MovieChat Forums > Good (2009) Discussion > The End (Spoiler)

The End (Spoiler)

posted 13 years ago by oldahus
18 replies | jump to latest

So this is one of those endings where I'm thinking, "there's more, right?"

No, so then I had to go back and figure it out. Help me with this. So he went mad, right? The culmnination of events finally took a toll on him (his mother, his wife who turned in his friend, guilt from not being able to help friend, and finally seeing those people suffer). Also, he seemed to be in denial when his friend was trying to explain to him what was to come. He overlooked the obvious fear that his friend had. This time the people kept playing the instruments.

Was there some meaning behind the disarray of the new arrivals, how they were running about, or was that just illustrating healthy, unknowing new arrivals?

[–] magicbox2 13 years ago

I think it was to show the chaos through a piece of music he found so relaxing and moving. this is to emphasize the chaos in that time when so many were too blind to see it or so anything about it. that is my opinion though i am probably not explaining it too well

[–] samantha3 13 years ago

At several points during the film Halder sees and hears people singing Mahler. He even discusses it with his friend. What he doesn't see at first is that it happens at points in his life when he is about to do the wrong thing: not speaking up about book-burning, not answering Himmler honestly, not freeing the men in the truck on Krystalnacht.

As he gets further and further away from what he knows is the right thing to do, he stops seeing the singers. When he hears the orchestra at the camp (playing Mahler) he assumes it is the same thing, a hallucination. Then he rounds a corner, sees them, and notices that the commandant also sees and hears them. He says, getting it at last, "It's real." He means the entirety of what he has done with his life, all the wrong decisions he has made that have led him to this horror. If you notice, in the last shot of him he is weeping.

The chaos in the background is a group of people (probably but not necessarily all Jews) arriving at the camp to be killed. They were brought to the camps in inhuman conditions on freight trains, traveling without food or water for days. When they arrived the camp guards beat them and made them run to disorient them further, before they went through the selection process that would end in immediate death for most and slower death for a few.

[–] theemaster 13 years ago

I actually I disagree.. he didn't make any wrong decisions.. but from a "morality" aspect.. of judgment he did..

[–] samantha3 13 years ago

Well, the morality of his decisions is the point. The decisions did benefit him materially. As he falls further and further into the morass that was the Third Reich's center of power, you see him becoming more assured, more decisive, even less physically clumsy. It is only far too late that he realizes the wrongness of what he is doing, and even then he doesn't seem to be likely to change his course. The film is one demonstration of how "good" people can be corrupted by degrees.

"Anything that makes people happy can't be wrong, can it?"

[–] theemaster 13 years ago

I disagree.. you see.. there are no bad people

Just a different way to see the world..

[–] samantha3 13 years ago

Then this clearly wasn't the film for you.

I expect most films aren't.

[–] mzladymoon 13 years ago

THERE ARE BAD PEOPLE! What's wrong with you?

This film attempts to show how the ordinary German tried to live their lives and not become directly involved with the events that were going on. They believed that by not becoming directly involved, that kept their hands clean and therefore they would bear no guilt. But good people who stand by and do nothing become bad by attrition. His reaction to his wife when he discovers what she did to Maurice is so strong because it invades his understanding that he is not really involved with the evil that is transpiring. The end confirms that what is going on IS REAL and he can no longer hide/deny it.

[–] theemaster 13 years ago

What's wrong with me?

From your standpoint everything.. your welcome to put me in that "bad" group even though you don't even know me..

There are no bad people means just that.. this place/world we call reality is a game.. and it always was! The thing is when you play a judgment game of "you bad" you are also playing a now optional game of disconnection/lack.. for every person is you, and you are they..

So when you call someone in the world bad it's like looking in the mirror and calling yourself "bad"!

So let me get this straight "mzladymoon"?

Because 90% of the german population let the Nazi's harass the jews there bad right?

What about the americans or the english are they responsible and bad too cause they let millions of jews die instead of invading in 1938 like they should have?

When you play the “bad” game.. you have to decide the rules of what’s bad and what’s not.. unfortunately the problem is with 6 billion people on the planet playing that game, today.. "they can never agree" so while you can say all germans were bad for letting the Nazi party harass and later kill the jews.. you apparently may not want to call "america" bad or "english" bad cause they didn't do something earlier.. even though the germans slowly escalated to the point there at..

I choose not to play the bad game.. I say again.. there are no bad people.. in fact there are only good people.. there are only perfect people that includes you mzladymoon :)

Try and expand your horizons, give up labels and love your fellow man and you might be able to see things the way I do! :) Instead of with hate and judgment in your heart..

