I believe Madge's mother was right when she predicted what Madge's life would become married to loser Hal. A life of unhappy unfulfilled drudgery. Saddest of all is Rosemary and Howard. She bullies him into marrying her, which he does not really want to do, Their lives will be sadder and lonlier and angrier than ever. I love this film, and find the ending to be a total downer.
shareI thought about what Madge's life would be like living with Hal, and it doesnt look too bright. Its funny that when I first saw this movie as a teen, I thought the ending so romantic and happy!!
I also wondered about Madge's sister. Surely she made it to New York and became famous and rich--all that her mom thought a woman could only get thru a man!
So very true. As the other poster said, when I was younger I loved the ending, true love, etc. Once the "heat" wears off this sad pairing, what's left? This beautiful girl with so much potential, married to a bellhop in a second-rate hotel, maybe with a couple kids and her beauty gone. Not a happy ending at all.
shareLastmidnite2, I like to think that Howard and Rosemary WILL be happy. As they are driving off together, he gets a big smile on his face. They will be wonderful companions, drinking buddies for sure.
share There prob weren't too many movies in the '50's made with ambiguous endings that did not leave much optimism in the final scenes. I have to say things could go either way for both couples as well as other characters. There was no certainty in this film which is prob the way the script writer wanted it.
Thbryn, Picnic based on a very famous play by William Inge. I would love to know how the original work ended. As we all know, alot of the time movie endings are changed from the original work. I am going to try to track down the play. Maybe our library has it.
shareRosemary was SO pitiful. Howard was smiling in the car at the end because he was probably toasted. I wonder if they really did get married.
shareThere does not seem to be much optimism about the fate of Madge and Hal but in a way Madge makes the right decison. Flo regrets not telling Madge more about what is likely to happen if she runs away with Hal. Mrs Potts replies there are some things which are better to be learnt from experience. It hints the future of the relationship between Madge and Hal will be a learning experience for Madge which will make her wiser even if it ends in heartbreak. It relates to the saying "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" as the ending indicates Madge will be better for the experience.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
lastmidnite, I agree. Didn't all of the events in Picnic take place within a 24 hour period? Well, how in heaven and earth can a person (Madge) know that someone is right for them in a marriage in that short a time frame? That's not just reckless, it's dangerous.
This type of movie annoys me. It gives young girls and women the impression that if you don't feel like you've been smacked in the head and punched in the gut till you see stars before 24 hours is up, then you don't have chemistry and you can't possibly be right for each other. In this microwave generation, love isn't allowed to simmer on the back burner for a good long while. I just watched the miniseries North & South made in 2004 by the BBC. It is about a simmering, smoldering, developing love, and it was the most suspenseful, hottest romance I've seen in years. I won't even go into how awesomely satisfying the ending is to this miniseries, unlike Picnic. :)
I couldn't agree more. I thought Hal was a real villain. It would have been noble and selfless of him to leave without bothering Madge once more at the end, or even tell her he didn't love her. Instead he cajoled and pressured her into leaving this lovely town and follow him into what will almost certainly be a squalid and disappointing existence. Once the initial passion wears off, she will realize that she's now saddled with a ne'er-do-well loser who drinks too much, can't hold a job, and will probably chase other women once he tires of her, and mooch off of her in the meantime. The ending proves he's nothing but a self-centered, lying slob who uses other people and thinks only of his own momentary pleasure.
Some of the reviews extoll this picture for pointing the way out of the "stifling conformity" of the 1950s (an unfair and inaccurate stereotype). One can just as easily perceive it as yet another instance of Hollywood seducing people into pursuing a self-destructive lifestyle.
One can just as easily perceive it as yet another instance of Hollywood seducing people into pursuing a self-destructive lifestyle.
