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Let's Get Real About What Happens After the End

posted 2 years ago by Harlyville (24)
13 replies | jump to latest

The movie makes it clear as they run off into the night that they are going to act on their attraction at some level, and I don't think a discussion of the consent laws is going to be included. Alana is lovestruck after her kiss and will follow Gary wherever he wants. The Handman certainly has no incentive to hold back. Alana might well have something to ponder the next day, but that night is going to about passion. No review or discussion group really addresses this, but it seems rather obvious. Thoughts?

[–] stickman38 (3347) 2 years ago

Their age difference does raise a few questions but this was the 70s, people didn't care about older/younger relations as much as they do today.

And it was even less concerning when it was older woman/younger guy.

[–] Towelie_Towel (1773) 2 years ago

It's something that happened, and I'm pretty sure still happens today to some extent.

[–] stickman38 (3347) 2 years ago

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[–] stickman38 (3347) 2 years ago

Sure it still happens today. In fact, occasionally I'll see a young girl at the mall or theater holding hands with an older guy. Personally, it doesn't bother me that much.

Back in the day, I knew at least 6 or 7 girls in high school that were sleeping with older guys. It was just a different time in history. And I would imagine this still happens today.

We just have a greater tendency to hit the panic button now days.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Paul Thomas Anderson knew what he was doing with the age thing.

He was creating controversy and taking Licorice Pizza into "the art zone."

Had Alana and Gary been the same age, we'd have had a fairly typical "teen romance" with better writing and acting.

But PTA was making sure his movie had an edge of "disturbance," even though it made the case -- in scene after scene -- that these two "belonged together" (at least for now, at least on the evidence of their compatibility) and that we have to consider just how powerful a force love is.

Here's something to consider: who is to say that Gary and Alana had sex after "The End"? They'd hewed closely to their "we're just friends" vows for a long time; they only need to stay celibate for two more years. Lots of "kids" did that in the 70's. Certainly religious ones(and Alana's family in the film is certainly religious.) How exactly does the law prosecute underage sex, anyway? Usually, the parents pressed charges. Likely Alana's parents(that tyrannical dad) WOULD press charges, so it is in the interest of Alana and Gary to "keep it chaste" for a couple of years. Kissing isn't prosecutable.

But the movie stresses, over and over and over, two things: (1) Gary is much older than his age -- "the man of the house"(dad is gone), a breadwinner(the acting and then his schemes), a loving caretaker of his brother and (2) Alana is much YOUNGER than her age -- as one critic noted, it looks like neither she nor her (fictional) older sisters have avoided "failure to launch." They all crowd together on the same small couch in the same small room and watch TV, and dad STILL questions Alana about "where's she been" even though she is ...25!

So a boy older than his years, and a girl younger than HER years...meet in the middle.

I also like to point out that I believe, even in 1973, if the pair wanted to "do it without prosecution," they could move to another state where the age of consent is lower.

[–] Harlyville (24) 2 years ago

The age of consent in Nevada is 16. Problem solved! But realistically, no one cares and no one is paying attention, including Gary’s mom and Alana’s sisters. They seem to accept things as is, and are content to let the couple sort it out. No one is asking any probing questions.

My earlier point was that by the end of the movie they are a couple as they see it, and will act accordingly. It probably won’t last, but any ambiguity over how they feel about each other is behind them and there is no turning back.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

The age of consent in Nevada is 16. Problem solved!

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There you go. Right next door to California and we hear that Gary's mom (and he) do PR business in Las Vegas.

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But realistically, no one cares and no one is paying attention, including Gary’s mom and Alana’s sisters. They seem to accept things as is, and are content to let the couple sort it out. No one is asking any probing questions.

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True -- and though Alana's father seems to be an old world protective tyrant, her older sister Danielle is a wonderful presence in the movie, pushing FOR a Gary-Alana romance and (in the old movie tradition) telling Gary in the climactic scene to "go get Alana!"(if not in so many clichéd words.)

