MovieChat Forums > Splendor in the Grass (1961) Discussion > My Take on the Ending

My Take on the Ending

posted 10 years ago by Schmoozette
22 replies | jump to latest

I've seen this movie several times, and caught most of it on TV tonight. I watched the ending especially carefully--it was so wonderfully acted. Deanie and Bud obviously still felt something, even if it was just in those memories. However, I think there's an element of Deanie feeling like she dodged a bullet. I mean, after all: Look at how she was decked out, fine for a doctor's wife (to-be), but a rancher? (She obviously wanted to impress him and got dressed before she knew where he was.) When she walks away after shaking hands with Angelina, she briefly checks her dress for dirt. Yes, she's wistful about their little boy, imagining he could have been hers, but I think she also liked to hold him because he was such a part of Bud. They both say how they don't think about being happy, but I think the irony is that they wouldn't necessarily have been happy with each other in the long run.

The other thing (although fairly obvious, I guess) is that Bud "came down" from a rich family, but evidently felt fulfilled as a rancher, and Deanie came from a poorer family, but was about to marry a successful doctor. I think the "primal" attraction was still there, but I thought that, in the long run, Deanie would figure out that she's marrying the right person, after all.

But it's all very bittersweet, and I love how the story's played out with very INTELLIGENT acting, writing, and directing. I very much enjoy movies that count on the audience's intelligence, as well.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Schmoozette 10 years ago

Angelina because she is thinking, omg look at how exquisite Deanie is dressed and I look like a schlep, oh, well... Deanie on the other hand is possibly thinking, here I am in this expensive dress and for what. Who am I impressing.

I really like your interpretation there, it works for me!

I'm not 100% sure about the "future" Angelina and Deanie, however--you could be right about Angelina's feeling subservient, or she could feel like she got the family she wanted--Bud was working hard, and who's to say that he wouldn't become more successful as time went on?

Also, you could be right about Deanie's resenting Bud not standing up to his father, but ultimately Bud got what he wanted--to be a rancher--and Deanie might have loved Bud, but not the rancher!

I appreciate your response, though--more to consider, and it just really speaks to all the decisions we make throughout our lives.

[–] Lester_Burnham_Risen 10 years ago

you are replying to a post that then was deleted by admin

the part you quote seems fine so what was so politically incorrect about the rest?

http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/

[–] Schmoozette 10 years ago

For the life of me, I can't remember the whole post, and I was very surprised to see that it was deleted. If it had been anything offensive or "trollish," I never would have bothered to reply. I'm sorry I can't help you there; my memory fails me! But, as I said, I can't recall anything that I would have considered PI or offensive.

[–] amybluegold 10 years ago

This is one of my mother's all-time favorite movies. She made me watch it when I was 20 years old and I had just ended a 5 year relationship with a boy I was sure I was going to marry. I got dumped for another girl and I could relate to EVERYTHING Deanie was going through. My mom and I cried together as we watched it. I agree with everything you say regarding the ending. I worked with this boy AND his new girlfriend whom he also got pregnant. I felt like I dodged a bullet as well! Holding the son, feeling like there were some lingering feelings, and in the end they knew each person was on their correct path/destiny is a spot-on description.

"It is not our abilities that determine who we are Harry, it is our choices."

[–] PretoriaDZ 8 years ago

Amen to that. I think back on more than one boyfriend that it hurt so bad when we broke up but when I think of them now, I'm like "Whew! So glad I didn't marry that one or that one!"

This positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms!Terry-Thomas about US 1963.Hasnt changed much!

[–] jnwseatiger 10 years ago

I seen this movie more times than any other. The end is so tragic because it is the death of their youth and innocence and ironically, it is Deanie who is more accepting of that because she has had time to meditate on it in the mental ward. Bud hasn't had the luxury.

[–] k-harris2-1 10 years ago

What's interesting to me is that I have seen this movie countless of times and my take on the last thirty minutes of the movie is pretty much the same. When Deanie gets home from the hospital, she is in her bedroom with her mother. Natalie Wood performance is awesome and I'm going to explain! In the beginning, Deannie is a small, awkward uncomfortable little girl who is in love, but in the last thirty minutes when she's home from the hospital notice how deanie seems more confident. She stand straighter, talks to her mother with complete eye contact. Her mother mentions that, "I hope that those doctors didn't tell you that this was my fault." Deannie tells her (Even her voice is different), "Mom, I don't blame you for anything" Notice the way she says it. One other scene and then I'll get to the ending. Her mother tells her friends, keep her away from Bud. I mentioned his name and she fell on the bed crying. When deanie comes downstairs and says, Now, I want to see Bud. Her friends says, I don't know where he is, nobody..." The father interrupts and soft says--He's at his father ranch." Deanie walks slowly over, touches his face and kisses on the cheek. SHE'S A GROWN WOMAN NOW AND CAN HANDLE IT, Her fathers subtly has confirmed. My take is that when goes to see Bud, it's awkward for her and him, but they talk about how life is and how you sometimes never know what in store. Deannie says goodbye, gets back in the car and is asked by her friend (This is very, very important) You still love him? She answers in her mind, the poem, which means to me that she will always love him, but in life there's no guarantees and she will always find strength in what remains. She grew up!

