MovieChat Forums > Out of the Blue Discussion > believe the ending?

believe the ending?

posted 17 years ago by HolidayHigh
8 replies | jump to latest

I've watched this movie so many times. The ending is cathartic and punk and I appreciate it at that level. But the rest of the movie is so realistic that it's hard to remember cebe's not a real person.... and then that ending is so unbeliveable. I kind of wonder what a more realistic ending would have been. I don't believe cebe, no matter how pissed off or odd she is, would stab her dad and blow herself and her mom up. The over-the-topness of the ending seems inconsistent not only with cebe's character, but with the general tenor of the movie overall. I mean, off the wall stuff happens -- she goes into the bar and orders a drink, her mom fools around with her dad's "best friend," etc. -- but this ending is just somehow outsized and unbelieveable (to me anyhow). I think about it in comparison to Natural Born Killers, where someone paracide seemed in keeping with the film's internal universe/logic....

[–] jdreck 17 years ago

CeBe's a pshcho created by dysfunctional parents. She decides to take her own life and like Syd Vicious, she's taken her loved-ones with her. The ending's that simple to me.

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[–] dokken 16 years ago

Yeah, the ending doesn't jibe with the rest of the films internal rules but it's forgivable I think.

[–] teejay6682 15 years ago

i agree with the previous poster. it does seem to work in relation to the rest of the film but it's not that bothersome. AMAZING acting from linda manz and dennis hopper.

[–] ThatSoapsALittleHard 15 years ago

I totally agree with the OP. I loved the movie up til the end, and I even like the idea of the ending, but it just was kind of a letdown. The same events could have happened and it still could have been much more powerful. For example, the movie Heavenly Creatures ends with a brutal and shocking murder, but it''s totally believable and jives with the rest of the movie. Maybe it was the acting from the mother? She was a little over the top. Maybe it should have been built up more. Great movie anyway.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] kiska839 12 years ago

I totally agree with you. I also like the ending because it sort of ties together the film, it all started in a truck, and it ends in one.

[–] deanowest 14 years ago

Yeah, I, too, had troubles with the end. I could handle the stabbing, but I had a hard time with the blowing up of the truck. BTW, the safety pin in the cheek was spot on. I think her just running away would be the most believable. That is what most disaffected, abused, and aienated kids do and she did it before.

Here is my weak-ass rationalization of the end. Remember the film starts with a flash back of the crash and this CEbe wakes up or it just cuts to her laying on the bed. A reasonable interp of this would be Cebe was dreaming or thinking about the crash. This also happened when she was driving the drunk punks and she loses control of the car. She imagines or is reminded of the crash, hence the cutaway to the crash. These subjective interpolations could help rationalize the end. Before the stabbing scene begins we get some wierd zooms and jump cuts of Cebe's room. this style is never mimicked in the film anywhere. Could this be a subjective shot? Could she be imagining killing her dad and blowing up her mom and self? could the film start with the imagination and end with the imagination? I dunno. I'm trying to make the ending work a bit better, but I understand that it is pretty weak.

I really liked it. it was a raw truly punk rock movie, but the ending was stereotypically punk rock.

Dictated, but not read.

[–] The_Coma-Man 13 years ago

Yeah, the zooms also indicated to me that it was a fantasy.
Though you can never be sure...
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