We never saw the scene, but the father approved Alana going to NYC to "chaperone" Gary, so he probably saw Gary as " a kid to be babysat." What adjustments the father would have to make....well, that's for after "The End."

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My earlier point was that by the end of the movie they are a couple as they see it, and will act accordingly. It probably won’t last, but any ambiguity over how they feel about each other is behind them and there is no turning back.

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And it is a very happy ending(trained singer Alana Haim has a very beautiful voice, and her words "I love you, Gary" at the end are sweet and heartfelt indeed) and I believed these two would now play things out indeed. The sex angle is almost irrelevant; if they did it, that's between them.

I always figure that even if you aren't with someone for your entire life, you STILL get a "happy ending" when someone falls in love with you...and if that leads to a SAD ending when you break up..oh well, there's another love ahead, another happy ending after that one ends. And then maybe another. And another...

So "Licorice Pizza" has a very justifiable happy ending, and PTA neatly sidesteps the age issue by placing it in the context of friendship, business partnership, compatibility and love, over sex matters.

[–] Harlyville (24) 2 years ago

If Alana’s sisters are in on it, their mother probably knows as well. The only thing her father could do about it is report his own daughter, highly unlikely. As a minor, Gary is not culpable.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

If Alana’s sisters are in on it, their mother probably knows as well. The only thing her father could do about it is report his own daughter, highly unlikely. As a minor, Gary is not culpable.

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And there you go. I forgot that Gary wouldn't be culpable in all this, and indeed, the parents would have to move against the daughter in a legal manner, and why would they?

Left unsaid is if the father would forbid Alana to date Gary, but he's already allowed the business partnership to go on and on(to NYC, to the Hollywood agent, to the waterbed company, to the political campaign)...he may be more bluster than real controller.

Movies today often run into the "red herring buzzsaw" of contrived internet outrage, and Licorice Pizza well survives against charges of underage sexual exploitation, or grooming, or any other like analysis.

Gary goes after Alana...so the younger person is the "predator." But there's infatuation there, love at first sight. Alana lays down the law(literally) from the beginning of the relationship, but it is clear from the get go that she feels love for Gary, too. ONLY the age thing is a barrier to what is real for them. The film constantly sets up jealousy as measure of love: Gary forlornly watches Alana on a hand holdling date with Lance; Alana forlornly watches Gary kissing an age-appropriate old flame; Alana(in a deleted scene) unleashes jealous fury on Gary for his (alleged?) hand man requests of a prettier girl than Alana. Gary fearlessly positions himself at a table across the one where Alana is flirting up old movie star Jack Holden. And on and on it goes, as we watch Gary and Alana with "all the wrong people" and wait for them to do the right thing.

[–] BeaSouth (3298) 2 years ago

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[–] Harlyville (24) 2 years ago

I have noticed several instances of female reviewers and even Alanna Haim herself trying to convince themselves and others that the ending is not leading to the obvious: that Gary and Alanna are going to have a fully-realized romantic relationship, if only for that night.

I think this desire to rewrite the ending is because they closely identify with Alanna, but at the same time view Gary as a bit of a dork (as well as a 15-year old kid) and are resistant to the idea that those two are off to explore their romantic love. So they are trying to convince themselves the ending means something else, such as they are just really good platonic friends. But I think the kiss and “I love you Gary” speak for themselves as they run off together into the night. PTA certainly has not supported these alternate interpretations.

[–] liscarkat (18410) 2 months ago

It's hard to imagine for people today who weren't around back then, but at the time the movie was set it just wasn't a big deal. When I was in my early twenties I went out with a few mature girls who were fifteen and sixteen (I made no attempt to become sexually involved with them.). Nobody, including their parents, thought anything about it. It's much more recently that society has got its knickers in a bunch any time an adult speaks to a minor.

[–] agentalbert (3090) 11 days ago

Yep. It's this modern generation nyah-nyah-boo-boo that seems to have in their head they are supposed to finger wag and loudly call out every infraction or deviation from their modern norms they see. Can't ***ing stand these people.