[–] Lester_Burnham_Risen 10 years ago

agreed and hence the ref back to the title "no more the splendor in the grass...." ie moving on in life as we all must do.

Have you seen Prime of Miss Jean Brody?

there the bad influence on girls is Brody and for Sandy it is her mother that enables her to put Brodie down and save the rest of the girls from her destruction.

http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/

[–] k-harris2-1 10 years ago

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a terrific film and Maggie Smith gave a deserved academy award winning performance. Even though Ms. Brodie tried to instill in those girls a woman independence. For that time, strong woman like brodie were considered bad girls. I believe the director was Ronald Neame, but he captured the time superbly which added to how some of the influence that Brodie had on the girls could be considered good or bad. It's a shame that Pamela Franklin was not even nominated for the academy award. As bad as her character seemed, ironically, she was a lot like Brodie, only she was younger.

Great movie! Did you know that Vanessa Redgrave played the part on Broadway was offered the movie role declined due to other commitments.

[–] Bob Pr. 8 years ago

My take is that when we're teenagers we sometimes have ideas or fantasies of what
excellent, fulfilling life would be for us in the future based on our experiences at that time.

BUT, when we age, when we get to that time in adulthood when we make decisions, oftentimes other experiences have intervened and we abandon our previous, younger decisions (often fantasy influenced) and make those latter year others based on more experience (& less fantasy).

THAT'S what this film's ending conveyed to me (and I think was the intent of the author, Inge).

[–] jdandtex-338-717921 8 years ago

Hello Schmoozette,

I just finished watching Splendor in the Grass on TCM. I know that it's a classic, but I've never particularly cared for it. I love Natalie Wood, but I never cared for Warren Beatty and I still don't. However, I understand what Deanie was going through and I could sympathize with that. I've known a couple of girlfriends who went through similar emotional anguish, short of needing to go to a mental hospital like Deanie did. I also had one, but as I look back, yep, I dodged a bullet too!

Reading your take on the ending was spot on. While I was watching the ending, I thought the same thing about they just would not have worked together even if he still had money. The physical can only last so long and I think that's all that they had in high school. She had the notion of the knight in shining armor, plus all of her girlfriends where jealous and she knew it. She was with the hottest boy in school. He wanted her, but physically, not intellectually or emotionally. I don't think that there was a scene where they just had a regular conversation. I think that if they had ended up together, they would not have matured as much as they obviously had with other partners and would have been very unhappy in the end. You also brought up things that didn't even occur to me. For example, how she dressed up to meet him and that he had come down in the social world and she was going up. I did notice how she brushed away that imagined dirt on her collar. The last bit of her reciting the poem in her head, that was clue that it was in the past. Bittersweet, but for the best.

Thanks for you insight.

Leolady

[–] Schmoozette 8 years ago

Thanks for your thoughts--yes, I think so many of us had similar heartbreaking situations, but managed to live through them, all the wiser.

Sometimes when I get a "late" or "delayed" reaction I have to go back to remember details about the film that's being discussed. But this one is a multi-viewer, IMO, so my memory's intact (LOL).

Glad you enjoyed my original post. It is interesting to share film and real-life experiences, and to inform each other about our interpretations. You never know what you'll learn! I appreciate your and others' insights here, as well.

Cheers!



[–] jdandtex-338-717921 8 years ago

Thanks for your quick response.

Cheers right back and keep enjoying those movies!



Vintage Gal

[–] tearsnhoney 7 years ago

I thought Bud and Debbie may have had chance if it hadn't been for their parents. Bud didn't want college or his dad's business. He could've been a successful rancher and may have grown to become one. His father didn't want him to consider a future with poor Debbie.
Debbie's mom failed her by feeding her the crap about nice girls never having 'those' feelings, even after marriage. Her dad let his wife walk all over him. He was sweet though.
I think the pair did love one another but did what their overbearing parents told them to do. By the time life played itself out, it was too late.

[–] tearsnhoney 7 years ago

*Deanie (Autocorrect).

[–] scott-mcelrea 7 years ago

She did not brush away imaginary dirt on her collar. Quite the opposite. This scene occurs immediately after Bud's wife looks at her own dirty dress and shrugs. Then the camera goes to Natalie that touches the collar of her dress with a gesture of reproach to herself meaning "Why on earth did I dress so elegantly? I totally embarrassed these folks." The clothes are extremely important in this scene. Bud's reaction was the first hint -- he told Hazel he did not want Deanie to see him with those dirty clothes.

[–] federovsky 7 years ago

Agreed. The OP has it completely wrong. The ending was tragic because they both knew that their destiny together had eluded them due to psychological circumstances beyond their control.

They both knew the rest of their lives would never live up to those earlier memories and desires (the meaning of the poem) and the necessary compromise with inadequacy that both of them were now making was extremely touching.

Kazan piled on a number of superb directorial moments of almost unbearable sensibility in the last minutes of the film.

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] seattlesquirrely (1) 5 years ago

i really loved that movie. natalie wood was my favorite actress. i always thought about the ending to that movie as a symbol of what both of them had become. if you notice, natalie was all dress in white as was still a virgin and unspoiled as her mother would have said. And there was Bud, all used and dirty and working on his fathers ranch.