I saw Release at a gay film festival a few days ago. The film was strongly building up to an optimistic and happy ending when an unlikely tragedy struck the gay hero in the final minutes of the film. The audience was stunned by the unfair storyline. The directors/ writers must have known what effect an unexpectedly tragic ending would have on audiences, especially gay ones. One can only speculate why they chose this ending.
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He euthanized his little brother by drowning him. He was very sick and the brother wanted him too.
shareThey tried to telegraph what was to happen through those dream sequences, but still when it happened, it seemed so implausible. Why would the young guy, who the priest had done so much for throughout the movie suddenly do what he does? Did he do it just on the say-so of that creepy thug? Did the young guy think that the priest would molest him? To me, it made absolutely no sense. It just seemed like a tacked-on tragedy done for shock value. I'm still having a hard time understanding what the message of this film was.
Why is it that the majority of gay dramas end in tragedy and death?
Sister, when I've raised hell, you'll know it!
I can only guess that the message has something to do with homophobia and how it twists the mind. Or they just wanted some tragedy porn. The warden cries, the chief cries, the priest cries and dies = the viewer cries.
But whatever it is, the ending is just downright terrible. Implausible and contrived. Simply poorly written.
I usually don't mind tragic endings. When they're done well that is, like for example Brokeback Mountain or Bent. These movies actually made me cry *and* think of the worth of life, things like that.
The only thing Release made me think was:
"Jesus Christ, I know life can be cruel! I don't need you to kick me into the face to realize that!"
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As one can read in the description, the inmates try to convice Rook of the priest being a pedophile. By the way of his nightmare, you can tell he'd been molested, so thinking the priest would be a pedophile, plus the crack they gave him, which Rook said would make him violent and do things he didn't want to do, ended up in him killing the priest.
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I totally agree with you! The whole time the ending was happening i was just screaming at my laptop, the warden lady just totally annoyed me because she didn't do anything, she practically just hugged him and then let him die (hello how about a little pressure on the wound or some freaking CPR! Then for me the worst part was there was this amazing and wonderful film and then 30 seconds from the end as he is walking out BAM, stab, dead, THE END! What the hell were they thinking!
Also i totally understand what you are saying about the endings of LGBT films, so many of them have these amazing story lines and then they just totally screw everything up with these awful resolutions or these deaths that just happen out of nowhere!