What i couldn't understand is if in this version ripley is caught in the end, in Ripley's Game how does he have so much omney and is free? If i remember correctly, in the Minghella version ripley gets away scot free.
shareI think it's supposed to be left up in the air if he got caught. In my opinion, he did.
shareIn "Plein soleil" it is clear that he is caught by the police, but in the novel and the Minghella version he is not caught.
shareI read on the net sometime ago that when the film was made in the 60's it would have been frowned upon for Ripley to have got away with the murder and the embezzlement of Greenleaf's money and also of his identity. Personally I would have liked to have seen Delon, (ripley) get away with it as that was the way the book was written!!! but I do not condone criminals in real life!!!:-)
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Funny. Watching this with a more cynical modern eye, I sort of had the feeling that Ripley, somehow, someway, still gets away with it.
Think of the old Hitchcock TV show where there many episodes where the criminal obviously gets away with the crime, but, because of Network Standards and Practices rules, Hitchcock had to come on at the very end and say, "Of course, later the criminal was caught and punished for his deeds". With Hitchcock's droll way of speaking, you could tell he didn't believe what he was saying himself!
Looking at PURPLE NOON that way, you can convince yourself that Ripley gets away at the end here, too.
In the booklet in the Criterion collection the director explains the ending....
He dreamed of Ripley taking revenge in the end. But the way he envisioned it no one would understand it and how would he have expressed it. Hakim (producer) talked him out of it. The ending somehow reassured people and was immanent justice. And no, not like the book where he did get away. The Matt Damon version he did get away.... And in the books Ripley killed 7 more.....