Goodbyeee
I watched the last episode last night and cried! How many other comedies are brave enough to end so sadly and movingly?
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MovieChat Forums > Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) Discussion > Goodbyeee
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It faded out to a battle field in France, as it is today.
I'm anespeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulations...
It isn't France, they were fighting here, in Ypres. (Belgium)
shareThey were at the Somme (France).
I'm anespeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulations...
Nope, Battle of Somme was in 1916. This is set in 1917, so the Third battle of Ypres is most likely.
shareThey were in the Somme. It was a large area, there was more than just the one battle. You see when Blackadder answer the phone "The Somme public baths". If it had been Ypres, he would have said the Ypres public baths.
I'm anespeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulations...
Then it was en oversight by the writing staff, but in actuality it isn't important if they got it right. It isn't exactly a documentary.
shareI realise that. I didn't use the approximate age of Miranda Richardson combined with raleigh returning to figure out the date in which Blackadder took place, or go through a list of the bishops of Bath and Wells when I visted that bishop's house to see which was the baby eating one, nor did I compare the portraits on the wall with the guy from the TV series...
I'm anespeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulations...
What the hell are you talking about? They say it is 1917 right before they go over the top. No higher math is needed. The Battle of the Somme took place in 1916.
shareI thought my reference to the bishop of Bath and Wells made it clear I was talking about the second series, where no exact date was given.
I'm anespeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulations...
I'm not sure that it was set around any particular battle. Just WW1 as a whole. What country they were in makes no difference. But if I were to guess I would say that they were based at Battle of Passchendaele due to the 1917 reference. It wouldn't be the Somme as that battle was during 1916.
Yorkshire is a place. Yorkshire is a state of mind.
Yeah, it's the Battle of Passchendaele. I have seen Richard Curtis in an interview (on 'Behind the Britcoms') referencing Passchendaele. So the person that said Ypres is indeed correct, Belgium.
shareI don't understand why everything remotely historically accurate is always classed as 'anti-war'. As soon as it becomes 'too real', it's an anti-war statement. It's just a mark of respect for those that died, and fading to the poppy fields does exactly that. It's the perfect end to a fantastic series.
shareI think everything that is historically accurate is, by nature and inherently, anti-war.
I.E. - The second you see the horror and devastation, both physically and emotionally, there's no way you'd be FOR that horror and devastation, thus you'd be 'against' the war, thus anti-war.
It'd be hard to show that level of tragedy and be, like, "But it's brilliant, right?!"
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"I don't understand why everything remotely historically accurate is always classed as 'anti-war'."
I don't understand how anyone could be PRO-war without being a psychopath that enjoys the worst depravity and horror ever inflicted on masses of people by the powerful that only do it to gain power and wealth.
I thought the whole series was an anti-war statement. They were making jokes about the pointlessness of the war in virtually every episode. It is just that in the final episode, everyone realises that this was then end and the mood was reflective of this.
sharewell i watched it in school so i coudn't really cry, but it was upseting
shareThe ending gets me every time *tear* Just as the music starts to echo and it all fades to grey...pure genius at its most tragically beautiful. I love the way that, in the end, Blackadder - who has done everything humanly possible to escape his fate - simply accepts that there is no way out for him.
Duo Maxwell: [On suffocation] Oh, this is such a lame way to die. This is so not cool!
I just watched it again - first time in ages. The whole second half of the episode is so incredibly moving. I feel a bit sorry for people who expect one genre to never go beyond what an audience might generally deem to be it's accepted boundaries because it's the juxtaposition of that moment of tragedy at the end of 6 episodes of laughs that provides some truly poigniant scenes that are incredibly befitting of such an emotive subject matter. And also - the ending does not 'fade out to a garden' as someone wrote earlier - it fades out to the poppy fields of Flanders that saw some of worst fighting of the war.
share"In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses row on row"
Anybody who didn't get that reference is probably fourteen years old. And American.
"Woof. In tones of low menace"
'You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go...'
