<<A movie that's about quitting smoking ends with a shot of smoke stacks.>>
Not only that, but the factory is built, in theory, to "save" the town. But now the pollution will ruin the land, streams, etc. It'll pay off financially, but the long term effects will be catastrophic.
That wasn't irony. It was done intentionally to show how winning the Missile plant location was causing more polution than smoking. If you watch the begining of the movie when Dick Van Dyke is jogging thru town you hear everyone in their houses coughing from smoking. The movie was making fun of how everyone knew that smoking was bad for them but couldn't give it up. Their reward was "saving" the town with a boost to the economy, ie: the Missile plant, which was causing even more polution.
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Indeed. The ending was consistent, not ironic. These were small-town pawns in the corporate game of chess. Checkmate!
Still, it was a surprisingly bleak and cynical ending.
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Indeed. But honestly, I wish more films today had the courage to end so cynically. My glass is a lot more than half-empty.
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