Movies that are great...until the final reel screws them up (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

Spielberg often has trouble with his endings, feeling compelled to tack on happy endings to otherwise darker stories.

-Schindler's List
-Saving Private Ryan
-A.I.
-Minority Report
-War of the Worlds

I didn't perceive the final reel of A.I. to be a "happy ending" at all, but rather the end of humankind. I didn't care for it much, but it didn't seem uplifting. WAR OF THE WORLDS had a very rushed ending. After all the crap the Earth had endured from these (very scary) Martians, there needed to be a bit more catharsis in the final reel, a more gradual fall of the enemy. Not all the invaders are going to drop dead of the common cold at exactly the same time! And that sappy reunion at the very end just made me want to gag...was this only so that a cameo from Gene Barry and Ann Robinson could be shoehorned in?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Big Fish. You could have

Spoiler

cut the entire funeral scene, which exists solely to say, "hey, guess what? He was telling the truth the whole time!" Which kind of defeats the point of the film, which was that it doesn't matter whether or not his stories were more or less true; what matters is that his son found peace with his storytelling.

 

[EricSchulz]

Brian DePalma's Carrie. The last scene seems so "tacked on" and just ruins what had been SUCH a great movie.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Gone Girl I have never had a more unpleasant reaction to a movie than this one. Not even the final reel, more like the final 100 seconds. It made me even more angry because I absolutely love every thing David Fincher does, and since this movie made me hate it so much, I didn't want it in my library, meaning my DF collection will never be complete.

It wasn't so much the fact that

Spoiler

She gets away with it, that's perfectly fine

but that

Spoiler

He ends up staying with her

that really pissed me off.

I only saw the movie once, but I had just read the book prior to seeing the movie - I can't remember if the movie ending made this less clear than the book, or if I'm remembering the book and not the film, but the way I recall the ending of the story might make it more palatable for you:

Spoiler

He doesn't stay with her because he wants to stay with her, or out of love. Rather, she's such a conniving, evil villain, that she's found a way to prevent him from leaving. He wants to go. She gets pregnant deceptively by using a sperm donation that he had made previously when they had been attempting fertility treatments but had since given up. She's carrying his child, and tells him that if he tries to leave, she'll frame him again so that he'll never even be allowed to see his child. It's strongly implied that she doesn't even want to be a mother, doesn't care about having a child, and would be abusive or neglectful to that child. He can stay and take care of their child and live his life under his thumb, or he can leave, be accused of trying to harm her and her child, prevented from ever seeing them, and then have to live with the knowledge that she's abusing their child to hurt him. This is her ultimate revenge for being cheated on: his punishment for cheating on her or thinking about leaving her is that he is now never able to go.

It's incredibly twisted!

 

[Robert Harris]

I am a huge Hitchcock fan. But for me the last 10 minutes or so of REBECCA are a bore, which is highly unusual for a Hitchcock movie. Maybe it was more Selznick than Hitchcock's fault. But it was as though all the emotional power generated up until the final reel was dropped and the job handed over to a routine crime drama director. It is only rescued by the final, hair raising and haunting shots of Mrs. Danvers trapped in the hellish demise of Manderley.

So too are the final scenes in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. I know it is heresy to suggest such a thing on this website and there is no doubt it is one of the top 10 greatest movies ever made. However, those last several scenes are plain boring, something that happens no where else in the movie. I realize T.E.Lawrence was an enigma. But Lean seemed to have lost his mojo in also making him a compelling figure in the last reel or two. Again, the final couple of shots do make a lasting and haunting impression. But the last reel or so seems to have been underwritten and directed without anything near the inspiration of what came before.

And it might well be a case of what came before being SO good, it was almost impossible to wrap it up on as high a standard in both of the above movies.

The final reel of Lawrence begins with the Arab Council, and the breakdown of Lawrences’s dream of giving them their freedom - undermined by the British military, for whom he had fought, and the newly formed Sykes-Picot Treaty, that was being protected.

It was never meant to be an unlifting, exciting ending.

It was about the destruction of a dream, purposely destroyed.

