The ending really bothered me, not because I didn't like it, but because after he shoots Woody in head and all fades to black....there is one more shot.
Russel (Christian Bale), just sitting by himself at home...
I paused it again to look at this shot as the ending...is it just to illustrate he's not back in prison? that he is all alone? Is there a significance I am missing?
I agree with you and thought exactly the same thing.
shareI don't think we can overlook the fact that we're actually calling it "the last shot" considering "the last shot" that took place just before this. This movie is DRIPPING with symbolism. For e.g. when Russell and his uncle are driving to go hunting (in cammo) and John and Rodney (in cammo) are going right into a trap. Then, they're cleaning the deer and Rodney is sitting there, all bloody.
Maybe "the last shot" of Russell is like the director saying that he's dead, too. It's like a gunshot (boom!), but in his case a glimpse of a slower death full of loneliness and melancholy.
WOAH dude bro, you are like SOOO DEEP! omg Oh my freaking god you should write a f ing book about how deep you are
2 DEEP 4 ME BRO
I think they should have left it alone when Russel fires the kill shot.
Leave it open.
'It's the harbour towns that the grey metal ships call home'.
by chakobsa ยป Sat Jan 18 2014 18:35:03I'm all about leaving things open for interpretation, but there is actually more substance with the way it is now.
IMDb member since January 2004
I think they should have left it alone when Russel fires the kill shot.
Leave it open.
The ending really bothered me, not because I didn't like it, but because after he shoots Woody in head and all fades to black....there is one more shot.
Russel (Christian Bale), just sitting by himself at home...
I paused it again to look at this shot as the ending...is it just to illustrate he's not back in prison? that he is all alone? Is there a significance I am missing?
I thought maybe he took over the books of Petty since there was a calculator and stack of papers. Or maybe he got/split the money.
His hair looked very slicked back and wet too.
no, i think all you guys have got it wrong. apparently he's injecting himself. someone on this board suggested this film is a metaphor for where America is at today. Broken dreams left in tatters.
shareNothing in that image conveys drug addiction. I saw no serynges or any kind of drug and altough he looked older, he did not look particularly unhealthy.
I think the movie aims to convey that being an honest hardworking man in America does not warrant happiness and that America spits out man who gave their lives for the nation when they have no use for them anymore. Russel's brother had fough in Iraq and got nothing for it, The mill Russel worked for and whose hard work and poor security conditions were partially responsible for his father's illness was shutting down because the industry could get cheaper steel from China, etc.
By the end Russel is a broken man despite his efforts to be a just hardworking man. The hand laying on the desk seems to suggest he has been bled of all his dreams, as it lay heavily on the table.
Just want to say great post. Your thoughts on the movie made me re-evaluate what I just watched.
share[deleted]
I understand what you mean but to me it seems unlikely that that is what is meant. When a drug addict injects himself in a spot he deems to be safe, like his own house, he usually leaves the materials used for the drug consumption around himself and doesn't bother himself with packing them up. So if he had injected himself as you propose there would be some kind of materials around him like a garrot, a serynge, a spoon - something that would indicate such action. Furthermore if the Director's intention was to convey the notion of drug consumption he could have done so in a clearer manner just by producing in the shot such materials as serynges. The fact that he did not seems to suggest that that his not his point.
As for the position of the arm itself and as I have written in another post, I am of the opinion that is is meant to simbolize that he was bled out of his strength - the posture of his arm falls heavily on the board as if deprived of strength. Of course it is a matter of opinion, but I do not see why the Director would choose to convey the notion of drug addiction in such a obscure fashion when he could have easily pointed it out clearly by leaving a serynge or something of the sort in the shot.
