I have some vague theories of my own, but I wanted to get some good feedback. Why did Debra Winger walk off and leave the taxi into the city at the end of the movie? Was it mainly because she didn't want to meet up with Tunner? Because of ....Memories...and/or the fact that their indiscretion contributed to Port's death? Do you think she ever returned to the U.S.? I'm a little confused as to the real meaning.
shareKind of like the whole second half of the movie, perhaps their is no real explanation. She just surrenders herself to the elements, and by then end, she probably couldn't handle the awkward familiarity she once had with that fellow. But who really knows. Maybe we're not supposed to know.
shareI believe you are both right.
Debra arrived as a tourist (although they claim to be "travelers") in an initiative journey these people couldn't take. Characterwise you could find similarities with the "heart of Darkness" character (Willard of Apocalypse Now). You don't play around with life. You have to pay cash. Remember the original title: you can't hide under the covers and act as a child.
If you think the sky is going to shelter you, you're wrong.
So the guy who cheats dies, the other escapes, the woman loses her sanity.
So, in the end it is the sublimation of the metaphor. Don't try to hang on who is going to meet who or going back to where. This is not the story.
In the end you know on another level, and this is what makes it one of the masterpieces.
Fully agree
shareYeah I think I agree too. Sorry I can never remember character's names, but Deborah Winger was a lost soul throughout the film. She didn't connect in a complete way until she had sex with the nomad boy and that was such an extraordinary situation which made her even more disconnected with her previous life.
I have a question for anybody reading this: did you find the end depressing or uplifting?
Personally, I found it depressing. What, in an immediate and real sense, did the future hold for "Deborah Winger"?
Where was she going to go, no money or anything? The prognosis isn't good. She's like a ghost, passing through without being part of the world. Apart from some moments of deep pleasure, it's all insubstantial on a day-to-day basis.
I know it's not good to ask practical questions about what happens after the film ends, but in this case it's important to try to figure out what the film was about.
Anybody else?
I must say that I really enjoyed the movie and it touched my heart. I was lucky to see it at the right time and in the the "right" mood. Meaning that I wasn't going to watch anything at all but just saw a part of the beginning and couldn't stop.
I got tied with Kit emotionally. Not that I understand her feelings of their relations but can feel them and follow her moves.
Why did she leave? My view is that she could never make a decision. Kit did what she felt was right...or better to say - what she wanted to feel. She needed experience in many ways and that's why she mostly did what was unusual and uncommon for others. Reminds me of "Into the wild" - when you can't get enough of life and finally it leads to meeting death. Because (of corse it's only my humple opinion) death is the "top" of experiences. Once you get in touch with it - you can't control your actions as well as you did.
She left because she wanted to see more. Meeting her old friend would lead her to the past. Kit didn't want to stop or go back. Probably.
"It's funny to do the impossible" © Walt Disney
Intermittently I try to find more stuff written about this film/book on the web and I fail every time. I've even tried to read everything about Paul Bowle's life to answer this riddle; what is the significance of the ending?
Clearly we are all travelers or tourists in this life. Meaning; it is up to the individual to invest themselves wholly or partly in this journey of life. Port did and it foolishly cost him his life. Tunner did too (despite the arrogance of Port's opinion to the contrary) but he was a lot smarter and he flourished in that environment as one can see at the end of the film where he's adopted local habits, customs and clothing. Kit did as well but it was a trial by fire and she paid with her sanity.
In the end she had been transformed by her time in the desert (for want of a better term). Still reeling from the loss of Port and unknown events that may have happened when she left Belquassim's compound (signified by the Mehndi appearing mysteriously on her hands and feet) she clearly couldn't go back to the woman she was before. She was looking for herself; Paul Bowles the Narrator asked her: "Are you lost?"
Tunner would have saved her because he had all the strength in the world; the question really is " Does she want to be saved? "
I intend to live forever. So far so good.
Because she would like to became a real traveller. In fact, who was the traveller was Port and not her. She was a tourist. In this way, she would honour the memory of Port.
shareKit was broken....she may not even have remember Tunner, or why she should wait for him......she likely wandered the streets of the town and became a 'native resident' or a desert beggar/wanderer.
shareit doesn't really answer your question (I know this is Years later, you probably no longer care!) But by now, and after everything she had been through.. Tunner is nothing, a past that has no place and would make no sense to see her seeing Tunner again. After having her husband die slowly with her in the desert, and after what followed... she is by now in a totally different point in life and in her mind. She has to keep wandering. When asked if she's lost, she says Yes.
shareI read the book and then saw the movie. I have a different view of Kit at the end - I think she was conflicted about Tunner. After all, she had obvious feelings for Tunner, but she had seen her husband die an agonizing death and couldn't save him. Then she went through a disorienting and frightening experience in the desert. She was ill physically, and living in between several worlds at the end of the story. She was adrift, but I wouldn't assume she ends up wandering forever.
My real name is Jeff
Why didn't you write SPOILER at the start of your post?
share