This particular room is the reason I enjoy participating in a dialoge. The reviews I have read here, especially from Alistla and PlatinumScreen, are first-rate. I couln't agree more with the assessments. I can see Madge stuck in some 2nd or 3rd rate hotel, barefoot and pregnant in downtown Tulsa. (been there, in Tulsa that is) Picnic is still one of my all-time favorites. I watch it every Labor Day. Won't be long now, just a couple weeks. I'm sorry my treatise could not have been as good as the afore-mentioned.If anyone is a Picnic buff as I am, I have the greatest website. It shows current pictues of the places where the movie was filmed, i.e., Madges house, the lake, etc. If anyone wants the site contact me ([email protected])
shareI respect your well written and thoughtful opinion but I disagree. Madge didn't love her rich young suitor. Her mother loved him FOR her, but Madge would have been trapped in a loveless marriage. To me, deliberately letting yourself get married to someone that you don't love, when you have just experienced your first taste of real love - that's the self-destructive path. That is the way to alcoholism, dependence on pills (the famous "mothers little helpers") and growing ever more resentful of your well-intentioned husband.
I also do not agree that the ending showed Holden's character to be a self-centered lying slob. I think he's at the dawn of a season of self-discovery. He knows that he's too old now to get along as he has been. He wants to be a better person - and he tells her from the get-go that theirs will be a life of poverty, at least at the beginning. He doesn't lie about their prospects, but she loves him enough to want to try with him anyway. What she did took a lot of integrity.
Look at it this way - he's getting a job as a bell boy in a hotel. IE, the hospitality industry. I think, with his charisma and affability, that the hospitality industry could be a good fit for him. He could rise with the organization. It's a far better opportunity than scooping grain, at any rate.
Just because Flo's husband ran around with other women and drank up his paycheck, doesn't mean that all men are like that. Flo was trying to scare and emotionally manipulate Madge, and that's just wrong.
"yet another instance of Hollywood seducing people into pursuing a self-destructive lifestyle."
BOOM.
Jeez. Madge was working in a dime store, for God's sake. What did she have to lose, other than marriage to a man she knew she didn't love?
Life is a crapshoot.
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"
You're right, hodie. We only get once chance to live our lives, might as well make some memorable mistakes along the way.
shareLet's not remember what life with the rich boy would have been like. How about what he said to her earlier in the day about his father liking to win. Then he raises her chin with his fingertip and looks at her. He felt like a winner with her and she knew it.
Madge wasn't the brightest bulb but she was dissatisfied with her prospects.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
I saw this on the late show when I was 14 years old and babysitting. Then, twenty years later, I saw it on AMC or something with my family. I remember saying out loud how much my reaction to the Hal character and the protests from the other characters against his running off with Maggie had changed.
When I was young, I sided with the lovebirds. In my early '30's I understood the mother's concerns, although she wanted Maggie to marry the rich boy no matter what.
Mrs. Potts was a darling and saw the positive in Hal - "There was a man in the house!" - and in the couple running off together. She felt that Maggie had to learn her lessons. Millie felt the same way.
I think that all of the characters had a point.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
what the hell is wrong with all you people??? WOW, never saw so many cynics all cluttered in one place in my life! geez, you people clearly have never been in real love before if you think that hal and novak were going to end up bad. first off, love like this happens ALL THE TIME, yes even today! i see the wierdest couples get together, the prettiest girls getting with the slimiest, grossest pigs imaginable. BUT, hal was no pig, and no jerk! sure he had it rough in life, but he never had been in love before. he knew what he wanted when he saw madge, and it was NOT just lust. he obviously loved her and at the end, is a man that would do ANYTHING to be with his girl. sure he would have to start from the ground up, just like he was going to be a grain sweeper for his friends buisness, but she obviously didnt mind that he worked such a job, she was in LOVE! and yes at first its going to be hard because he has to find a job and start over, but thats life! when is it EVER easy for anyone? young newleyweds always have it tough in the begining, but in a way thats part of the adventure of being married! surviving life, together! is it better to marry for money and be absolutly MISERABLE? there is a saying that you can have all the gold and jewels in thw world, but what is it without someone to love you? love is more precious in human life then anything! and ive seen the poorest people survive simply because they loved each other so much. i can see where your all coming from, if your being a realist yeah, then it might look to some that hal and madge wont make it, but theres no guranteeing that! how long do you have to know someone before you know your in love with them? it doesnt always happen like it should, dateing someone for some length of time and getting to know them. there was fireworks chemistry between madge and hal that obviously couldnt be duplicated with that other rich dork, and it was enough for madge to want to run away with him. i mean think about it, madge was willing to leave a cuashy life in her hometown, for what she knows is an uncertain future, but she really DEEPLY love hal! and loved him enough to take the risk of leaveing everything she knew behind. and yeah, what does she have to lose, working at a dime store?? cmon now, this is called LIFE and she wants to live it with hal! i think its a great ending, showing that just cuz your rich with a lot of doe in the bank account doesnt mean it will buy you happiness or that someone will love you for it. i think its a positive message that shows that real love isnt about how much money you have, but how much LOVE you have for the other person.