 

[TJPC]

I know the movies had to conform to the books as much as possible, but the ending of “Lord Of The Rings” drove me crazy. How many endings were there? I kept thinking this is it, then there would be more movie and you thought this is it. etc etc etc.

 

[Cineman]

The final reel of Lawrence begins with the Arab Council, and the breakdown of Lawrences’s dream of giving them their freedom - undermined by the British military, for whom he had fought, and the newly formed Sykes-Picot Treaty, that was being protected.

It was never meant to be an unlifting, exciting ending.

It was about the destruction of a dream, purposely destroyed.

Yes, I realize that. But there are plenty of movies without uplifting, exciting endings that still convey a sense of deep loss, an emotional punch in the gut. I certainly shared Lawrence's emotions all through the rest of the movie. But in that final reel or so, all I was feeling was it was time to wrap it up with the historical, political facts and, The End. And I respect that Lean, Bolt and/or Wilson perhaps did not want to kick it up a notch just for the sake of movie drama, to only present the political facts. But I kind of wish they had. I would have liked to more strongly share Lawrence's feelings about the destruction of that dream. But I can't honestly say that happened nearly the way I shared in his feelings prior to that.

I should also add that my choices aren't exactly examples of a final real "screwing up" what "would" have been great movies. Just a bit of a cinematic let down at the end that does not seem to fit the high standards that had been set before. So in that way I am not adhering to the precise Subject of the thread I suppose.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Man, rough crowd with their preferred downer endings. I agree with some, but not all of them. I see nothing wrong with the LOA ending. Actually that ending leaves me very reflective as you see a visionary crushed by the powers to be.

 

[Tino]

Great idea but shouldn't this thread be in the MOVIES section?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Great idea but shouldn't this thread be in the MOVIES section?

TBH, yes, it should be in Movies.

 

[Nick*Z]

I am a huge Hitchcock fan. But for me the last 10 minutes or so of REBECCA are a bore, which is highly unusual for a Hitchcock movie. Maybe it was more Selznick than Hitchcock's fault. But it was as though all the emotional power generated up until the final reel was dropped and the job handed over to a routine crime drama director. It is only rescued by the final, hair raising and haunting shots of Mrs. Danvers trapped in the hellish demise of Manderley.

So too are the final scenes in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. I know it is heresy to suggest such a thing on this website and there is no doubt it is one of the top 10 greatest movies ever made. However, those last several scenes are plain boring, something that happens no where else in the movie. I realize T.E.Lawrence was an enigma. But Lean seemed to have lost his mojo in also making him a compelling figure in the last reel or two. Again, the final couple of shots do make a lasting and haunting impression. But the last reel or so seems to have been underwritten and directed without anything near the inspiration of what came before.

And it might well be a case of what came before being SO good, it was almost impossible to wrap it up on as high a standard in both of the above movies.

Pure sacrilege - set this man on fire and then have him dragged by camel across the desert!!!!

..I'm kidding. To each his own. Personally, I regard both of these movies as sheer masterpieces with zero flaws. But hey, that's what makes this gathering of the clan so exciting - a difference of opinion and our ability to share it with others.

 

[Dick]

TBH, yes, it should be in Movies.

Feel free to move it, gentlemen.

 

[Nick*Z]

The last moments of the original The Poseidon Adventure have always left me deflated. Yes, we're meant to feel defeated, that out of a cast of so many, only a mere handful have escaped this wreckage alive. Personally, Shelley Winters' loss totally devastated me as a kid; a one-two wallop that absolutely sank me when Gene Hackman seemed to needlessly sacrifice himself instead of making a more concerted effort to survive. He just seemed to give up, presumably, offering himself as a final sacrifice so the others might live. But this went completely against his "God loves triers" speech he delivers on the morning before the deluge, so it really left the ending without a protagonist we could root for. Even with his soulful look of hope as the hull is cut open to rescue the remaining few, Ernest Borgnine's bitter cop just didn't cover the bases on this one - at least, not for me.

 

[ShellOilJunior]

Thieves' Highway

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

So, I'll add sort of a subsection to this discussion because I believe that when they do this it is most of the time a mistake and I don't think it is a big enough topic to have its own thread when it fits in well with this one.

