MovieChat Forums > Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1975) Discussion > any one else bothered by the ending?

any one else bothered by the ending?

posted 19 years ago by SunnySixkiller
82 replies | jump to latest

Spoliers probably

I haven't watched this movie in awhile, so if I mess anything up, sorry.

Ok, so I saw this movie for the first time during this two week Martin Scorsese fest my local classic cinema was having. I absolutely loved it, except for the ending. Maybe I'm missing something, but I didn't want her to stay with Kris Kristofferson in the end. He was a jerk, and she didn't need him. I don't think he really appreciated her. I think she should have kept going until she reached Monteray or someplace or someone that would make her truly happy. I really don't think that she would have been content being a housewife again after she changed so much during her travels. Does the ending bother anyone else? Does anyone else think the movie should have ended a bit more open-ended? Just a thought.

Life's an illusion, Love is a dream.

[–] cookiela2001 10 years ago

Does anyone else think the movie should have ended a bit more open-ended? Just a thought.

Yes, the ending of this movie has been criticized for decades. Alice sets out on a journey to discover and support herself....and ends up saved by a dreamy guy.

The things that do leave it somewhat open-ended are that the guy has already said he would go to Monterey with her, and that his farm doesn't mean anything to him. So, he's not boxing her in. The other thing is, she asks her son how he'd feel IF they didn't make it to Monterey. She could always change her mind, and she's proven she can survive on her own again if she has to.

The thing I think is too convenient is that Kris Kristofferson is such a great looking, nice, compatible, all-around-dandy guy who just happens to fall into Alice's lap on her very first day at work. Why, he doesn't even mind a BIT that she has a child! Wish that happened to ALL of us!
.

[–] Bree_33 9 years ago

It should have ended with Audrey saying... So long, suckers!

☁☀☁

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» nec spe,nec metu •´¯`» I've been tasting roads my whole life. http://i.imgbox.com/xBTUDJGH.gif

[–] oscarunger 9 years ago

my favorite line. Ive used it everytime I quit /or got fired from a job, usually met with same response

[–] Tommen_Forever 8 years ago

Alice sets out on a journey to discover and support herself....and ends up saved by a dreamy guy.

He isn't even that dreamy. When she got into a fight with him about hitting her son, it became pretty obvious how selfish he was. Everything she said about him was dead-on, and she goes and forgets about all of it the next day 

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[–] Tommen_Forever 8 years ago

It was extremely disappointing, and it contradicted everything she told Flo in the bathroom about not needing a man. I can't say it's not unrealistic. These kinds of women certainly exist, but I'm not sure what the screenplay wants us to take away from that fact. Is the ending supposed to be happy or sardonic? The situation is such that the ending should be sardonic, but there's no evidence that it's meant to be seen that way. The movie's marketed as a romance, but it's a tragedy.

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[–] WoodCheese 8 years ago

It's hilarious to see people criticize the ending of this movie as if there is the RIGHT type of ending. This is not math, people. It's a movie, and the right ending is the only one that was written by the screenwriter.

That being said, it's actually a great ending, because it's far closer to what happens in real life. People rarely change the trajectory of their life, or who they are as human beings, no matter how much they talk about it and say the things they want to change.

We are who we are.

[–] Tommen_Forever 8 years ago

But this movie isn't pretending to objectively capture what happens in real life. It isn't a documentary. I don't think people have a problem with the ending's realism but Scorsese's ambivalence to the implications of it. It's tragic that Alice gives up her independence for security but the story is clearly meant to be seen as romantic, which legitimizes Alice's troubling decision to stay with David.

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This isn't the end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YgdrhrCM8

[–] WoodCheese 8 years ago

[–] TheArgentinian (7069) 2 years ago

It's a BS Hollywood ending only a man could write. No woman would stay with a man she just met after he beat her son.