MovieChat Forums > The Pumpkin Eater (1964) Discussion > Windmill scene at the end: Did anyone th...

Windmill scene at the end: Did anyone think she was going to ....



Did anyone think that Jo was going to jump out of the top windmill window and kill herself, in that scene at the end where she dejectedly goes alone to the windmill and slowly and eerily climbs the steps? And then she takes off her turban and her earrings while staring bleakly out the open window?

I certainly thought so. She had reached her lowest ebb, and everything was hopeless, and Jake had not even looked at her at his father's funeral. She was at the end of her rope.

I thought her possibly jumping out of the window had also been prefigured by the first time we see her looking out that window in the first quarter of the film -- something about that early shot is very stark and seems to eerily presage her suddenly jumping out of it. (To me.)
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Yes I thought the same thing. I was very sure she was going to jump. I'm glad she didn't jump thought because the scene that follows, we see the husband coming back with the kids, and maybe, just maybe the marriage/relationship on some level might just be saved. It would have been very tragic if she killed herself.

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I'm sorry to say it, 'User', I think the marriage was the tragedy.

The marriage was doomed to failure. I can't believe that Peter Finch character would have chosen the Bancroft character as a wife. She was doomed to continuing and worsening breakdowns and divorce if not suicide.

The whole film is given from her viewpoint so, unfortunately all the other characters are seen as cyphers.

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I agree. This is a portrait of a Bad Marriage. She has issues of feeling unfulfilled and rather worthless, and he's a philanderer....it can't possibly work over the long haul, unless she is resigned to being an emotional doormat. But, I don't think she is so.

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