Screw happy endings

I dislike many of the mainstream Hollywood-produced films, not because of the obvious reasons, that they're made just for the sake of making more money and most are mass-produced junk, but the fact that Hollywood filmmakers favor happy endings and force them on the story even if the true story ends differently and they are usually extremely unrealistic. I often find films with unhappy or not happy endings better than their counterparts. Maybe I'm just a cynic.

I want to hear people's oppinions on happy endings, as well as discuss why happy endings are so popular in Hollywood.

Clichés are cliché.

That said, it's a movie. It's purely entertainment. :/ You just gotta find different movies!

i'm with you, Lacarus... not every story requires a happy ending... take Blade Runner for instance, a very dark dystopian story but because the year it came out there were a bunch of "Feel-Good Movies" coming out the financial backers made Ridley Scott change the ending from one that leaves you hanging to "they get away and live happily ever after"... obviously not my favorite ending, luckily in subsequent re-releases he changed it back to the sad/uncertain ending... i wish more american film makers would drop the "Happily Ever After BS", especialy where it dosen't fit the original mood of the film, and write better endings, the cookie cutter ending needs to go along with all of it's frosting...

For me, it depends on why I'm watching the movie. If it's just for entertainment purposes (which is often the case with movies straight out of Hollywood), then a happy ending is usually preferable because it helps get the movie "out of my system". Not in the sense that I forget it, it just keeps me from dwelling too much on it.

If I want something more out of a movie, whether it be intellectual stimulation or just to appreciate the beauty of a well-performed craft, the movie shouldn't have a happy ending crammed in just because. However, it's just as bizarre to me to put a sad ending just to make it more artistic or whatever. Let the story yield its appropriate ending instead of just trying to win a specific audience over.

It's not just the problem with endings. Main plots are becoming increasingly more and more shallow. Take the Mummy 3 for example. It's such a huge piece of Hollywood crap and I seriously wonder what type of person can enjoy something like that.

They should choose the ending that best fits with the film, not do one or the other for the sake of it. I personally like bad endings better, but not always. Like The Mist. That was so forced that it came off as silly instead of powerful.

I'm sure a lot of films get slapped with happy endings because of test audience reactions, though. Most people want an end to be gooey and full of ewoks, so that's what most movies will do.

For me i prefer an ending that simply feels justified, happy or sad doesn't really matter. This is just my opinion but for example i don't think the end of Donnie Darko is sad, just right.

If I want to feel :bou::bou::bou::bou:ty about existing, I'll go and watch the news. If I'm trying to escape, a happy ending tends to be a better choice. Especially if it's something I like, and I'm invested in the characters - if a character has gone through hell, acted right, and then gets screwed over at the end, I'm just going to feel like they've been unfairly treated, and I'll dislike the movie.

If the ending fits the tone of the movie, I could not care less if it was happy or not. Naturally, it is naive to think that everything always works out in the end but only a stupid person would take a movie that seriously.

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Originally Posted by Noctiluca

They should choose the ending that best fits with the film, not do one or the other for the sake of it. I personally like bad endings better, but not always. Like The Mist. That was so forced that it came off as silly instead of powerful.

I'm sure a lot of films get slapped with happy endings because of test audience reactions, though. Most people want an end to be gooey and full of ewoks, so that's what most movies will do.

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This happened to I Am Legend.

I have to agree with pretty much everyone here. The ending should satisfy the natural development of the rest of the plot.

Happy endings make people feel good!

Howl's Moving Castle and Disney movies such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast are my favorite movies, because they make me feel happy. If they didn't have happy endings, they wouldn't make me feel happy!

I love "happily ever after!"

Apparently the weather man is the funniest movie ever because you expect it to end well and then it is just like ... cut off.

I like movies.

I go to movies to have fun. And they're only two-ish hours long and that's not a whole lot of time to get to connected to the characters (for me anyway) so I like my movies to have nice endings that leave feeling all warm and fuzzy.

As most have said, the natural ending is the best. I generally hate good endings when it feels like some Deus Ex Machina appears and everything just magically fixes itself. On the other hand, I don't care for bad endings when its predictable.

I prefer dramatic endings that catch me a bit off-guard and can be interpreted in many different ways. Cowboy Bebop, Blade Runner, and Pan's Labyrinth are wonderful examples. But :bou::bou::bou::bou:ty endings that are a bit predictable are annoying, especially since this usually is a sign the film was bad overall. End of Evangelion and Requiem for a Dream are fine examples. :roll2

I don't care for fairy tale ending unless I'm watching something I know should have one like a Disney film or a comedy. I guess I have a bias against happy ending's cause it feels completely unrealistic to me. Its more believable to watch an intergalactic war between humans, aliens, demons, and demigods riding my little ponies than it is for everything to come together and have a "happily ever after" for everyone involved. I don't know why, but I usually don't accept endings that end on a completely good note.

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Originally Posted by Bunny

If the ending fits the tone of the movie, I could not care less if it was happy or not. Naturally, it is naive to think that everything always works out in the end but only a stupid person would take a movie that seriously.

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This. I just watched No Country for Old Men today and I'm pretty pleased that they didn't try to wrap up everything neatly because it wouldn't have worked for the material at all. I also agree with Pan's Labyrinth being cited as an example of a film with an excellent ending.

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

If I want to feel :bou::bou::bou::bou:ty about existing, I'll go and watch the news. If I'm trying to escape, a happy ending tends to be a better choice. Especially if it's something I like, and I'm invested in the characters - if a character has gone through hell, acted right, and then gets screwed over at the end, I'm just going to feel like they've been unfairly treated, and I'll dislike the movie.

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Sad endings are more moving but sometimes they really make me sad :(

Honestly, I must confess that the title misled me quite a bit. At first I thought it might be an irony against "happy endings" as in a massage, with "screw" being the insult but adding hilarity because it a double entendre usually used to mean sexual intercourse, e.g. "I screwed that chick last night. You know, the one from the pantry?" "That was a vacuum cleaner."
Anyway, I think happy endings are used in most movies nowadays because of the child inside. Imagine yourself a child, and reading a story book about Batman that ended with Batman being ripped in half by the Joker and the Joker takes over Gotham City. You most likely wouldn't read Batman comics anymore, would you? It is about appealing to the good nature of humans, so as not to have riots, people burning movie theaters, et cetera.
Think about the movie The Princess Bride. The boy kept interrupting the story with suggestions about improving the story, and objections to what has happened so far, because he thought these things "just shouldn't happen" and that it couldn't be possible. It makes people upset to think about things that aren't happy. It makes people feel better at the end of the movie, like in the movie Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. At the end, (SPOILER)you think they die, but they actually escaped and went to a ball game.
It just gives a good feeling at the end of the story that makes you appreciate more what happened. Purely psychological.

I try to stay away from heavily marketed movies that are geared towards the mainstream audiences because quite often they're not as good as films that you can see at film festivals and/or select theaters. What annoys me is not so much the cliche happy endings most of them have, but the fact that some people assume that just because it's number one in the box office, it's worth seeing and a great movie. Most movies in the top five in the box office are horrible. I mean Fast and Furious is number one right now...just food for thought... I recommend watching some Godard, Truffaut, Hitchcock and John Cassavetes films.