When it's bad it's good?

US films have an excess of happy endings.
Non-US films have an excess of unhappy endings.

US pre-eminence in distribution and influence in production is forcing some non-US filmakers to make (blatantly fake) happy endings.

I tend to like films with bittersweet or realistic endings (except romantic comedies, when happy endings are best).

Example of a great film with unhappy ending you fear but don't actually expect: "Paths of Glory".

Example of a great film with unhappy ending you do expect: "Boyz N the Hood".

Examples of "middle of the road" films I particularly appreciate: "Blade Runner"; "The Grapes of Wrath"; "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"; "The Crying Game".

fbaezer, I agree if the ending is totally syrupy, and you may be right about happy endings in the U.S. Part of the goodness and light image, I guess. Of course we know box office is most of it, good or bad.

Refresh my memory on Paths of Glory and the Crying Game. I've seen the others and appreciated them all with the exception of Blade Runner.

Viva Zapata was another excellent example of good/bad.

fbaezer,

I think this is a cultural thing. My wife is Mexican and this is a continual discussion in my family. I always leave the Mexican movies we see feeling depressed. "Amores Perros" effected my mood for days.

Even the romantic movies we have seen in Spanish always end in a dark, sad, hopeless way. I think it was "Como Agua para Chocolate" (this may have been from Spain) that ended when the lovers are burned to death the first time they can be together. My wife thought this was wonderful. I thought it was rather macabre. In any American version, these lovers would have escaped the fire at the last moment, run off and lived happily ever after.

Are these bleak harsh views of life any more real. I hope not.

I like to leave a movie feeling good. A little slightly exaggerated optimism isn't so bad in entertainment is it?"

letty:
"Paths of Glory": A French attack during WWI miserably fails. Officers decide to "teach their soldiers a lesson on bravery".
"The Crying Game": A repentant IRA terrorist falls in love with the lover of the kidnapped British soldier he guarded. There's a quite known "secret" about this movie.

"Viva Zapata" is a terrible movie, IMO.
When Zapata and Pancho Villa took Mexico City in 1914, Zapata said the presidential chair dhould be burned down. In the film, Zapata is made President of Mexico (he never was) and acts slightly like the dictator he helped overthrow. Aggghh!

ebrown_p:

Actually "Amores Perros" and "Como Agua Para Chocolate" are among the not-so-pessimistic Mexican films of the last decades.
Have you seen anything by Arturo Ripstein, one of Mexico's most famed directors? I have almost quit watching his depressing movies.
While there is, certainly, a cultural factor (and I'd say Americans are syropy, since most European and Asian films are much less optimistic), I must add that the Mexican "inteligentsia" is a lot darker than the Mexican public (they call it being "critical").
"Y Tu Mamá También" would have probably won an Oscar, had it been chosen by the Mexican Academy to represent our country. They chose "Perfume de Violetas", a story about raped teenagers I did not see.
The public also chose "Y Tu Mamá También", a local box-office hit, which "Perfume..." was not.

Hmmm, Fbaezer. It's been some time ago since I saw Viva Zapata, but I thought that he appeared as a hero atop a white horse at the end of the movie; The thrill of martyrdom.

Haven't seen Crying Game or Paths of Glory, but I'll search it out.

Sorry, I can't comment on eBrown's stuff, but if you both ever get the chance to see The Pledge, I just know that you'll agree with me on the ending.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0237572/

I don't know if one could interpret the ending of "The Crying Game" as bad as it's open ended.

"Viva Zapata" may be the primo example of revisionist history. I laughed at the ending.

The Director's Cut of "Blade Runner" most important element was the ending, instead of the tacked on footage borrowed from another film showing the happy couple driving off into the distance, one is also left with and open ended resolution.

I love "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and I wish your country had chosen it.

"The English Patient" Poignantly sad and thought provoking.

"The Days of Wine and Roses" Another open ended climax but you're certain she never sobers up.

"Swoon" The most effective presentation of the Leopold/Loeb murder and horrifying in its sadness.

Three men and one woman. I don't have a chance.

Passage to India, perhaps?

Well, Thelma and Louise doesn't exactly have a happy ending. Neither does Dr. Strangelove.

Right, Jes. I've forgotten Thelma and Louise, (remember they went on a crime spree or something) but Slim Pickens on the bomb, I remember. That's what I call a wry ending.

A Passage to India was both wonderful and depressing...

I loved Dr. Stranglove-- but that was too funny to be depressing.

I also found "The Mission" very powerful and moving. The conflict between each of the protagonists and the idealism of each made the movie.

Did anyone else see "Salaam Bombay"? It dealt with homeless orphans on the street in Bombay. It showed the complete hopelessness of the protagonists life. I am not sure if I am glad I saw this.