Your take on the ending? (spoilers)

The film is magical realism--reality and fantasy woven together until it's difficult to tell them apart. I liked the ending. It's quite literally a deus ex machina (a god out of the machine). This is a literary device. When the hero's life is in danger, a deus ex machina comes out of nowhere to save him. It's usually frowned upon as lazy storytelling but I think it works well here considering the world this movie creates. It's also played for humor so that helps.

In my opinion--the scene (and really the whole movie) is supposed to be a metaphor for failure. Norville experiences extreme and sudden success quickly followed by extreme and sudden failure. Failure can lead to utter despair (hence Norville's urge to jump out the window) but before he hits the ground (i.e. rock bottom), he realizes that failure is a learning opportunity and a chance for growth (hence his ultimate survival). It's actually a very beautiful--and apt--metaphor.

I loved this movie. I almost started to cry at the end, especially with that gorgeous music in the background.


A young girl passes / in a hurry. Hair uncombed. / Full of black devils. --Kelly Link

I find the best way to view the hudsucker proxy is as a throwback to films like his girl friday or citizen kane. because although it is set in 58-59 its more set in the "movie world" of 58'-59.That is why i think the angel works. His halo is really crappy and he appears to almost come down on a wire. i think its supposed to "feel" like it was shot in the 50s. The reason the ending is not a hallucination or a dream is because this ending is plausible in the films setting. From the opening scenes of the newspaper "finding" tim robbins. Its supposed to be magical. This is not barton fink you dont need to think that heavily into the film.

and how about the scene in which a fat man runs full speed into a plexiglass window and cartoonishly sticks to it for a good ten seconds? i guess thats a bit more realistic.

The 'angel' part was a (small) bit unsatisfying for me. I did like the halo-hoop, being it a succes up above :)

I would have found it better if Norville had discovered the blue letter himself, and not being able to go back through the window, proceeded to the clock where he would be let in by the clockkeeper. A bit more realistic...

But all in all, I enjoyed this movie very much, including the angel :)

I took it as reality. Most Coen films have some sense of magic to them. They don't take place in what we know to be reality strictly speaking. There are things which are unexplainable but I believe that within the film's reality they are truth. That goes doubly for films like Hudsucker and Fink as they are already overplaying the cartoonishness of the world the movie is set in. So I think that Barnes really did jump and Moses really did stop time with the broom handle.