MovieChat Forums > Dogfight (1991) Discussion > What would happen next?

What would happen next?

posted 19 years ago by melanie_kate
24 replies | jump to latest

Does anybody want to have a guess at what might have happened between Eddie and Rose after the last scene where they hug in her cafe? I have often wondered about it, and what I HOPE would have happened is that Eddie falls inlove with her all over again but this time he doesn't go away. I like to think that Rose would have given him a lot of space to talk about what happened in Vietnam and be his calm and peace. Maybe I just have too much time on my hands to think about these sort of things, but the movie just had me believing in those two characters so completely.

'People are such goddamm idiots' Cpl Eddie Birdlace my future husband

[–] generakaos7 19 years ago

well i don't have idea so what happen next, but I hope they get togheter forever, I really liked this movie.

[–] Leestemptation 19 years ago

i know this is a kinda late reply but i just read it. i always like to think that stayed together and got married and had a family and just basically lived happily ever after! hehe
my Mum thinks that Rose had a baby because of when Birdlace is in the bar across the street and they were saying about all the different Rose's that had been there and they mentioned about traing the granddaughter, i think they just meant Rose but i guess it coulda meant that they had a li'l baby? what does everyone else think??
i like how the movie ends cos it leaves it up to you and how you want to think it ends, but i'm glad he went back to her :)

[–] British--Babe 19 years ago

i don't think Eddie ever stopped loving Rose. he was acting all big in front of his friends, but came back to Rose because he loved her. I'd think they'd stay together etc...

"I'm not from these parts. From a little place called England-we used to run the world before you."

[–] akcarroll 19 years ago

I agree with British--Babe, I think he never stopped loving Rose. I just don't get why he threw her address away!

[–] MissMurphy 19 years ago

He threw away her address because he couldn't b.s. her.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] agonystar 18 years ago

I've always thought that too.

[–] proudhug 19 years ago

The beauty of the movie is that NOTHING happens after the hug. That's the end. In my mind they never stopped hugging, and continue to do so for all eternity. IMO, this is the best ending to any movie ever.

[–] mclukas 19 years ago

I think they fell in love, than he went off to war. She waited for his return, but he never did. Much like we'd all like to see another River Phoenix but know we never will.

[–] graemejsimpson-1 19 years ago

He's obviously out of the army with the limp though...

[–] Minchah2004 19 years ago

I really loved this movie. It was like reliving my own life in the '60s.

The key to the ending is in the clues given in the movie:

When Eddie and Rose leave the restaurant and Rose is sitting on the car..Eddie asks her:What are you grinning at?
Rose answers: I was just wondering what you would look like with your hair a little longer and without the bruise on your face.

When they are sitting in the playground on the swings... Rose asks Eddie: Will I get to see you somemore?
Eddie answers: I don;t know, you want to?
Rose says: Yeah.
Eddie says: Okay, Then I'll take you out as soon as I get back.

Throughout the entire movie we see how Rose is bringing out the softer side of Eddie. This softer side will bring about a change in Eddie's Marine buddies. Eddie would no longer be as much a part of that "brotherhood" as he was before he met Rose. Which is why Berzin has Eddie's Bee tatoo on his arm...he is getting it for Eddie. It symbolizes the link between the four "brothers" and Eddie's distance.

When they are on the bus Eddie feels the distance, but he also realizes that he is going to war and needs his "brothers" to survive. Berzin proves this by his protection of Eddie's back during the course of the evening. The bond is still there, but Eddie has to link himself back into the "brotherhood". So he sets aside the softer side by throwing away Rose's address. The tatoo of the four bees on Eddie is Eddie saying goodbye to the old Eddie, the one who no longer needs the "brothers". Eddie needs to get back to Rose in order to be complete.

Eddie is keeping his promise to Rose, that he would take her out just as soon as he got back from Vietnam

Notice also that Eddie's hair is longer and of course the bruise is no longer on his face.

To see how the movie ends listen to the Lyrics to the Young Rascal's Song "Groovin"

"We'll keep on spending sunny days this way
We're gonna talk and laugh our time away
I feel it comin' closer day by day
Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly . . ."

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] tuulieveliina 18 years ago

I loved that analysis, Minchah2004. Thank you so much for taking time to write it!

[–] jennifermarj 18 years ago

Minchah2004 that was incredible! I had noticed before that Eddie's hair was longer when he went back to Rose at the end of the movie. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I could watch it over and over without getting sick of it. I always thought Eddie and Rose stayed together at the end. After all those years away, he still obviously felt such a strong connection to her.

I think Eddie tore up Rose's address because he was in the company of his buddies once again and it wasn't "cool" for him to have something so sentimental. He was going off to war and, in a way, it was like he HAD to forget about her because it would've been too difficult otherwise.

