I know where you're coming from, yet the ending seems a cheat when I think about it, as in too melodramatic, with a dozen loose ends, very important ones from a plot standpoint, hanging out there. For starters, there's Susie, there's Dallas, there's Sidney. It's true that any one of them could break J.J., and as we're shown in the film, the old boy has his enemies in the newspaper world, so a lot of people out there would be all ears. The problem with all this, and it may be partly Burt Lancaster's controlling, alpha male performance as much as the script, is that we see J.J. as a near omnipotent figure. Aside from the matter of his sister, a family affair, does he ever lose? He seems unstoppable, like Mussolini. The guy's a nationally syndicated columnist, a TV personality, has friends in high and low places, probably a lot of people to literally kill for him. It isn't even made clear in the final scene that this isn't exactly what Kello plans to do. He may kill or so grievously wound Sidney as to make retaliation a near impossibility. Worse, if he does this and gets away with it (and why not?), wouldn't think dampen the ardor of J.J.'s sister and boyfriend?
Given the cynical tone of the film, from which it's nearly impossible to not infer that the bad guys always win, it's difficult for me to see that J.J. has taken a hit any bigger than a bump in the road; admittedly, a big bump, but enough to ruin him? Emotionally, yes, that's a given in as much as he's lost control of his sister. Yet the fact that he's got guys like Kello willing to do his bidding makes it even more difficult for me to believe that J.J. is really headed for a fall. It's kind of maybe yes and maybe no, which I find unsatisfactory. If there's any hint that somehow the moral order will be restored,--to the extent that was ever there in the first place--I failed to get it. To me it seemed like business as usual, but then I haven't seen the film in ages. The one ray of hope is that if Sidney is as badly damaged as is implied he will be that Susie and Dallas will take action. If Susie's willing to leave her brother maybe she'll report him to, well, not the police, since they're on J.J.'s payroll, so to speak, but some higher authority, or worse yet, a rival newspaper . What the film could have used, and didn't get, is a scene like the one in From Here To Eternity, when the bad officer is replaced by a good one, with its implication that the beep is coming to an end; or A Hatful Of Rain, when the addict's wife calls and reports her husband as a drug addict. That things weren't wrapped up at the end, if only by implication, may be one of the major reasons why the film was not a financial success. It's a major downer.
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pturman-929-979676
14 years ago
I think J.J.'s losing his sister is more than just a bump in his road. We know she's the most important thing in his life because we've just spent the entire movie watching him do anything & everything to try & ensure he doesn't lose her.
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