any one else bothered by the ending?

Sunny, I agree with you %100. I loved the movie right up to the last 5 minutes. I would have liked to see her and her son heading west on a highway heading for her original destination(like Matt Damon at the end of Good Will Hunting). Kris was no catch, though I dug his farm. She coulda done better but then again, when you're desparate....

a wish for death in Chicago

I saw it for the first time last night - what a fantastic film! So many great moments. The Harvey-Kietel-on-the-rampage scene was truly chilling. But the second last scene, the one in the cafe, was an aberration, like something out of another movie.

I'm glad Alice ended up with Kris's Dave, he was a good man, and it showed maturity to let go of a childish notion that she only had to return to the place where she was happy at 19 in order to find happiness again. But that scene in the cafe where they're shouting across at each was false - I feel sorry for Kris and Ellen having to perform it. It was out of character for both of them. I heard that the film was originally written as a Rock Hudson-Doris Day type comedy, but it was well and truly dirtied up and made real by Scorcese, Ellen et al. This scene felt like a hangover from the Rock Hudson-Doris Day thing. Shame. Alice and Dave deserved a more real coming together. But the very last scene, with Tommy, was great.

How fabulous was Diane Ladd in this film?! Such an amazing cast of supporting characters. And what a gorgeous man Kris K was - yum!

Beautiful to see this early work by Scorcese, such a wonderful director. I'd love to see him make another film that returned to these kind of low-fi roots, with the focus on character, rather than some of the overblown too-many-toys-for-the-boys movies he's done in recent years. It would be brilliant to see him make another film with a female protaganist too.

Even though Kristofferson's character spanks Tommy, I don't think he's abusive or in any way a bad person. Not any more so than Alice is anyway. I mean, yeah, ok, he spanked a child that wasn't his own, but it's not like he did it repeatedly or with any kind of malice. I know a lot of people these days are very much against spanking, but it seems like people here think that David is some kind of *beep* or maniac simply because he dispensed some discipline. If he'd struck Tommy across the face or hurt him in any way, then yes, I would consider that abusive. But a spanking? I don't think it's anything to get a restraining order for like someone else mentioned.

[deleted]

David was getting irritated with Tommy and that built up to the spanking. That was what bothered me at first, as it seemed David was just getting fed up with the kid (which I would totally agree with) and hit him. Thinking more about it, the little turd deserved to be smacked around. Not even really smacked around by David but a spanking which Tommy took like a cry baby as he clumsily plummeted over flotsam in the home (probably because he never knew what it felt like to be put in his place). David appeared to be the only person willing to put this child in his place. Alice overreacted (how convenient she was not in the room for the ordeal) in a reasonable manner based on the little she saw.

Does the ending disturb me? Heck yes! It shows Alice and Tommy getting along fine at the end. Truth is, without David, that kid will be in prison and on crack in 5 years. I hope she either has David around or learns to stick up for herself against her son OR spends more time with him instead of sticking him in a hotel room or a diner all day long.

I also need to keep this movie in context. It was during the 70s when parents were more authoritative and there was a greater respect for adults. I am willing to bet a much smaller percentage of people would have questioned David's actions in 1974 than in 2009.

I didn't get the idea that David was a "jerk". He became abrasive in parts of the end of the movie but I took that as an all-too-human response to his being dragged along by Alice with no affirmation that she would or would not stay with him. It seemed like a normal, frustrated response to her indecisiveness. She hadn't figured out what she wanted (like she says in the crying-bathroom scene) and he was left to deal with the consequences.

In my opinion his butt-smacking was definitely called for and didn't come across as excessively violent in any way. Tommy hit him in the face and, in contrast with Tommy's father, who couldn't control his anger when the sugar was switched out with the salt, David's precise response (hitting the traditional punishment zone :) ) shows a pretty parent-like response.

I noticed that many of these thread responses turned toward the feminist aspect of the movie. I definitely feel that there were feminist points, but I disagree with the notion that just because Alice ended up with David means that she was portrayed as needing a man. It's human nature to want to have someone to share your life with. I focused more on the fact that she learned how to stand up for herself and changed her view of what she wanted in a partner. She had told David that she used to think of a manly-man as "domineering" but by the end of the film she was telling David what SHE wanted and he was ready to dismiss his life to be with her. Whereas Alice's husband had forbidden her to sing, she told David that her life had to include singing. Also, it takes a strong person to try out another relationship after the two major failures that she had had before. A weaker person would have given up.

I thought this movie was great and ended with a positive message.

[deleted]

I can't believe some people's reaction to the spanking. It does in no way make Kris a jerk, and he probably did more to raise the brat with that single spank than his mother did all his life.
It's not like he broke the kid's arm or scarred him for life, he just showed him that bad behavior has consequences, something the mother never did and that's why the kid became such an *beep*

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