Best ending ever
Just wanted to say that.
share"This is my lovely day"
Monk should go back to the old writers.
MovieChat Forums > Clockwise (1986) Discussion > Best ending ever
Because the main character runs away from all of his problems, leaving us no resolution whatsoever? Yeah, that's just what I wanted. So the whole time I sat through the whole film I was just watching a man being destroyed? For goodness sake, he's got a family! Not cool.
Maybe that's the joke? To give me, the viewer hope and then take it away?
I guess it's un-American at least, I'll give it that.
well, i said to my brother "it's a french ending again".. leaving out everything and answer not the questions which all viewers probably have had.
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It's...
He doesn't run away he's arrested, as is Laura, it was a funny ending, however it was slightly messy and chaotic and wasn't quite as good as the buildup.
It was inevitable they'd be arrested but it could have been slightly better done.
I thought that as well actually. The ending was a but of a let down compared to the rest of the film.
shareThe joke at the end feels very forced. As he has done throughout the film, we hear Stimpson say 'right' (meaning 'ok') and the police car he's in suddenly turns right, nearly causing an accident. But it stretches credibility to think that a police driver would make a sudden turn just because a prisoner in the back seat says 'right'. On the other hand, the film is just finishing so perhaps this is an intentional nod to the audience, like an actor turning to the camera and winking. Overall though, the ending is a little flat.
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Cleese did this ending almost 40 years ago with Holy Grail. I'm not saying i hated the ending as it was inevitable that he'd get arrested but they could have resolved some, if not all of it. Possibly they wanted the movie to stay at 90 minutes? That would be dumb, though.
But hey, it's British, so what more could you expect?
At the time of Clockwise it was not 40 but 15 years before. Secondly you can't compare the two endings. Clockwise is a logical ending - a man who has broken the law is arrested. The Holy Grail it's completely unexpected surreal random event !
shareI agree the ending was absolutely fine, but I also thought the film was set contemporarily in 1985 not the early 1970's, but thinking about it more, it was more contemporary for the 1970s.
I had thought it reasonable for a student to have a fifteen year old car - I had a 1969 Morris 1300 - purchased in 1973 - same car body, slightly more powerful engine but an awful vehicle with a ridiculously cramped boot (Trunk). Then the head teacher's car was one of those biggish (For UK folk of that era) Fords, I am not sure if it was a Granada or late model Cortina but the sort of tinny thing a headteacher on a state school salary might have owned - trying to look more important than he was, or get a lot in for a smallish (comparative) outlay
So I need to see the film again, but perhaps as a 1970s statement on Englishness - that I muddled the dates - suggests how little were the changes between those two dates - say compared with 1985 to 2,000 with the onset of mobile technology and computers which although PCs were not commonplace by then - were obviously coming.
This is seriously off topic - but I shall let it stand - I will not be surprised to attract ridicule!
Cars were far more expensive in those days, look at the car that is nicked by Laura and Stimpson. Certainly isnt as 70's model there.
It's clearly not the 70's despite Laura's old car, it isnt her car it's her parents, and we can assume they arent especially well off
So you wanted to see the movie end with Cleese being arrested, brought to the police station, then explaining to the police how everything was a misunderstanding, the police officer says "cheerio, on your way ol' chap!," then Cleese goes home and explains everything again to his wife, she forgives him and they have some tea and crumpets and live happily every after? Yeah, that would have been much funnier.
The movie ended fine where it did. There was no reason to show what happens next, it would only lessen the humor in him being arrested.
It really was a weak ending, and I'm saying that as a Cleese fan who loved this entire movie except the last 2-3 minutes.
I'm American and I guess I'd rather see an ending where the ass of the movie got away. I mean, he was funny at every turn BECAUSE he was an ass. And then he just gets taken away in a police car with a lame final joke that almost causes another accident? Truly weak. Nothing like ending a great comedy with a whimper.
It's obvious that he'd cracked up once and for all. I expect his pupils were glad to see the back of him
I didn't think it was so much cracking up as giving up and resigning himself to the end. It was when he stopped attempting to wrestle with time and perfection and just accepted what was happening to him. Of course, he couldn't escape his nature entirely (Right!).
As for his pupils, they probably mocked the eccentric weirdo, but he got some laughs in the assembly, and he didn't seem to be loathed.
I liked the ending, but I did feel it was slightly lacking. As much wonderful fun as I had with the movie, and as good as the ending is, there was just a little piece that felt slightly off.
SPOILERS for both Clockwise and Fawlty Towers...
I shall, I think fairly, compare this film's ending to the endings of many (most? all?) Fawlty Towers episodes. Each of these works - Fawlty Towers and Clockwise - are exemplars of farce. Without making a quality assertion overall as to which is superior, I do think Fawlty Towers stuck the ending better than Clockwise.
Consider: while each gives us a button-line ("Right!") Fawlty's moments are an absolute scream - perfectly punctuating to preceding pratfalls with a moment of glorious clowning. On the other hand, Clockwise simply calls back the gag that kicked it all off. Compare this to the final line, "Duck's off. Sorry." from Gourmet Night. The difference is that Fawlty's line actually accelerates the comedy while Clockwise loops it back around. This might be satisfying in a mirror-image idea, but it doesn't satisfy as much as Fawlty's ending quips. Think also on his heaping abuse on a guest followed by his realisation and sudden howl of terror at the end of The Hotel Inspectors, or his allowing himself to be humiliated to no end in The Anniversary - an accumulation of the episode's plot descending upon him - and he buttons it up with, "Now comes the tricky bit." These moments sum up the previous plotting enjoyments but they also serve up one more, new enjoyment.
For Clockwise's ending to match those (admittedly, lofty) heights, it would need to have let us watch Brian face his wife, his student's parents, the police, and everybody else, and through word, deed, or both given us one, final moment of perfect Stimpson ignobility.
Now, in Clockwise's defense, the ending is still quite good and falling short of Fawlty Towers is hardly an insult. Furthermore, I can't exactly think of a better ending, so I won't dump on Frayn.