[–] Maryhadalamb 13 years ago

Of course the 90% of the german population were not bad people. But the minority in charge, that 10%, they were bad. A man shoving a jew to the side,taking out a gun and shooting him through the head is bad. I agree people aren't just bad, but they're not just good either. That's the whole point. The world isn't filled with good people it's filled with people who are both good and bad simultaneously, in some one side prevails in others another, but no one is black or white.

And this whole world may seem a game to you until it's your family or you yourself who are being dealt the wrong card. Not so much a game then anymore, trust me.

--
tiny.cc/gbc00

[–] theemaster 13 years ago

And this whole world may seem a game to you until it's your family or you yourself who are being dealt the wrong card. Not so much a game then anymore, trust me.

Typical fear based argument.. I'm a weirdo that believes we all create our reality.. won't you join me one day?

For on that day.. you will realize that being a victim is choice and one can create what they prefer..

[–] mjones1313 13 years ago

Children are abused and killed every day by adults. What choice do they have?

Kinich-Ahau / Kukulcan in 2012!

[–] samantha3 13 years ago

theemaster, you are just spouting a common, half-baked New Age idea that you obviously haven't thought through. Nothing terribly wrong with that, but it's really very silly. How about trying harder to make sense in the real world?

[–] Nekrofelia 13 years ago

@samantha3 and @theemaster: you are both right. @samatha3's first posting was an explanation about the movie's meaning of the end, which is completely valid and has a basis from the film's events - the film provides a personal point of view (the script-writer's? the director's?) on the actions of the main character, which as @samantha3 stated, portrays him as unwittingly making tragic mistakes. On the other hand, @theemaster does not seem to give an analysis of the plot, but rather, their own point of view on right/wrong - which is also valid. As early as the ancient Greeks, philosophers argue that there is no actual thing that is innately right/wrong, moral/immoral, etc (so this is not a New Age idea). We, as a society, as a culture, create and define what is moral and this definitely always changes. I believe this is what @theemaster is trying to get across - hopefully not trying to defend the horrible acts that occurred during the Holocaust - the basic principle that there is no such thing as good or bad in the world. Do people do horrible things? Yes, but who "judges" them as horrible? Unless we were socialized to believe that something is right/wrong, then it is not, until we endow it with either quality.

But, might I add, @samanta3, great analysis of the film. Good eye! You noticed developments about the protagonist's character - that I did not really notice - which add depth to the meaning of the film.

[–] franklinlj 13 years ago

There is something to be said for not hating people, of course, but..."the world is a game"?

How would you be thinking if you were a guest at one of the Party's holiday resorts? I am not interested in name-calling, but genuinely curious and you would know the answer (to what you would be thinking) better than I would. So how about it?

***SPOILER FOLLOWS***

Getting back to the movie, one thing that struck me about the end was his being told by the commandant that they had no record of the man he was looking for, but that if the man had come when he did the man must be dead by now. Chillingly, there is a throwaway reference to the fact that '90% of all units are processed on arrival' (translation: most people who show up are murdered out of hand). Any 'good ' he thought he might have been doing by going along with the system is thus shown to be utterly futile, for his friend was gone long ago - victim of a system that could regard him as a unit to be processed.

I think this, and wandering around the camp seeing random horrors (like prisoners stood to attention till they drop), is meant to add meaning to the final 'music' sequence. Does anyone else think so?

I should say, I only saw this movie once, but remember almost every scene. As I have said elsewhere, it is all so horribly plausible.

[–] samantha3 13 years ago

AS Halder says at the end, when he finally comes to the fullest realization of how far he has fallen into the abyss his world has become, "It's real." He's not talking about just the Mahler music, or he wouldn't be weeping.

And of course that is the message of the film: how ordinary, good people can be led -- and lead themselves -- step by step over that abyss.

[–] saltnurwound 10 years ago

I found this movie mesmerizing.
No other single movie gave me the chills like this one did.
I don't even know what else to say. One of my favorites of all time.

[–] lagpro 13 years ago

dude! You are on the wrong board - this is for the movie "Good" not the tv show "Dexter".

BTW - You are soooooooooo wrong. Good people have good intentions but may indirectly do bad things. Bad people have bad intentions that lead to bad things. And if you think that "Bad things" are abstract, then talk to someone who has had their family killed.

[–] Jerry-137 10 years ago

I think you pretty much nailed it.

One thing that wasn't brought up was how the name "Good" was pertinent to the movie. If you remember at the beginning of the movie one of the Nazi's was talking about all the things were for doing "good" for country and fellow man by accepting his appointment in the Nazi machine when in fact it was quite the opposite. IOW's what was supposed to be a good thing in reality was very bad.

So maybe they should have named it "Good/(Bad)" or something similar so as not to confuse the masses.

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My favorite: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb