. I often blame natural resources.

I've thought that, perhaps, the Celluloid Forest was suddenly depleted and filmmakers were told, "Sorry - no more film exists in the universe - you've got 30 seconds to wrap this up - that's it!"

That must be the reason, don't you think? Surely you can't suspect drain droughts, do you?

Carmel

Another bad ending to a film is "A taste of honey" what a great film with Dora Bryan and what a dismal ending, we never find out what her baby is how her life turn's out and wether she makes friend's again with the gay fella she set up home with, what a disapointment to a great film.

smudge

Ah but isn't that just life Carmel ? We all move on from different circumstances and lose touch with some people, but carry on just the same...

Smudge

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

smudge

Not so much the celluloid forest - most likely that the Greenbacks tree had suddenly lost all it's leaves...

Smudge

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

dylan

This is the "feelgood factor" required by US distributors. This happens in The Prestige and why does The Black Book have a framing device that tells us that the heroine is unnaffected by all the terrible things that happen to her?

D.

hankoler

Dont you think that the makers of these open ended films want the viewer to use his imagination as to how they want the film to end.

Aaryk Noctivagus

Yes... but a movie is not life and life is not a movie. A movie is simply the representation of the universe the characters (who are representations of people but not real people) of the movie inhabit.

Frankly I quite like hanging endings... And downbeat endings... My least favourite type of ending is the straightforward happy happy one.

I quite like not having every single answer at the end of a movie.

But one cannot look at a movie and say 'well that's life'... because it isn't.

ChristineCB

I KNEW it was a "natural resources" issue!! ha ha

I guess we've all seen films where we thought the ending was too quick, too hurried, as if their ship was sinking and they needed to finish it in 3 minutes. For filmmakers who are famous (infamous?) for writing scripts on-the-go, these shakey endings might be understood. I don't know why endings turn out so weak or unfitting for so many others.

I don't mind Happy Endings or Sad Ones, as long as they fit. The recent release of the Dir-Cut of PAYBACK was an interesting collection of two fairly different films under one title, and both versions 'fit' to their respective goals. This only adds to Carmel's original question, "Why can fairly different endings be done on the same basic story, and both seem to fit, but so many others can't find ONE that works? Does it 'work' for the storyteller? Why can't that be conveyed to the audience?"

It may be a natural resource issue again. Brain cells, anyone?

(Eric Idle's pushing his cart past Hollywood studios... "Bring out yer brain-dead... bring out yer brain-dead..." and it gets piled up AWFULLY quick... and not a one of them gets better.)