Today’s A.V. Club AVQ&A is about unhappy endings, and I’m curious to hear what the Crassholes have to say about this topic. Mainstream American films end happily virtually every time. It’s also a safe bet that the happy ending will involve a heterosexual coupling–we can leave that discussion for Crasstalk’s Gay Day. But let’s expand the discussion to television and literature as well. What are some of your favorite unhappy endings? What unhappy endings don’t work for you or feel as contrived and manipulative as a forced happy ending?
Night of the Living Dead is probably my favorite unhappy ending. I think part of the reason it has stuck with me is because I saw it at a pretty young age, and my experience with movies up to that point in my childhood had taught me that the hero will always prevail. That Ben is not killed by zombies but mistakenly shot by the rescue posse only added another shocking layer that my eight-year-old mind could barely comprehend. It seems tame compared to the hamfisted nihilism so many horror films trade in today, but more effective than all of those combined.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FYtprwg1As
The black-as-night humor of this movie sets the tone, and the ending, though unhappy, is fitting and well crafted. A Serious Man may not be as loved as some of the other Coen films, but I connect with it in a way that I don’t with some of their other work.
So, Crassholes, what makes a good unhappy ending? When is it gratuitous and unnecessary? What are your favorites?
