I loved this film. But that last shot, the quick pull back was very whimsical. When the mother let out that cry, I got chills, but they dissappeared instantly when the camera started to whip back. Ridiculous!
Goodbye, Penis.
-"Ed Wood"
I agree. Loved the film, very moving. The last shot really seemed out of place. Wasn't nessesary. Didn't fit with the camera pace and movement from the rest of the film.
shareAgree. I actually am not crazy about the whole final scene. I thought it was just too much of a "happy ending against all odds." The scenario could have been a little more plausible, while still offering closure...I dunno, it was just a little too pat for me.
Also, I thought the mother's wail was rather scary, such a deep groan coming from such a small woman seemed strange and took me out of the moment. I think they should have made a different kind of sound come out of her.
A bit too sentimental at times IMO, but a pretty nice film.
I actually didn't mind the mother's wail. I thought it was quite haunting. I agree it took the viewer out of the "sentimental" moment - but I liked where it took me. However, the camera pull out movement totally took me out of THAT new haunting and quite scary headspace which deleted the effect of the mothers wail for me.
Also, I thought the mother's wail was rather scary, such a deep groan coming from such a small woman seemed strange and took me out of the moment. I think they should have made a different kind of sound come out of her.
I thought that was a little old man, the voice was so deep. The ending was really contrived.
I had the same feeling about the last scene, but my friend suggested it was symbolic: he is back in an African refugee camp, helping people with a destiny that could have been his, being a parent himself (we are reminded by the phone call). This one-in-a-million reunion is a sign that he is coming to terms with his past. Of course both the actual reunion and the symbolic level is present at the same time, but I think it is a matter which aspect to emphasise.
Even though I didn't like the last shot at first I do think it was necessary. I also found the film very moving, but I felt a bit lost towards the end because I did not expect him to find his mother and yet could not come with any other possible ending.
Just should have ended with him walking over to her.
sharei agree completely. everything including walking over to her was absolutely perfect. its like the film was not sure where to go after that point. the wail was completely unnescessary and ruined the entire ending for me.. i was filled with emotions that seemed to cut off at that point.
shareThe ending would have been good if he walked over to his mother and said "Mother, the sunshine of my life" and the movie just ended. Throughout the entire film, the audiences are bombarded with the fact that he loves his mother and the mother's unimaginable pain and suffering. It was unnecessary to say "I love you mother" and the shout.
shareisn't what you describe the exact point trying to be made?
"i was filled with emotions that seemed to cut off at that point".
sending her son off to a foreign world of promise, forcing him to abandon her and lie about his entire identity and what he knows as real for a chance to "live and become". imagine the mother's suffering and pain, the pent up hurt and ravaging brokeness inside of her. seeing her son come back after becoming.. and embrace her, an impossibility. all the burden of uncertainty "cut off" at that very moment!
what other sound could you imagine? please don't forget, not everyone has the cliche-hollywood-high-pitched-oh-no-the-man-with-the-knife-is-chasing-me scream. a deep unburdening wail.
it was perfect.
Agreed, the last 30 seconds of the film is a disappointment. I can understand how it appeals to the viewers looking for the perfect symbolic/intellectual completion of the "circle". However, its contrived nature ruined an otherwise great setting for the ending: Schlomo visiting to help his native land as a composite man of Ethiopian Christian, Israeli left-wing Jew, and French doctor. I don't mind the fancy pullback shot into an impressionistic picture (I could do without it happily), I just don't like the interaction between him and the old woman/mother.
Variations on the ending I would have preferred, in no clear order:
1. He never sees an old woman he thinks is his mother; he ends the phone call the same way, promising to return, and goes back to the monumental task of trying to help the sick and dying people surrounding him.
2. He sees her, but the film fades as he walks toward her, and neither he nor the viewer finds out if it's his mother.
3. Everything the same as the current film cut, but when he gets to the old woman, it's not his mother, just one of thousands of other women that have lived a similar horror. He returns to his work, and he goes on with his work there. He understands life is about looking forward and creating hope, not backwards at regrettable events of the past.
-N
I thought it was awesome... You see, he grew up in the civilized world, writing letters to her more or less on a regular basis, while she was in the refugee camp, fighting for survival on a regular basis. so he's very articulated, while she let out a cry for agony as this is the most articulate way to express what she held inside for 15 or 20 years...
shareI am dumbfounded by all those who think there is something wrong with the last scene. The mother's crying does not sound beautiful, but would it have been more realistic to hear beautiful crying? Note also: the boy had never in his childhood said "Mother, sunshine of my life to her". It was the falasha rabbie who invented this phrase IN LETTERS, NOT IN SPEAK. Whenever the boy was think at his mother, he said "Made" (which I guess is the Amharic form).
Okay, it is the right of everyone to have a different taste. For every excellent movie there will always be some who do not like one or the other scene,
I love the last scene. It is only the last shot, that quick pull-back that proturbs me.
Are you the Tenia?
I think that the pann-out last shot is there for us to understand that Schlomo's is just one story in a million like it.
(I apologize for my poor english syntax and spelling; I'll appreciate comments in order to improve it)
That's an interesting theory. I just don't like how it looks, but I'd like to see it again to see if the meaning comes through.
Your English is fine except it should be "us" instead of "we."
Are you the Tenia?
Yeah, I know what you mean. It was a bit annoying for me too.
Thanks for your comment. I'm going to edit my post in a minute.
(I apologize for my poor english syntax and spelling; I'll appreciate comments in order to improve it)
I completely disagree with what a lot of people are saying about the last shot of this film. The last scene is not a happy ending, and the sudden pull back of the camera is incredibly important to me. As someone else mentioned, while from Schlomo's perspective you might see this as a happy ending, if you view it from the mother's perspective she has spent her entire life is refugee camps. Moreover, the idea is that while all of the characters of our film have been living their entire lives there are countless, overwhelming numbers of people outside that world who continue to suffer, and it is only through rare, strange events (like those of this film) that this suffering permeates into their world. This doesn't simply occur in the last moment either. There are mentions throughout the entire film, in fact the theme of Schlomo's mother being trapped away from him in that outside world, which completely indicate this idea. The pull back is meant to ruin any kind of happiness the ending might have, because while it is happy on a personal level for Schlomo, on a social, global level nothing has changed.
share