down endings

I read this excellent review of In a Lonely Place, which is a great film (and possibly Humphrey Bogart’s best screen performance).

It made me think about down endings.

To quote Dante Hicks, on the subject of which was the best Star Wars movie: “‘Empire’ had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader’s his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that’s what life is, a series of down endings. All ‘Jedi’ had was a bunch of Muppets.”

In a Lonely Place had a terrific down ending. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (my all-time favorite movie) had a bleak and perfect ending.

I hear it’s hard to do that in Hollywood these days. Paul W. S. Anderson, the writer/producer of the Resident Evil movies, has said that the only way he gets away with the endings on his movies (which tend to be the “Things are bad… Oh, no, actually they’re much worse” type) is because Resident Evil is a very successful series of video games, and that gives him more control than if it was some untested property.

Not that everything needs a down ending, but some things do. It’s always a shame when you don’t have all your options available to tell a story.

Hamlet wouldn’t have been the same if a producer somewhere along the line had suggested a few small changes, just so that the option was left open for a sequel…

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