Damn, that was a really good interpretation!
shareWell this is the best post on this board for sure.
shareI thought about that too, that's also why he takes the shot, since hes lost all already(mill shuttin down, girlfriend, brother, father and his history as a con).
shareI thought the same thing. On the BluRay version as seen on our TV it looked like he had tubing around his arm. Combined with the odd way his arm was straight out from his body on the table with the sleeve rolled up, I assumed he deliberately OD'd using the drugs he bought earlier in the movie.
shareI was thinking that maybe he was just imagining it. Maybe he decided to listen to the cops and stayed home but regretted his decision. He imagined what he should have done. Because, if he did murder DeGroat he would have been sent to prison immediately. But we could all see him sitting at a desk in the last shot.
shareYes, the last shot was just to signify that Forest Whitaker had turned a blind eye and he wasn't in prison.
shareI think you may be right about this.
In retrospect I believe that 'Wesley' (Whitaker) may have had some guilty feelings about taking Russel's girl away while Russel was in prison. Russel was technically guilty for drunk driving, but it was clear that he wasn't much of a drinker, and Wesley knew this about him.
Wesley may have also felt sorry for Russel since he'd been getting the short end of the stick what with his father's, and then his brother's deaths.
I think Wesley's part may have been more pivotal than what it seemed.
Another cop may have shot Russel, but Wesley was not just another cop.
It's a very good movie, I love the story, the characters, and the acting.
Spot on.
Please correct my grammar, make my day.
Nicely stated, if I may add that 'Wesley' really was a 'good man'. He was just as frustrated as 'Russell' about the inability to apprehend/prosecute/convict 'DeGroat'. The line that stood out to me was "we have procedures" and you could tell Wesley's heart wasn't in it when he offered it as a reason for the lack of progress.
The last shot, Russell alone with his thoughts, was heartbreaking. A felon, his father passed, his brother murdered, his g/f pregnant and with another man having moved on, his job about to be eliminated. Yes, heartbreaking.
A felon, his father passed, his brother murdered, his g/f pregnant and with another man having moved on, his job about to be eliminated.
Very true. This movie is very depressing when you think about it.
shareI agree with you and the former poster. Wesley did his duty by having tried to stop Russell; but haul him off to prison? He probably felt he owed Russell for having gotten his girlfriend, and, besides, the girlfriend probably would seriously have been upset if Russell had been adjudicated.
And don't think stuff like that doesn't happen in real life. Am I right on that?
[deleted]
He's actually a much weaker man that Russell. This is why the "Let me make this right!" command falls on deaf ears. Russell made a decision. Wesley was weak in both ways: couldn't stop the bad guy and couldn't hold the good guy accountable.
shareGreat comment! Wesley was glad to be rid of DeGroat. With the song "Release" being a symbolic I believe that Russel went on to live his life a free man.
shareDr_Clitterhaus for the win. That has to be right.
shareExactly what I thought. When Forest Whitaker said "let me make it right" I was thinking, "ok, take the shot, and then let him make it right"
They gotta write their own letters
my opinion
because Forest Whittaker had a relationship with Bale's girl she must have told him to let him have his revenge but it left him an empty man !
I saw this yesterday and I thought it was very good. The last scene is a bit puzzling; when I saw it I thought that his hair, long throughout the movie, had been cut short, and that he looked older, and I concluded that we're seeing him released from prison for the second time after a decade or so. I have no evidence for this, but that's what I thought the ending suggested.
shareYou're the only one in this thread making sense.
shareI agree with you. I wasn't expecting that shot at all, and a few seconds after the ending credits started, an image rushed back from my memory. The way he looked, older, skinnier, shorter hair slicked back, the clothes and the light ; it all just reminded me of the machinist. I am not saying that it was intended to. But now that I thought about it, I can't help but see many similarities in the plot.
shareThis makes the most sense now that you say it. He was also cleaner shaven...although I would think he would have been grey if he had shot a man in front of a cop...bad guy or not.
shareAll I kept thinking was that if Whitaker drove up next to Bale and got his fat butt out of the car quicker he could have stopped him (as would probably have happened in real life). But then it would not have made for a poignant ending, now would it? Many times movies need to break from realistic and expected behaviors in order to achieve a certain outcome.
share