MovieChat Forums > The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009) Discussion > Meaning of the ending

Meaning of the ending

posted 14 years ago by sbarchak
2 replies | jump to latest

I think it is very clear that the movie has intentionally unlikely ending, with all the problems of the main character suddenly resolved, one after another,without any effort from him. And all this in last five minutes, when the whole movie before that headed in different direction,and in different pace.

First time I watched it I thought that this was his narcotic dream, since
the U-turn was after he takes drugs and falls asleep watching the game. But after seeing it second time,I think, that it was simply intentionally implausible happy ending, a plot device,to be a parody of whole "happy end" movie concept. Something like The Stoned Guest opera, that originally ends with all of the cast dead on the stage. The author was urged to rewrite the ending, because it was too dark, so in final version the whole cast miraculously get up alive and sing "Happy ending" song.

[–] jef-mead 14 years ago

I must admit, my own feeling was not that the story was a narcotic dream but rather a trip through purgatory. My view is that the character dies in the gaol trying to save the prisoner and that this almost redeems him sufficiently for heaven, but that he must go through additional suffering ( a 'port of call' )before attaining paradise....in an aquarium!!
Is heaven an aquarium?

[–] everlone_2000 14 years ago

I think it is very clear that the movie has intentionally unlikely ending, with all the problems of the main character suddenly resolved, one after another,without any effort from him.

The only thing that happens 'without any effort from him' is winning the money on the football game (although he had fixed this anyway). Other than that, he does the typical film noir thing of pulling order out of the chaos of his life. He gets in with the murderers, and uses that trust to gather DNA on the end of the crack pipe, which he then plants at the murder scene, ensuring an arrest. He also leads the hoods extorting money from him to the murderer's den (by going back to the apartment), and - having clocked the shotgun under the desk - moves himself out of the firing line. That intimidates the jerk with the beard into calling off his persucution.

It's not like good luck just suddenly falls on him - like Tom in Miller's Crossing he successfully outmaneuvers his problems through planning and foresight. It's just a bit bewildering because he always appears to be pretty smashed. That just places him in a long tradition of crime fiction characters who are controlling things to a much greater degree than they first appear.