Books/Movies that Need a Different Ending

[I.D.10-t]

Repo Man, after the first 10 minutes it starts to go down hill and gets worse.

"Johnny Got his Gun" and "Red Badge of Courage" I kept waiting for the main character to die, something along the lines of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They".

[mutepointe]

As for book endings - just about any Stephen King book after "The Stand". It's like he writes and writes and realizes "Hey, I'm at page 600, let's end it". The first one I noticed this way was "Pet Cemetary" and they just got worse from there on, to the point I've not read any of his more recent things.....
....And any of his put to film have been horrible except "Carrie".

The Dead Zone (The Movie, not the Series) translated well to film but that could have been because I'm a big fan of Christopher Walken. I liked him even before he was creepy.

[peeplj]

On the subject of Stephen King, and of favorite books in general:

Stephen King's "IT" is one of my favorite books of all time. The ending is bittersweet but nicely completes the story and each time I reread it, I miss both the book and the characters in it horribly when I'm done.

That's pretty much a mark of all of my favorite books: I feel that I come to know the characters in them as people, and I miss them terribly when the book is done.

I also like books that have a level of complexity such that you can't get everything that they have to offer in one reading. Each time you read, more and more opens up to you.

Together, these things explain why I love to reread a really good book.

I'm reading the Lord of the Rings now, for the thirty-something'th time. It feels like coming home, and it's good to catch up with Bilbo and Frodo and Strider and all the rest, it's like visiting an old friend to see what they've been up to since you've seen them last.

--James

[brianormond]

*Spoiler Alert* -Reading the critique below will reveal the ending of "The Abyss"
















-The hokey but suspenseful movie fell down at the end when the hero is saved by a gigantic, fibreglass alien vessel surfacing from the deeps, a too-convenient hail-Mary pass
to tie up plot elements in one fell swoop. A B-movie with a C-movie ending. Harrumph! It coulda been a contender.

[peeplj]

I liked the Abyss, but I think that if viewing for the first time now instead of in the theater, where I first saw it, I would also dislike the ending. The ending required the background of international politics and of ongoing shifts in our own government to provide the context that made it work at the time.

There really was a tendency for parts of our government to think that anything unusual, unexpected, or undesired had been set in motion by Soviet communists; also, at that time, everyone had a pretty recent memory of President Reagan talking rather seriously about the possibility of an attack by hostile extraterrestrial forces.

Placed in that context, the movie seemed very fresh, uplifting, and optimistic, and I enjoyed it.

--James

[Innocent Bystander]

Just watched a Bio-pic of General MacArthur. The Red Paranoia came across very well.

I've been re-reading Lawrences "Seven Pillars of Wisdom". I've been wondering what would have happened if Lawrence had failed, or if he had succumbed to his misgivings about the honesty of the British Government's professed policy, and told his Arab friends to forget about it.
This is less of a book needing a different ending and more of a history rewrite. If the Ottoman Empire had survived the First World War, what would the Middle East be like now? I don't imagine it would have survived the second. There might have been another "dress-rehersal" there, like in Spain.
Where would the borders be? Would there be an Israel? If there was, would they have any better relationship with their neighbours?

I like to think they might.

[cowtime]

When I saw the thread title Stephen King jumped to mind.
I agree Missy, so many seem to just abruptly end, whether there's an actual ending or not.

[dubhlinn]

"Miss Smillas feeling for Snow" by Peter Hoeg was a truly wonderful yarn but the ending is a total catastrophe.
Many years ago I remember reading a Dennis Wheatly thing which was either "The Devil rides out" or "To the Devil a Daughter" and after a huge chase up to the top of a mountain there was one page left and I wondered how he was going to write his way out of this predicerment. At the top, the baddy , just before the goody got there, dropped dead of a heart attack. Even Steven King would have blushed at that one.
Slan,
D.

[BrassBlower]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned "Marley and Me" yet.

[mutepointe]

My wife won't let me see Marley & Me at a theatre. I have to wait til it's out on DVD. I cried in LOTR (all 3) & Narnia (both), she is not about to deal with me at the theatre during this movie.

[CHasR]

My wife won't let me see Marley & Me at a theatre. I have to wait til it's out on DVD. I cried in LOTR (all 3) & Narnia (both), she is not about to deal with me at the theatre during this movie.

ah, hahaha...
allow me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUNJjIwlHk8

grab your kleenex mute

[Innocent Bystander]

"Miss Smillas feeling for Snow" by Peter Hoeg was a truly wonderful yarn but the ending is a total catastrophe.

I read the book. My wife went to see the film. She said "The first bit was good, but after she left the city it all fell to pieces."
I said: "Just like the book, then."

[Ceili_whistle_man]

'No country for old men'
One of the creepiest, coldest, evil killers in moviedom in Javier Bardem's character Anton Chigurh and a strong supporting cast, the movie reels along from one tension filled scene to the next.....but then....

SPOILER ALERT;



Tommy Lee Jones' character Ed Tom Bell is sitting at breakfast with his wife pondering retirement and a dream he had, he finishes talking about his dream and says "And then I woke up"...fade to black....end of movie....NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I thought you were going out to hunt down the killer!!!! I suppose there is always room for part 2.

[Infernaltootler]

Steven King has come up a lot. I'm sure I heard somewhere that unlike most authors who write a plan, he just sits down and writes it all out in one go - hence the rubbish endings.

As for No Country for Old Men - you've just put me off ever going to see it. I can't stand endings like that - see my post earlier aobut Atonement.

[Ceili_whistle_man]

Don't let it put you off tootler, it really is a great movie right up to that last scene.
I have never been so exasperated at the end of a movie like I was with this, I really felt cheated.