Bad ending
I understand one thing again by this movie, Hollywood cinema needs more bad ending.
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MovieChat Forums > Days of Wine and Roses (1963) Discussion > Bad ending
It was a perfectly logical, truthful and utterly tragic ending to a perfectly logical and truthful story.
What would you have had? Lemmon and Remick running to each other in slow motion, a camera track around the couple and soaring music with singing angels heralding the redemptive duo?
To God There Is No Zero. I Still Exist.
the only ending that fits the story.love remick's line: I
drink because the world's too ugly sober.
Phantom, the only thing I disagree about is your statement that it was a tragic ending. If you're talking about Kirsten, it seems to me that the film leaves open the question of whether or not she eventually stopped drinking and became an active mother again to her child.
She doesn't go into that bar. She doesn't even look at it. She currently has two days of sobriety.
So I think the ending makes room for a theme of hope while not flinching from the severity of the danger.
The ending was less open-ended than that, I think. I'm usually a sucker for a happy ending, but Kirsten seemed so not ready at that point, and I think both the director and the Lemmon character believed that as well, and the pessimism was conveyed subtly (and not so subtly) via those viewpoints.
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I think the OP meant to say 'unhappy' ending; and I totally agree. Too many times Hollywood goes for the easy way out in it's scramble for an audience.
The ending in this film was realistic which is what makes it so powerful and lifts the movie above banal melodrama.
That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets.
odo5435; The ending is just fine and open ended. Personally believe that 'Kirstin' is H.B. (Hopeless Boozer). One day he will look at the paper and she will be in the 'Obits'. Either dead of either her abuse or murdered.
shareI believe the ending is open ended. Kirsten can either continue her two-day sobriety, (which walking past the bar suggests she might do) maybe even getting back with Joe and her daughter someday. Or,in self pity, she can move on to the next man who will enable her habit, her life spiraling downward into tragedy or
early death.
okanacat7; I'm going with the early DEATH.
shareI do think the ending was appropriate because it shows that not all alcoholics can sucessfully recover. If you've seen the TV series Intervention, you know what I mean.
"They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God." -Elwood Blues
mcode518; Agreed.
shareI just watched it for the first time and yeah,like anyone would,I expected her to finally snap out of it and join him in Alcoholics Anonymous.
it was pretty shocking in the first place that she ended up worse than him,instead of the more obvious cliche' that the man is the weaker one in terms of addiction. Maybe that's the key to making this an even more powerful film.
Too bad both Lemmon and Remick are gone.
I'd have like to see a sequel to see what happened to them and their daughter.
HaPpIpUPpI 13 *Arf!*
happipuppi13; It is natural to look too a positive conclusion. Nobody would wants to see their lives destroyed by any addiction. The success rate for these recovery programs are very low particularly the State managed ones subsidized by the Tax-Payer, something like less then .03%. The main function of these 'programs' is less to help the affected and more to provide employment of those with a B.A. in Social Studies.
REMICK's character is unrecoverable. Time to cut your losses and move. If She is not willing to help herself, no OUT-SIDE source is going to succeed.
No arguement from me.
It's been a long time since i was naive' enough to believe you can save everyone from drugs,alcohol or whatever negatvie thing one has affect their life.
I'm happy to say though that I've had family members successfully escape certain addictions (tame ones compared to what's out there today). I myself successfully stoped using "energy drinks/tablets" that they sell in conveience stores.
I only used energy drinks on & off for 4 years. The tablets? I started in 1989 with one brand and stopped with them in 1994. In 1996 I found another kind and started up again (much cheaper) and tried to stop taking them 4 times. Once I went 7 months without them.
Scary thing is,I wouldn;t eat before I took them so they'd work better and then would only eat by the evening. My weight didn;t suffer,I usually took them with soda and then had a huge meal later.
I was finally able to stop because the last time I did , it felt like I was experiencing "the world moving aorund me". I guees it was my equalibrium. I also had a dull ache in my forehead. I had been taking them five days straight.
I quit cold turket,had some nauseating moments to emotional ones but now I have no doubt in my mind that I'll ever want them again. I really feel now,that I was on the borderline of killing myself with that garbage.
HaPpIpUPpI 13 *Arf!*
happipuppi13; Never tried the stuff ourselves, but understand getting dependent on them or other things.
shareI don't think you expressed yourself very well. I believe you were trying to say that the ending was sad/unhappy and that you believe such should happen more often in films. If that was your meaning, I agree. Do remember, however, that this film, in 1962, was made just as the grip of the Breen office was fading. If made 10 years earlier, The Code would have forced an entirely different ending than the one that was filmed. Filmmakers of the 1930-50's didn't choose to avoid unhappy endings....they were told to do so.
Remember When Movies Didn't Have To Be Politically Correct?
Perhaps it was an ending you didn't understand. The final 20 minutes of this film are among the best film endings in Hollywood history.
Remember When Movies Did Not Have To Be Politically Correct?
The ending was just fine. He chose to get himself straightened out. She chose not to. Not a happy ending, but I think that they were trying to show the realities of alcoholism. Some people never get straightened out. He will also have to live with the fact that he drove her to drink.
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Jim Hutton (1934-79) and Ellery Queen =
FFS folks, he didn't mean "bad" as in "sucked." He meant bad as in it wasn't a fairy tale ending in which they lived happily ever after. And I agree, those are very few and far between and when a well done "bad ending" comes along it can be ironically refreshing.
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