Journeys and Destinations

[thehefner]

There's an old Hollywood axiom that warns, "Movies are about their last twenty minutes," which is pretty much a direct rebuttal to the great writer's mantra, "It's the journey, not the destination."

So, questions, my lovely flisters:

Ever seen a brilliant movie or read an awesome book that was ruined by its shitty ending? For me, it was THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG. A magnificently moving tragedy utterly destroyed in the last fifteen minutes by the tacked-on subplot that served to do nothing but be an excuse to force everything to go to shit, because oooh, that's so literary!

Conversely, ever seen/read anything that was made--or even salvaged--by a great ending? Even if the first half or more was tedious, boring, awful, painful, did the ending at least make you forgive the story, if not outright love it? A couple examples of movies with much better second halves that come to mind for me are THE SPANISH PRISONER and KISS OF THE SPIDER-WOMAN. Has this ever happened to you? With what?

Your answers just might make it into the new monologue I'm composing. I'm actually considering maybe trying to do this as a podcast or a multi-part web video, trying to expand my creative horizons. Assuming I can find a sound/video editor to help me out.

Comments

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

Sleepaway Camp. Dear sweet lord.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Presumably you mean a great ending, right? Shit, that might well be the only shitty movie saved by its last fifteen seconds.

[civilbloodshed.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, definitely. I watched it at a party because it was bad enough not to get people too interested, but my God as soon as the reveal was on screen everyone in the room stopped what they where doing and starred in horror. I think it counts as a double surprise twist, actually. I mean, 1.) it's a good twist story-wise, and 2.) jfc I did not expect such a scary ending from such a bad movie.