What do you think it adds to the tone or whatever? I've seen other people bring it up and it really did kind of ruin it for me too. Maybe I'll grow into it with multiple viewings or something but it just seemed so off, and not in a way that was emotionally resonant. thoughts?
shareWhat are you talking about?
share*spoiler* If you mean the end with Scotty standing there, it was impactful to me, and emotional, that it just finished there, after all that had happened. He now had to face his life, after. It was kind of like an exclamation mark.
CC:https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/28/b3/81/28b3814d7598e079965170c781cf7dc8.jpg
'It was kind of like an exclamation mark.'--ππ
To those who don't "like" the ending, I'd like to ask them if they had been in charge of the film how they would have altered it to please their sensibilities. And to urge them to step out of themselves long enough to accept a story that someone other than themselves is telling.
I tend to suspect, for many who don't "like" the ending, that they lack certain degrees of fundamental abilities--namely self-reflection and abstract thought.
I thought he was wondering whether to follow her down.
There's an alternate ending I'm sure you can find online (it's on the DVD, or see Spoiler below). It certainly makes the ending more "standard" (and I'm not judging the OP). I love the familiar ending - the viewer is left with a combination of emotions (horror, shock, frustration, what-if?) broiling inside them, and processes that feeling each according to their own personality.
**Spoiler**
Hitchcock was obliged to tack on an extra couple of minutes for "foreign" audiences, to show that evil never prospers. After the Tower scene, we switch back to Midge's apartment where she is listening to a radio broadcast (that old ham-fisted device) saying that Estler is being chased through Europe and an arrest is imminent. Scottie comes in and she pours him a drink. They both stand wordlessly looking out of the window. It's enigmatic and open-ended in its own way, but I prefer the original ending.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher.
I saw the extra couple of minutes. It was nice to see Midge again. What with Judy's death though, I can't see how the police could pin anything on Elster. I think Scottie would have quite some explaining to do as to why he and Judy were up in that tower in the middle of the night.
often i find hitchcock's movies ends so abruptly, but the last time i watched this the ending didn't bother me, the remastering of this looks amazing and this is definitely the hitchcock movie with the grooviest vibe and colours and most visual like the trees scene, visually i find this reminds a lot of "rear window", and barbara bel geddes' role was funny, where i got this it was listed as the genre "mystic", i'm surprised how many negative comments there is about it here, it gets very high rating though, but i agree it's not exactly the most fast paced hitchcock flick.
π
finally you came by at night after so long,
but dull clothing you put on,
like borrowed something from grandmas wardrobe,
though when you walked up close,
with mysterious charm knocked me to the floor,
youre like a wild storm,
give me sweet dreams till morn.
SPOILERS
The ending has within it, to me, one of the great "unbelievable elements" of any movie's climax, but Hitchcock got away with it:
That an open area that high above the ground would have no barrier (beyond what, maybe two inches high?) to stop a person from falling 100s of feet to certain death.
I simply cannot believe that there would not have been a fence or a rail or something up there to stop a person from falling.
Still, the suddenness of the ending has evidently had great impact on people. The movie SEEMS to have finally found a happy ending: that Scottie can love Judy AS Judy, that he will NOT kill her, that they can be some sort of couple even though she may have some prison time to serve (or they might run away.) Scottie comes back from insanity(somewhat) and our lovers embrace and then --
--suddenly, "just like that," a figure rises up(the ghost of Carlotta? the ghost of Madeleine) and Judy backs up and falls sceaming to her death.
Some audiences have laughed at the suddenness of it(I've heard the laughter) but others have been subjected to one of the greatest "rug pulls" of emotion in movie history: from ecstasy to misery in moments.
But there is much more if you can get past the suddenness of Judy's death. Herrmann's music rises up -- carrying forward a theme from earlier in the movie to its most soaring, powerful level...an expert camera move takes US OUTSIDE the bell tower "window"(opening) as if we are suspended in midair...and Scottie walks out to the edge of the roof and looks straight down.
CONT
Scottie's vertigo is cured(another shock to his system.) He can look straight down without fainting. His arms are outstretched(matching some famous painting, I've read.)
Scottie might indeed just follow Judy down. And this is the THIRD death by falling which he has precipitated(well the second one was the real Madeleine , with a broken neck.)
The music fades out on profound sadness as the Paramount mountain comes back onto the screen in perhaps its most powerful "role" on screen. (The Paramount mountain does NOT come on screen at the end of Psycho.)
Does anyone know that vertigo is an imbalance in the middle ear (probably an infection) that causes nausea, lack of seeing straight, pushes you to the floor, and has nothing to do with fear of heights. It is a physical condition and if you are experiencing it, the last thing you are going to do is climb upward. Because of this movie, everyone thinks fear of heights or just plain anxiety of heights is vertigo but it isnβt. Acrophobia is. Just a thought. Not really that important. Of course, naming a movie Acrophobia is not as exciting.
shareBut there was a movie called Arachnophobia (which actually wasn't bad).
Anyway, back to Vertigo, I thought the ending was perfect to the last frame.
As said above, the original plan for the ending was to have Scotty back with Midge, hearing that the real killer had been arrested, a supposedly "happy" ending.
I think I like the theatrical ending better, because what that final shot says, that after all he's been through and after he's solved the mystery and found the killer and unmasked the guilt-ridden accomplice... Scotty is still batshit crazy. That's what the whole story is about, this man's descent into madness, and that's where we leave him.
The ending is great. Movies that do not have a post script are more memorable in my opinion.
At the same time her fall solves and leaves open the question.. Is love stronger than justice?
If Judy lived could Scotty, a man of the law, now knowing about her duplicity, still be in love with her?
Would Scotty turn her in? Would Judy still love Scotty if he did?
Sounds like a corny soap opera for one of the most acclaimed films ever made...best just to kill her off, and leave the audience hanging on these questions.
Since nobody has posted it Here is a alternate ending. (1:47)
https://youtu.be/VJBSSkn0Ldw
Boy, that seems tacked-on as hell!
I like it much better as it was... disturbing as I found that.
Thanks for posting the link!
What more needs to be shown?
shareThis is in my top favorite movies, I've watched it hundreds of times. I love the ending as it is and I'm always confused why some people interpret it as ambiguous. Scotty isn't going to jump. It shows him standing on the edge because he's finally cured of his condition. As Midge says earlier in the movie, only another shock would have a chance to cure him. He tells Judy as he's dragging her up the tower "I want to stop being haunted" and he does finally get some closure.
share