I don't need a hollywood happy ending all the time but I swear to god between 1968-1975 it was illegal in Hollywood to write a happy ending. Look at some of Jack Nicholsons more popular movies from that period!! Easy Rider, Chinatown, the Last Detail, Carnal Knowledge, One flew over the cuckoos Nest, not a happy ending in the bunch.
Illusions Micheal..illusions...tricks are something that a whore does for money.....or Cocaine
The movies back then had a better balance of where their stories should head. Life only seems to have happy endings for a few. But this was the time when filmmakers were auteurs over their projects, and were a little more free to tell stories how they see fit.
As for this story, it was only going to end one way. They had their jobs to do as chasers, and despite the diversions, they still had to see it through. So it wasn't really depressing, it was going to be the same end, only some shortcuts were taken. More stern men 99.9 percent of the time would have taken it from point A to point B strictly.
I suppose the heartbreaking point was Meadows betraying Buddusky's sympathy. But it's kind of a lesson learned for all in the end.
Very true, maybe that's why I love them so much, they seemed to only be interested in making things as real and gritty as possible, sort of a rebellion against all the pretentious acting and over-dramatized plots of films in the 50's and 60's. I don't know what happened to people, back then you could make a gritty movie like Get Carter and still make bank at the box office, but these days it seems like the only movies that don't flop are one dimensional pieces of crap like Harry Potter or Twilight. Hollywood sure did lose its balls, movies for mouth-breathers are not the only way to turn a profit, intelligent people would spend money at the movies as well if Hollywood would start making intelligent movies again.
shareI think part of it is that the movies of this era reflected the general atmosphere of the time. Vietnam, Nixon's resignation, oil embargo, height of the cold war, worries of overpopulation, ecomonic malaise, blight of the big cities,lawlesssnes, corruption, etc. created a sense of anxiety, desperation and hopelessness. Film makers were reflecting the mood of the country.
shareMost of those things are even worse today.
shareNothing wrong with a bit of grittiness and realism.
In the USA, the effects of Vietnam were still being felt.
Its that man again!!
I have been re-watching many films from the 1970's and the thing that struck me the most is that this was the last decade when movies were still story and character driven. They were still making movies in the way they did in the golden age of Hollywood. In the 1980's it all seemed to start changing and now the only way to see anything half intelligent is in an art or foreign film.
shareVery true, maybe that's why I love them so much, they seemed to only be interested in making things as real and gritty as possible, sort of a rebellion against all the pretentious acting and over-dramatized plots of films in the 50's and 60's. I don't know what happened to people, back then you could make a gritty movie like Get Carter and still make bank at the box office, but these days it seems like the only movies that don't flop are one dimensional pieces of crap like Harry Potter or Twilight. Hollywood sure did lose its balls, movies for mouth-breathers are not the only way to turn a profit, intelligent people would spend money at the movies as well if Hollywood would start making intelligent movies again.Good post. I agree. share
In life, happy endings are fairly uncommon. Moreso than during any other time, in the 70´s American filmmakers were willing and able to take the life´s injustices by the balls and honestly present them without any softening or excuses.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
It was a gritty time.. Just out of an unpopular war and many social changes. Then in the 80's it flipped to happy shinny bright and white, all fun... It's like the 1940's going into the 50's. After the 80's the 90's got a little more shaded and repressed. The 70's were gritty. I remember them and the movies reflect it. To be honest I'd take the 70's and 80's any day over the last 20 years...
"Movies from the 70's are depressing..."
Which was why Rocky became such a huge hit when it came along in 1976. People were ready to cheer, rather than sneer.
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fonte-2 wrote:
Which was why Rocky became such a huge hit when it came along in 1976. People were ready to cheer, rather than sneer.
Rocky did break the ice, but Lucas drove through that with Star Wars in 1977. It was nice to cheer at the end of a movie again...
She doesn`t quite chop his head off. She makes a Pez dispenser out of him.
It was a very bleak time in America (had been since 1963) and the movies were finally starting to reflect that dark period. The studio system was in it's death throes and the new crop of filmmakers weren't content to churn out the same product in which a golden ending was desirable.
shareInteresting point.
I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and I think it was a dark time. I'm unsure as to exactly why. Was it bad economic times, or a loss of confidence in government, due to political assassinations and Watergate? Was it a reaction to the social and cultural revolution of the 1960s?
My father was a physician yet I recall my mother having to be thrifty to make ends meet, even in the late 70s. I remember going to school with dirty faced kids who looked hungry.
This is one of those things you don't read about in history texts, but it was palpable.
I'll take Punctuality
'70s flicks weren't all depressing, they were just more realistic about life in general, and started showing life as it actually was, not how it should be----that's why I love them so much. This is the decade when the movie finally and truly grew up and got real, more than at any other time in history.
shareSome of the greatest films ever made came out in the 70's.
It's my own personal favourite decade for cinema.
Star Wars, Deliverance, Dirty Harry, The Godfather, Jaws, The French Connection, Taxi Driver, Alien...
What a decade!
Was it a millionaire who said "Imagine no possessions"?
How was it not a happy ending? They got the criminal to jail, had a relatively good time along the way, and got to tell off (sort of) an uppity marine...I mean, anyone with a lick of sense knows you have to pull a few copies.
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