MovieChat Forums > American Gigolo (1980) Discussion > Confused me towards the end *SPOILERS

Confused me towards the end *SPOILERS

posted 18 years ago by aaartnaz
7 replies | jump to latest

This was a good movie. I was real pleasantly suprised by Richard Gere's acting as I've only seen him in two movie- Pretty Woman and Officer & a Gentleman. Yet, the story just ended...abruptly? The thing that was so strange was that Gere's (if he was freed) was the ease of getting out. With all the depth of the script up to the end, the climax was not up to the intelligence of everything prior. Also, I thought Gere would be tried partially for the death of Leon. If it was so hard to figure everything out, then how could he get out so easily?

[–] Desmond_Hussey 18 years ago

Detective Sunday mentions to Julian that witnesses saw him trying to save Leon from falling, so no charges would be filed against him for that.

As for the ending, it is very abrupt and somewhat simpleminded. Simply put, Gere gives up his materialistic, profit-driven lifestyle for the love of a good woman and Hutton gives up her cushy, though unrewarding marriage for a man who feels genuine passion for her. A very moralistic, Thirties-style ending. A bit surprising, given Paul Schrader's tendency for lurid and unsympathetic resolutions.

[–] aaartnaz 18 years ago

trying to save Leon from falling, so no charges would be filed against him for that. -
yes, I understood that but it's not that simple to be not liable. The better dialogue might be "They'll press charges but because of the level of mitigating circumstances, they should drop them". Sometime people have to defend themselves in court because they did the right thing!

And as far as the ending, I thought it would have ended in the courtroom. I would have gotten satisfaction that everything is concluded.

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[–] JERSEYKID75 18 years ago

I agree and as far as the police knew, Leon was a friend of Julians and was trying to help him and said he thought highly of him. The only way this situation with Leon falling could hurt Julian would be if the husband from Palm Springs(Mr Ryman),who was in on the set up, decided to tell all he knew. From his statements they could conclude that Julian had a motive to kill Leon. But that never happen and the police had no reason to go after Mr Ryman.

[–] freudified_n_funkified 17 years ago

Well, the whole thing with Leon was to show that Julian, under the pressure of being accused of a murder he didn't committ, is driven to actually kill somebody. And of course it's ironic that he's immediately off the hook for it but on the chopping block for the other.

And the ending fits in nicely with all of Schrader's other pseudo-happy endings - where he lets the characters go out on an ambiguous high note, where redemption is within reach, but if we've learned anything from the preceding story it's that these characters are not going to suddenly have a perfect sunny life overnight. The only "happy" Schrader ending I can think of that exudes a real sense of hope is LIGHT SLEEPER - everything else is a ticking time bomb, AMERICAN GIGOLO included.