MovieChat Forums > The In Crowd (1988) Discussion > Hated the ending

Hated the ending

posted 10 years ago by mercury4
3 replies | jump to latest

The protagonist of the movie falls in love with the girl of his dreams. You see this relationship develop and really blossom into something. The two go together so well. Her plan at first is to run off with her old boyfriend (who's a hood and wacko) to Hollywood to become a star. But she ends up developing strong feelings for the protagonist and vice versa. You figure she'll change her mind and the two lovers will be together. Instead, she comes to him towards the end to tell him that she's leaving. His reaction? He's more than happy to help her leave. You never once see him upset or sad or hesitant to let her go. I get what the point was they were trying to make. He was letting her go because he loved her. He was trying to be the martyr. I think it was a bunch of crap.

We see these two fall in love and in the end he just lets her go with no hesitation. I feel like the whole movie was a waste of time. You spend the whole movie wanting these two to be together and in the end it goes nowhere. We're supposed to be happier about the idea that this girl he was so in love with is just going to run off to Hollywood with no money, no place to go and assume she breaks into the movies? He asks her what she'll do, she replies, "We'll live hard and die young." That sounds great. When they're at dinner with his friends in that one scene and she's getting made fun of, she says, "I don't belong here." The next day she tells him she's leaving. In the end, it's as if she's come to her own conclusion that she's dumb and always will be dumb. Why read? Why get tutored in math anymore? Why go to school? She figures she may as well run off and try to make it in Hollywood. If she didn't love him and if she was no good for him, or even if she really was going somewhere when she left, I could understand her leaving and him letting her go. She runs off in the end to chase some pipedream and he let's her go thinking he's letting her be happy. "Say hi to Natalie [Wood] for me," he tells her. This was all such B.S. I kept saying to myself, "He can't let her go." Then I was saying, "She'll change her mind or she'll come back." It didn't happen.

Then they expect you to buy in the end that he's going to end up with his long time friend that lives next door. A girl he never showed he had the same kind of feelings for and never looked at her the way he did at the girl that split. I'm sorry I kept this movie on. If I knew how it was going to end, I would've shut it off.

[–] crowamonghens 9 years ago

from what i take, it's supposed to be an analogy of "A Tale of Two Cities", a book and theme which is figured throughout the film.
as for Gayle, her suddenly morphing from a square, show-tune-loving bookworm into a fringed hippie chick sort of represents the end of the early 60's and evolving into different times. the times they were a'changin', as evidenced by her discovery of Dylan.

[–] sensored 8 years ago

The ending slays me. When she brings over the Dylan album and tells him not to cut his hair, as corny as it may be, moves me to tears, every time. I love this fu- ckin film.

[–] pmbeatlefan 8 years ago

What's he supposed to do? Cry and beg and plead? She's made up her mind and he knows he's no match for her feelings for Dugan, so he keeps his self respect and pride and accepts her decision. After all., its is her decision. He can't do anything about it. He could tell her parents, but things would still be over between them and she and Dugan would just run away another time.

As the other poster said, this is supposed to parallel A Tale of Two Cities. Del decides that since he can never truly win her heart, he can at least see that she is happy. So he helps her escape with the man she loves to follow her dreams, because true love is selfless.

As for Gail, it shows that she is growing and becoming more open minded, something she was sorely lacking. Music was important to Del, that was why he loved to dance and wanted to be on Perry's show. Gail head been unable to understand that. But Dylan spoke to her in a way that rock never had before. She and Del had always been close, but recently there had been a divide that had clearly upset her. Now she found a way to connect to something that was important to him. And yup - happens a lot that people realize that someone who has been right in front of them is the person they should be with. That's why it's such a common plot device.