Cinematic Endings [NOT 13/7/24]

What movie endings shocked/traumatized/had an emotional impact on you?

The first one I saw as kid on a Sunday afternoon when TV stations would play old movies instead of infomertials.

I was 10 when saw “The Bridges At Toko-Ri.” I believed William Holden’s character was going to make it to the sea. Then I thought he was going to be rescued by Andy Rooney and Earl Holliman. Then they all died in a rice paddy in North Korea. I was floored. The hero’s not supposed to die! “That’s war, Donkey,” my dad said. The ending stuck with me for a long time.

Another William Holden movie… “The Wild Bunch.” I saw this when I was 18. Didn’t think much of it as it just seemed to be another Western as the name of the director, Sam Peckinpah, didn’t mean shit to me at the time. William Holden utters “Let’s go” and would eventually start off the darkest bloodiest firefight I ever saw in the movies (not to be repeated till Saving Private Ryan.)

The Shining. I never looked at twins, mountain hotels, snow banks or hedgerow mazes the same way.

The Way We Were. Things seemed so simple then… I thought love meant forever (god I was hopelessly naive as a kid.) The ending hurt more years later.

I saw Ran by Kurosawa as a teen. I didn’t know it was the Japanese version of King Lear till later but it still stung watching a old (foolish) man’s legacy get torn apart by his children. Years later, I understand my dad’s thousand yard stare after watching it.

Not to say that modern filmmakers don’t do things like bad endings or letting the bad guy win, but I find modern movies are more written for the naively stupid kid I was versus the older jaded adult I am.

Or so says the guy who shed a tear watching “Toy Story 4.”

Anyway, comment away on whatever suits your fancy…

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20 Comments

      • Well, the supposed assailant and another rally-goer are apparently dead. Of course, there were already calls for medical attention going out because temperatures were sweltering, and there weren’t any shaded areas or enough water to go around.

        Plus, he showed up an hour late.

         

        • well if you miss bad enough

          everything does bb damage…

          having now seent the video….yeah whatever that was wasnt big…..so its either dumbass kids or a setup

          as anyone what actually wants dump gone by now wouldnt half arse a shooting

          the penalty is no lower if you used an itty bitty caliber

          • okay…now im sobered up and with more of a news feed….guess some actually did make a real attempt at ending him…

            now im officially going to hell…coz i honestly cant feel much more about it than…oh well….shame they missed

    • Goddamn Peter Baker at the Goddamn NY Times has decided to elevate right wing propaganda that Biden’s televised condemnation didn’t hit the airwaves soon enough. He and his editors know the game. They are eager to play along.

      There is something fundamentally corroded in his soul and the souls of the people who run that place.

  1. Actually on topic with movies and endings – so I avoid dramas and prefer lighter fare, so not common to get that high emotion reaction.

    I will say the ending of Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness really got me. That whole movie made Wanda Maximoff into a horror movie villain and I was like this character has suffered so so much, and then to have her self-destruct so she can destroy the secret magical bad book of evil spells. They did her character so dirty.

  2. This is what happens when you don’t dial back the rhetoric of violence.

    But I would be completely surprised if the RWers were all “Oops my bad.”

    Party of personal irresponsibility.

  3. I never saw A Serbian Film because it would for sure traumatize me. A friend gave me all the details and that was enough to assault my subconscious. And this was back when I was still a big fan of violence and gore (but never sexual violence).

  4. I remember Se7en fucking with me a fair bit the first time I saw it — on videocassette, rented from the Blockbuster that was down the road from the high school where I’d just had my last day before graduation. The whole deal with the box sure killed my buzz from being done with that fucking place (if not the one from the Heineken that I was nursing all through the movie).

  5. For another non action movie / non thriller, Roman Holiday had a real kicker of an ending.

    Audrey Hepburne locking eyes for a moment with Gregory Peck before he walks off is just the best.

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