*** Official BIG FISH Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[EricW]

does anybody think the funeral scene was unnecessary? i mean it would have been great if the hospital scene (where Billy Crudup describes the river death) fades into Billy and son at the pool. the funeral scene seems to only reveal that Finney did in fact do some of the things he said, yet the movie is about the truth not being that important. we shouldn't ~need~ to know the fact from the fiction, and for me, knowing some more of what actually happened and what didn't, kind of negated the effect of his stories.

 

[TonyD]

funeral scene was unnecessary?

not a chance.
this is what brought the whole movie together.
it showed what a great life this man led and how many people's lives he touched and how many people who cared about him.

in fact the ending redeemed the movie for me.
up until then i thought it was just an ok movie but the end put it all into perspective for me.

and once you see the end you can now think back and see in your mind all the allusions to water and fish that werent so obvious at first.

 

[Javier_Huerta]

The ending was what made the movie great.... I feel exactly the way Tony feels about it. Up to that point, I was *expecting* something great to happen... something unexpected, and could make the movie complete. The ending was all that, and more.

I have to say I watched this movie with a friend of mine, and while we both tried really hard not to cry, by the ending we just couldn't avoid doing so. The ending is one of the most powerful statements I've ever seen in a movie.

 

[EricW]

to TonyD or Javier:

i don't want to sound confronational at all , and it's fine that you disagree with me, but i was just curious as to what the emotional climax was for you in this movie (there can be many emotional highs, but only one climax from which everything before builds up to, and everything after flows from afterwards). i guess it was finding out that he really was a 'great man' in the funeral scene? for me it was the son finally making up the story of his father's death at the river, and then the father dying. the funeral scene (to me) was more of a 'tying up of loose ends'.

 

[Javier_Huerta]

Eric, for me the ending was the climax because up to that point, we only had clues as to what Ed's stories were (fact or fiction). Before the ending, we could only have assumed he was a great story teller, nothing more.

The ending, to me, brought things upon perspective: he was the real thing, and the only reason he made up all those strange and beautiful details was so as to become immortal with his own son, using those stories as a way to perpetuate hs life. When his son was at the hospital he began to understand this, but only at the funeral scene he finally realized his father would always live in him as long as he could remember and tell his stories. That's the reason we see him telling his own sons the same stories all over again... just before we see the Big Fish again.

 

[BridgetJZ]

I agree with you to certain point, but I can't help feel that the end was a little contrived so to give the film that wholesome family feel. Maybe its just me.

I was slightly let down w/ this one... maybe bc it was hyped up so much here in the states. I have to admit that the sFX were truly amazing, though and the story had a lot of potential... i think that maybe it went a little to slow, though that's neither here nor there.

 

[EricW]

When his son was at the hospital he began to understand this, but only at the funeral scene he finally realized his father would always live in him as long as he could remember and tell his stories.

i agree the movie is about the son realizing how great his father is/was, but i guess the reason i don't like the funeral scene is i felt the son reached this point at the hospital. i only watched this movie once, but from my POV, at the funeral, the son was a little surprised to see all the people actually existed, but there wasn't any huge revelation on his part. he was like 'hey, they actually exist' and smiled.

anyways, a great movie wither way.