Truly disappointing...

The ending isn't the true ending to the story.

The point is that it HAD to end that way, because movies aren't like real life and there are never any sad endings. It's a fantasy like all of the singing and dancing are dips into fantasy.

It's a movie - therefore it has a happy ending.

I totally agree with you azechiel.

I have always interpreted the ending as Arthur's final fantasy on the scaffold . I just looked at the film again and it still packs a powerful whallop. As wonderfully surprising as Chris Walken is in it, one has to appreciate the amazing, and I mean amazing amount of physical work and intelligence Steve Martin put into his anti-pathetic portrayal of Arthur. Sadly because Martin adroitly manages to make the character so unlikeable, it splashes unfairly on Martin who is best loved by the public for his comedy. Bernadette Peters as Eileen is flawless and heart breaking in the drama and a joy to watch in the musical numbers. Breath-taking art direction,production values and musical scoring make this Herbert Ross' masterwork.

The final scene of "The Threepenny Opera" (from which brilliant, biting and somewhat depressing musical cometh the "Moritat", AKA "Mack the Knife") begins as Macheath is about to be hanged for his many crimes - not because it's justice, but because the parents of Polly Peachum, the girl he eloped with, want him dead and out of the way so that they can make a good marriage for Polly.

His "goodnight" ("Goodnights" were ballads supposedly composed by the condemkned men waiting to be hanged) is a bitter condem,nation of the system, at least as crooked as he ever was, that has condemned him to die.

And just as the hangman is about to spring the trap, Peachum steps to the front of the stage, shouts "Stop!", and then addresses the audience directly: "Of course, in real life, Macheath would be hanged. But, since this is the theatre, we can send the audience out with a happy ending!" and a mounted messenger from Queen Victoria (it is her coronation day) arrives, with a proclomation pardoning Macheath, making him a Knight of the Garter and granting him a castle and a large pension for life.

and Peachum sings:

so the story happily has ended
if only life so easily were mended
but in real life the ending isn't quite so fine
victoria's messenger does not come riding often
and the reply to a kick in the pans
is just another kick in the pants...

Haven't seen this film, but it sounds as if the end is the same sort of thing.

The ending was as depressing as the depression, just as it should have been.

The ending was as depressing as the depression, just as it should have been.

i don't really think she prevailed. i've never had a bit of difficulty in reading the end of the film, and every group of people i've ever watched it with all say 'wow, steve martin got hung' at the close. if you've been following the structure of the musical numbers it's not even that ambiguous of an ending.

Well, if you'd watched the BBC miniseries from which this was based on, it clearly ends with a "fantasy ending". The Arthur & Eileen/Lulu characters actually do a "wink, wink, we have to have a happy ending" final dance number.

So I would hope that the producers were merely following the original story, not bowing to the wife of the powers that be.

Maybe this helps,
Kris

If you watch the original British television version on which this film is based, the ending is the same. Bob Hoskins returns 'from the dead' to stop Cheryl Campbell jumping into the river (on, I think, Hammersmith Bridge), saying 'We couldn't go through all that without a happy ending'. In both cases I don't doubt that it is deeply ironic as both countries represented would, of course, have let him hang. Also Dennis Potter, the author, is probably one of the most cleverly cynical writers. It all relates to Arthur's foolish and naive faith in the music of the time to overcome and ditract from his and the world's reality - even on the gallows.

It was clear from the dialog just before the number started that a film like this 'needed a happy ending', so here it is...irony and all.
Whatever the ultimate reason is it ended up in the film, the dialog practically hits you over the head with it's inclusion.

... well, since the original British miniseries, which was made years before the film, had Arthur and Eileen dancing off along Hammersmith bridge after his hanging, I doubt that this story is true.

But you ARE Blanche ... and I AM.

The ending was as depressing as the depression, just as it should have been. Steve was genius for going for these great "pick-me-up" songs. My God... haven't we all needed this? I gotta love Steve for this one. Life sucks!

The ending was as depressing as the depression, just as it should have been. Steve was genius for going for these great "pick-me-up" songs. My God... haven't we all needed this? I gotta love Steve for this one. Life sucks and then you die! Love the music until then!

Yes, it's obvious that this is simply one more fantasy he has on the gallows, unable to face his fate. I believe this serious and absolutely unhappy ending is why this film was so savaged by the critics. They were used to seeing Martin only play silliness and didn't know what to make of this turn.

[deleted]

It's a truly melancholy ending, very bittersweet. The whole point is that Arthur is transfixed by the music and the world it seems to represent, which he desperately wants to escape into. The ending just underlines what a fantasy this is when placed against the realities of the world. It might make you smile, but it's absolutely NOT a typical happy ending. It's ABOUT typical happy endings.

If I have to tell you again, we're gonna take it outside and I'm gonna show you what it's like!

No need. Gilliam essentially remade it as BRAZIL.

You are joking right?

Although it was the best era for style, music and archetecture, it was terrible for the majority of the population what with the depression, prohibition (early on), crime, racism, poverty and the spectre of yet another world war. Let's not get sill here.

"The game's afoot!"