Duo Maxwell: [On suffocation] Oh, this is such a lame way to die. This is so not cool!
saw the final episode today and it really touched me. Almost cried, I was like this is the end of BlackAdder. And just the scene, running towards death like real men even though they didn't do anything else then trying to escape the war. The music is beautiful and very touching. It just realised me what kind of madness war is, nothing has made me realise it more then this episode. It's all useless madness.
x-men 4 script:
http://former.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/board/thread/69179793
Oy Boulters,
I'm 14 and I know what that is.
Those who live by the sword...get shot by those who don't.
They could have ended it one of two ways:
#1: Baldrick could have said his cunning plan and they could have escaped. This would have been a bit of an anticlimax and wouldn't have worked.
#2: How they did it.
I think the second option is, by far, the best: it captured the whole atmosphere of the war. I think I got over worked up because the screen wasn't very good, and I couldn't see Baldrick after a while. I'm not sure if he fell or not, but the thought of him falling brought a huge tear to my eye. With the music as well, with the poppies (never clichéd, even 90 years later!)... the tears were rolling down my face :(
I have cried once at the end to this episode as well, not just a few tears but real sobs - no other TV programme has ever had that effect on me before.
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Tell me about it. I live in America, where sitcoms are so formulatic you know when to laugh before the jokes are even made.
Exterminate!
I understand exactly how you feel. The lines that really get to me are:
"WHO WOULD HAVE NOTICED ANOTHER MADMAN AROUND HERE?"
"GOOD LUCK EVERYONE"
That last line gets me cause, Blackadder is a character we've grown to view as selfish, cruel, cynical (yet oddly likeable). In those last moments, all those are put aside in those three words-Blackadder's final words
I feel myself about to cry right now.
A lot of people sy Blackadder should get another series however i just feel that it should not continue purely because of this episode, not because its rubbish, infact its my 2nd favorite episode of Blackadder but because it is so moving and really means something. For the 1st time since the start of series 2 we see the selfishness and crueltyin Blackadder disappear in those few words "good luck everyone" and then as they went over the top it was done perfectly. This scene is not about the comedy but a tribute to those on the fron line, who lived and died.
shareI totally agree.
Every time I watch that last episode when it fades out to Flanders, I can only think of my Grandfather (who fought from 1915-18 and survived) and Great Uncle (Killed in action in March 1918). The Tommies of WW1 were truly a great breed.
Watched it again the other night and it still gets me every time. Very moving and an absolutely inspired piece of television.
Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row
It was a fine ending. Could have used a monkey.
shareI think this is certainly the most moving and brave ending to a sitcom. Captain Darlings speech about going back to work at Pratt & Sons and writing Bugger in his diary was amazing given that he was a loathsome character and yet you feel such sypmpathy for him. And Edmund's half choked "Good luck everyone" had the tears rolling down my face.
"So the poor old ostrich died for nothing"
This is my favourite episode in a sitcom ever I think...So beautiful, moving, a fitting tribute to the fallen, but also such sharp satire it makes you feel so angry and frustrated all at once.
I always, always cry at this episode - I can feel a lump in my throat now remembering those lines...
Darling's speech about his plans to return home and marry his sweetheart; have a career - just sum up the injustice of how many men had all their dreams and aspirations snatched away from them - and for what?? That chokes me.
Baldrick's angered words makes me cry - I know its silly, but he's right! Why can't we just say stop? Why can't we just all go home? When he reflects on his losses 'Katie the worm' 'all my friends are gone' you know he isn't talking insects, these are real people that were lost, and I giggle and sob at the same time.
And finally...George's speech about 'the golden summer of 1914' it just gets me. So many men, and boys, dreaming of glorious battle, unprepared for the reality of the Great War.
Love all the actors in Blackadder, and the writers, just an incredible series altogether finished with the best finale. Essentially English, no-one does it better.
I'm so hard and street and cool!
What always struck me is that the entire premise of the show is that Blackadder is a complete coward. Yet when it really comes down to it and there is no turning back, he leads from the front in a dignified and professional manner. In fact, just how you'd expect an Office to behave.
shareIt was the best ending to a comedy series I've ever seen. Edmund's final words were tragic.
shareNot a coward- just a man who.preferred to stay alive.
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