[–] rc9-1 18 years ago

I totally agree jennifermarj!! Eddie coming back to Rose at the end proved his love for her, so it really didn't matter in the end that he tore up her address. Your reasons for why he did that make sense though. I like to think they stayed together too! But I also wondered once when I first saw that ending if Rose had moved on? I mean she probably never thought she would see Eddie again so what if she found someone else during that time? I guess we'll never really know because the ending was so ambiguous. In my imagination, Rose did find someone else while Eddie was gone but Eddie was able to win back her love and they ended up together! Gosh I love this movie!

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] jescci 18 years ago

Some of the more positive, romantic scenariors are too optimistic. I can see them getting together, even getting married, but not without problems. They have major political differences that we know of. And while people can and do change, they don't generally change all that quickly or all that much. Eddie is a guy very capable of being romantic and sentimental, but capable also of large mood swings. He's capable of cheating and cruelty. Characters in movies like this are toned down from real life. Rose's homliness another example. I can't see Eddie being 100% tolerant of her political passions, musical aspirations and probable weight gain. It's possible I suppose that he's a completely changed person from the one who left in 1963, but one brief scene of an explosion during active duty doesn't provide enough info.

You know me. I'm just like you. It's two in the morning and I don't know nobody.

[–] VCheerchic 18 years ago

I wondered too about what happened with them. I guess in a way I like how it leaves the ending up for your own interpretation, but a part of me would still like to know for sure. I would like to think that Eddie and Rose ended up staying together and getting married. I think they look cute together. I would have liked to hear him talk about the war, though, but I guess that is something that he got to do with Rose.

[–] Foot_Freakin_Master 18 years ago

Well, I just saw it. An sweet, almost bittersweet little movie. Not long and complex, but still poignant. Yes, I liked the characters and would have liked to had a little more development at the end. I guess you could say, though, that the ending did not complicate things, but left the after part to our own minds and hearts.

[–] TheBob67 18 years ago

Eddie returns to find Rose has moved on. Unable to reconcile this, and driven by the loss of his buddies, the destruction of his youth and the horrors he had witnessed in Vietnam, Eddie purposely overdoses on heroin and is lost to history.

Okay, I'm about to cry now.

The rub is it really could have ended that way. It did for so many people in real life, why not?

[–] lumet 18 years ago

I agree with everyone on this board that this is truly an underrated film. I saw the response above as to why he would have thrown her address away. I do like the fact, that his reaction when he gets back from the war, it that he has paid dearly for not holding onto it. He is disassociated and a little sadder when he gets back. He realizes that keeping in touch with her may have helped him get through the war a little better, But my question for everyone is... why does he throw her address away? Any thoughts?

[–] StairwayDenied 18 years ago

I just finished watching the movie on IFC (I missed the first 10 or so minutes though..oh well) and I absolutely loved it. That last scene was perfect.
The way I saw that scene, though, was that both Rose and Eddie had moved on. Or, this was the final push to help them both move on.
They both had to go through so much crap (all the feelings and opinions she had about war, politics, love - everything - and Eddie having to live through war, losing his friends and growing up) and each one helped the other to mature and become the person they were meant to be.
Rose helped Eddie see that there was more to life than the Marine Corps and being immature with his buddies. Eddie helped Rose live her life more - he opened her up to a world she had probably never seen before.
I think by the time Eddie got back from Vietnam, they had both used that night to help them mature as people. It wasn't about romantic love anymore - it was just about this relationship between two human beings.
I mean, at the end of the movie, they are both in a good place (kind of). Rose owns the coffee shop and seems very happy. Her appearance and manner suggest that she has grown into the kind of woman she wanted to be. She looks much more liberated, thanks (most likely) in part to that night she spent with Eddie.
Eddie, while he certainly doesn't look as happy as Rose, is definitely in a place where he can grow to be happy. After living through the war, he is obviously not as devoted to his 'brothers' and the Marines as was before. Everything Rose told him stayed with him and now he's realizing that he needs to make a change.
Someone was talking about the distance that was between him and his friends - I think now he can accept that distance and explore what he really wants out of life.
After this scene, I imagined them seperating, looking at each other with a very deep understanding, and then Eddie leaving.
I just think their connection was deeper than just romantic love.

I wish I could have been way more eloquent and concise but there it is, haha.

[–] diana_s_89 18 years ago

yea i saw the movie too on IFC yesterday it was such a beautiful movie it was amazing, and i really loved it, im not sure what would of happened after the end but it's hard to imagine for me but i do love the ending!!

[–] nmephoenix809 18 years ago

I think that the ending was just right.It leaves everything to the viewers imagination.I think that after they hug Rose just listens to him with no judgement in her responses.She was so pure when they met and he just needed to feel that again after all the evil he had witnessed.That maybe they don't live happily ever after with each other but that he can go on after losing his friends and youth.That she was just a sort of balance he needed after everything he saw and went through over seas.Then again the romantic in me wants them to live happily ever after and have kids and a wonderful life together.

About ripping up the address I think he did it because the last thing he wanted was to fall in love with Rose and her with him and then have something happen to him and hurt her so deeply.That maybe he thought being attached to someone would distract him from what needed to be down over there.Or he just thought that he would never see her again.