MovieChat Forums > The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) Discussion > The End?

The End?

posted 20 years ago by regnant13
14 replies | jump to latest

So Pookie gets on the bus and goes away? Is that it for her and that other guy? I loved how they made it so that at the beginning she was off the bus and he was on it looking at her while the bus drove away. And then at the end, she was on the bus looking at him as the bus drives away. Those had to be my favorite parts in the movie. Maybe the first time (him on the bus) symbolised Pookie entering his life. And the last time was her exiting it. Might just be me but that was powerful stuff.

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dasein451 19 years ago

Minelli sucked as Pookie, the drug-addled freak...

Whom would you have preferred? Elizabeth Hartman, Tuesday Weld, or effing Patty DUKE?!?

I have to admit, I could almost see Elizabeth Hartman as Pookie.

[–] blockerlover 19 years ago

Patty Duke might've been okay. At that time, she was a moody and troubled young woman, and that might've helped her with the character, but she's become too overeager as an actress, relying on her perky shtick.
The remark about Liza was unforgivable.

[–] dasein451 19 years ago

The remark about Liza was unforgivable.

Agreed. Ms. Minnelli in 1969 showed no signs of dissipation or substance abuse... not saying there wasn't any, only that she had yet to be designated any sort of sordid tabloid material. This was a different Liza. "Still and always Pookie..."

As for both Duke and Weld, I simply can't see either of them in the role, primarily on account of physical appearance and demeanor. Pookie is described in the novel as a very willowy and fey sort of girl... Duke and other females of her ilk are simply too well-nourished and robust to portray a woman of this "type". She likely gained at least ten pounds chewing up the scenery in "Valley of the Dolls."

But give Elizabeth Hartman a "scrubby" haircut and put a pair of oversized glasses on her, and she'd be a ringer for Nichol's Pookie. Also, her performance in "You're a Big Boy Now" should convince anyone she had the range to play both a vocal and obnoxious character as well as a sympathetic or pathetic one.

[–] mmitsos-1 19 years ago

You're a *beep* moron. Patty Duke was "too well nourished"???? Are you *beep* kidding me? She was tiny. She gained about 10 pounds for a part of Valley of the Dolls, and lost it again for other scenes (they made her get puffy for the scene near the end, where she really loses it). And, the director said that they made her stick out her stomach in her lingerie scenes...it clearly didn't match the rest of her physique, because she was tiny everywhere else.

You're a sicko *beep* who probably likes women anorexic.

[–] dasein451 19 years ago

Touched a nerve, eh?

You're a sicko *beep* who probably likes women anorexic.

Absolutely, thoroughly and totally false.

And Pookie describes herself in the novel as "downright emaciated". Now, I don't want to see anyone in such a state, but there are certain physical types of young women I can envision in the role of Pookie (Liza, for instance) and some I can't. I maintain Patty Duke was too robust in her physical presence onscreen for the role. She would have been a miscast, in my opinion. Period.

And, ummm... "sicko"? Your lack of emotional stability practically screams from your last few abusive postings on other threads:

YOU ARE SO *beep* FULL OF *beep* THE MEDIA IS CONTROLLED BY NOTHING BUT RIGHT-WING, MONEY-GRUBBING, CEO'S-MAKING-50X-MORE-THAN-THE-REST-OF-THEIR (HIS)-EMPLOYEES-SALARIES, CORPORATIONS!!!!!!!!!! They're all following the insanity of FOX. Give me a goddamn break. If you actually think that the media is left-wing, I have some lovely swamp land to sell you in Florida...another right-wing state...I'm sure you'll love it.

You are a nutcase, nutcase. With all your myopicism and completely inane commentary, you at least have the self-awareness to provide a suitable moniker for yourself....nutcase.

[–] Hollyllujah 19 years ago

I watched again on HBO this morning.
As before, I wept and wondered.
Where is Pookie today?
Is she the battered wife, the alcoholic?
How did she become so vunerable?

It is a sad movie that touches the weakest part of ourselves.
Sometimes I can see myself as the girl, sometimes as the boy.
Not sexually, but emoitionly.
Only be worried if you see yourself as the bus.
One of my top 20 films every person must see.
I think couples should see it as well.

[–] elliottrainbow 18 years ago

I so agree! I've watched this movie hundreds of times over the years and I always think I'm in love with Pookie but in a way I am Pookie! What a wonderful, wonderful film!

[–] ijonesiii 19 years ago

I always thought the reversed positions on the busses were done on pur pose as well.

[–] brfluc-1 18 years ago

I am so glad you asked this question. I have always been a huge fan of this movie and, too, wondered what happened to Pookie and Jerry at the end. I always thought that they both realized that they couldn't be together--he changed, she couldn't. I never read the novel, but I'd hate to think that she killed herself. But, I guess you could see why. I don't feel that anyone could have done the job that Liza Minnelli did. I loved Elizabeth Hartman in "A Patch of Blue", but I can't see her being this "geeky" type of girl. Though she played a blind person, I thought, she was quite beautiful. Anyway, thanks for posting this question; I guess, I'll have to read the book now!

[–] lautanner 18 years ago

And yet Elizabeth Hartman really DID commit suicide, didn't she?

[–] brfluc-1 18 years ago

Yes, she did. She jumped from her window in NYC. I think I read that she had suffered from periods of depression, which I guess, is obviously why she did it. Tragedy!

[–] dasein451 18 years ago

I think this is a particularly interesting thread because it exposes the sense of betrayal (for want of a better word) which viewers grapple with as they finish watching TSC. Some clips were recently posted on YouTube which illustrate my point; the first is taken from near the beginning of the movie, while the second and third, consecutively, represent nearly the entire final six or eight minutes before the credits:

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rho4VevXjU

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWR-A-qh3vk

3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRo4kvT0bak

Here we see that the viewers have been primed for a light-hearted, screwball comedy featuring an engaging and witty heroine, and expect the inevitable conflict to arise, which, in turn, they fully expect to be resolved in the traditional feel-good fashion... only to find that, instead, the comfortable rug of a ritualized happy ending has been pulled right out from under them. Thus, the audience is giggling audibly at the start, tittering nervously in the middle, and utterly mortified or in tears at the end. The audience has been betrayed into sharing the tragic experience of these characters.

"So, that's it?!? It's all over!?!"

Yup, that's it. It is also genius, in my opinion, that the movie was structured the way it was, starting and ending with Pookie being sent away, "both physically and emotionally," as one poster put it so well. Jerry is a "straight arrow" crossing this cycle of Pookie's existence, with clear entry and exit points at bus stops. The realism is ruthless, because these trajectories are not bent into any comforting fictive prefabrications... if they had been, this movie would have been immediately forgotten, and deservedly so. TSC certainly does not have an "unresolved" ending: her heart is broken, and so is yours. Jerry will never forget this unpredicted sorrow... and neither did you.