Realism, Remakes and Unnecessary Sequels are ruining movies!
Preach on, LaPfieffer! Lol. I always assumed Madge and Hal would make it, though not without ups and downs. Hal had reached the point where he knew he had to start settling down, and Madge and he seemed crazy about each other. Sometimes things work out.
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"
I like to envision Hal and Madge now in their 80s still devoted and taking care of each other.
All this pessimism about their marriage being doomed from the start is a product of our dying culture which promotes "instant" everything.Max out your credit card? Get another card. Bored with your spouse? Find someone new.
The idea of two young people starting out with very little,working hard {GASP!}to achieve a better life, and putting someone else's happiness first is considered foolish today.
Man, woman, marriage. Messy and imperfect .... a roller coaster of good and bad times with the ever-present goal of making it through all the craziness together. That is life! Movie goers in the 50s cheered the ending of Picnic because it was natural to do so. They had not yet been tainted by the social darkness {fomented by radical feminism and liberalism} that has fallen since that era.
I just re-watched Picnic again last night on TCM and Rapturegal you summed it up 100% correctly!
share"The idea of two young people.."
-- I think part of what drives the cynicism is that after the film is over the suspension of disbelief wears off and William Holden's "Dawson Casting" becomes extra Obvious... so after the fact we're not thinking of "two 20-something Kids" chasing their Happily ever after but Rather of an Old man who has seduced the naïve girl into running away from home
I assure you back in 1955 when I was a teenager - no one (that I knew) felt they were doomed - this was part of the 50's culture of love will conquer all - of course we were wrong and they are doomed but only from our perspective today
shareIt occurred to me that Picnic and The Graduate have similar endings. In both films two crazy kids madly in love choose to ignore the advise of others and marry. Sure, their futures are uncertain, but the same can be said for all of us. While we all want happiness in our lives, there is no guarantee.
shareThere's plenty of reason to be skeptical about the prospects for this marriage. And it may well not work out. But it is hardly a given that it will fail, and the point above about better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all is no doubt part of why the ending included their marriage.
share...Rapturegal , Hal is considerably (As I analysied in my reponse) older than Madge ! 5 , more like 7-10 years at least ~ A WWII vet , if this is happening in 1955...
shareThey hardly even interacted, how the hell is that "love"??? What exactly did they "love" about each other except for their bodies???
shareThis movie actually reminds me of Casablanca and the choice that Ilsa has to make in it. When I saw it as a kid, I thought she was crazy to leave Rick behind and go with Lazlow. Now as I watch the movie as I'm over 30 and perhaps a bit more cynical/practical, I see why she made the choice she did and completely agree she had to do it.
Picnic has a similar dilemma: stay and marry Benson, even if Madge doesn't love him, but have security. Although she'll spend the rest of her life in that town and probably become a fading flower (I can imagine people talking about her right in front of her saying things like "Remember when Madge here used to be the prettiest girl in town?!") On the other hand, she can take off on an adventure and chase romance with Hal, and I can't help but always feel like it won't last. But at least she'd have a reason to get out of that town and find out maybe who she is and what she really wants to do.
Before when I watched the movie, I thought she was right to go after Hal.....now a little older and with two girls of my own, I really think marrying Benson is the smart thing to do. Even though I don't think she'll be completely happy with either of them.
"Are you going to your grave with unlived lives in your veins?" ~ The Good Girl