This would be movies that have MORE THAN ONE ENDING...

I can give two very recent examples:

The Nun: This film has three endings. The first is basically the best ending for the story, a climactic battle with the demon. The next ending they tack on is sort of a "happy coda" with the remaining "heroes" chatting before they literally ride off into the sunset...um...I mean European countryside. Then because the filmmakers seem to realize "Oh yeah, this film is supposed to be in The Conjuring "universe" they tack on the third ending which is specifically just meant to tie the film into that. So, one film with three endings.

Den of Thieves: This love letter to Michael Mann's Heat also has three endings. Now, I've only seen the "extended cut" so I am not sure if the theatrical cut also had three endings or they just did that for the longer cut. Now the first ending is a climactic very Heat-like chase and shoot-out between the crew of bad guys and the cops. It is actually wonderfully done. It provides a perfect ending to the film. But wait...that's not the end. The next ending tacked on is sort of a melancholy scene in a bar where a central character seems to realize something. But wait we are still not done! Next comes a third ending that is meant to totally twist what you have just watched and includes another incredibly stupid scene in another bar in a different country. Oddly, prior to these two additional endings what we had was a very good cops and robbers picture that had been excellently shot and acted albeit while seeming to desperately want to recreate stuff from Mann's Heat...but hey, Heat is a great film so if you are going to steal, steal good stuff and do it well. Which they did...up until the two additional endings. I will say that the final (ending number 3) ending in this film is also seemingly meant to set-up a sequel. Which is funny because I don't think this film was a financial success so a sequel seems unlikely though one appears to be in the works...not sure if that will happen.

So, there you have it. Two films, six endings, and god or the devil knows why.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

I only saw the movie once, but I had just read the book prior to seeing the movie - I can't remember if the movie ending made this less clear than the book, or if I'm remembering the book and not the film, but the way I recall the ending of the story might make it more palatable for you:

Spoiler

He doesn't stay with her because he wants to stay with her, or out of love. Rather, she's such a conniving, evil villain, that she's found a way to prevent him from leaving. He wants to go. She gets pregnant deceptively by using a sperm donation that he had made previously when they had been attempting fertility treatments but had since given up. She's carrying his child, and tells him that if he tries to leave, she'll frame him again so that he'll never even be allowed to see his child. It's strongly implied that she doesn't even want to be a mother, doesn't care about having a child, and would be abusive or neglectful to that child. He can stay and take care of their child and live his life under his thumb, or he can leave, be accused of trying to harm her and her child, prevented from ever seeing them, and then have to live with the knowledge that she's abusing their child to hurt him. This is her ultimate revenge for being cheated on: his punishment for cheating on her or thinking about leaving her is that he is now never able to go.

It's incredibly twisted!

Yeah, the movie doesn't communicate that at all.

Spoiler

She tells him that she's pregnant and based on that he stays, but there's no reason at all presented that a) she isn't completely lying and b) that there will be any sort of consequences if he leaves. In fact I was dead certain that she was lying about the whole thing and he was a f'n idiot to believe her and stay.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

The Woman in the Window

This! Absolutely this! This is a fantastic film completely undone but the production code ending. I saw this once, over 30 years ago, and was literally on the edge of my seat and then I sat back completely deflated. What a waste.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This! Absolutely this! This is a fantastic film completely undone but the production code ending. I saw this once, over 30 years ago, and was literally on the edge of my seat and then I sat back completely deflated. What a waste.

I felt that way initially, but over time I liked the final ending more so now.

 

[WillG]

The comedy Stripes falls apart once they leave training camp and head to Europe. A very funny movie with some classic lines in the first half of the film, and a horrible bore in the 2nd half.

I think I've only watched the entirety of Stripes once in my life. First half I could probably recite in my sleep.

 

[WillG]

Spielberg often has trouble with his endings, feeling compelled to tack on happy endings to otherwise darker stories.

-Schindler's List
-Saving Private Ryan
-A.I.
-Minority Report
-War of the Worlds

To be fair, In some of those cases the schmaltz only really happens at the very end