What does the ending mean to YOU

i mean, first off. jack nicholson was AWSOME in the movie, and once...







SPOILER:




he died. i got so pissed off, im like "WTF, GRRRR!.......?" I mean, i think since all of them lived with a mindset to be "free", either with the help of M.J or alcohol, or any other way. But i don't get why they died at the end...erm..i might i kind of do. But it was so weird, throughout the whole film it was pretty straightforward. But the end is full of a bunch of cuts, inter slicing various images and clips of their "true selves" coming out. Wyatt having a hatred for his mother, being built up and released. Then billy who just wants to be loved in my opinion. But George...i cant really "understand" it fully. I feel like im missing something, i don't know.

In the context of me and what I feel. The ending really shows that being different. Not conforming to what the majority of the population is doing can and probably always will come with baggage. I feel the ending shows like I just said that people need to be much more tolerant towards other peoples life and lifestyles. Also that no matter what race, color, creed, We all need to love one another and realize people will always have differences of opinion and differences in lifestyle. It really makes me wonder the ending that in todays lifestyle if we ever really changed much from that time in terms of our attitudes towards others.

I ask this question. Has tolerance for others changed?

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When A Man Lies He Murders Some Part Of The World

Memphian, what freedoms are you talking about???? We have less freedom now than we did back then if you ask me...Just curious....

You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..

Better Living Thru Chemistry

Well to me their journey pretty obviously represents the search for freedom. However the two of them (three at some point) have different ideas of what their goal is. Wyatt seems to be the more philosofical of the two, and I think he searches for a higher level of freedom and understanding of life, than Billy, who seems to be doing things just to feel good and free, through drugs, sex and his constant travveling without settlement. Wyatt expresses earlier at the ranch some envy towards the owner by saying "It's a nice place" and so on, (can't recall the exact lines right now) showing that he wants to settle down and have a place of his own. Billy later says that "they made it!" and seems perfectly happy (at least before he gets to think about it), but Wyatt says "No man. We blew it", meaning that he failed to levitate himself above the sinful, regretful and dull excistance he tried so hard to stray from. This happens shortly after their acidtrip, in which the true feelings and regrets are brought to the surface. This was not what he intended. The LSD was supposed to be the final test, in which they would abbandon regret and shame through a higher understanding. The bad-trip they experienced pretty much enhances their sad past. The failure is completed with the devastating ending, in which they both die. However this is not to be taken to litteral (the entire plot does not make much sence if it is taken as an actual event). They represent the Amreican dream (mostly Wyatt aka. Captain America), that crumbles under the society, because they try to stray from the norms. When Billy is shot wyatt leaves his jacket with the american flag on his chest, showing that the american dream has died.

Well just what I thought after watching the movie in school. Sorry if the message is a bit messed up, but I kept remembering stuff while I wrote it.
Btw. These are just my thoughts about how it CAN be enterpreted.

"If it can be thought, or written, it can be filmed" - Stanley Kubrick
Last film seen: Easy Rider 8/10

I like alot of your guys opinions and agree on most of them. But what I got from it personally is the sense of idealistic freedom that comes with being on your own and not following societies values. I think when Nicholson tells them at the campfire that people can be "dangerous" when around something they aren't used to being around, it can get ugly. I think the two main characters(I haven't seen the movie in awhile, just watched some clips to refresh my memory) represent the idealism of being your own independent person. I think it shows them as free thinkers who did their own thing, without having society dictate. And that made them dangerous. Because they werne't talkikng about being free, they were free. And I think it catches up to them. Noone wants to see others be better than them, and for those two to really live on the edge and be their own person scared others.

It shows the laziness of our culture and the whole idea that we must pay bill,sleep,reproduce and go to work everyday and live out a mediocre lifestyle. I think it's those that really live on the edge or don't believe in what the majority of people do(such as myself) can be looked as an outsider. I love the idea of the movie and although the characters died at the end, I took it as even though they died.. I think they have 'lived' more than those rednecks or the majority of people. And yes, even though Nicholsons character dies.. I think he truely was able to appreciate what freedom was, and to really live.

Freedom has it's costs;Even in our own land. But what this symbolizes is that there is people out there who still value freedom and are free.

But in a very strange twisted way, they were free in the end. By dying they became free. The old cliche, but it's true. Like The Byrds song said 'He only wanted to be free, and in the end that's what he turned out to be". I know I maybe paraphrased.