When most people go to the cinema, they go with the expectation that they will be thrilled, moved or entertained before the film arrives at a suitable conclusion which more-or-less resolves the primary scenario in a satisfying manner. Sometimes filmmakers, either through ineptitude or brazen daring, flout this convention, and deliver what is typically known as the “anti-climax”, whereby little in way of a solution or cathartic purge is provided for the viewer. While many films are ambiguous, these specific examples – either good or bad – clearly build up to some sort of a grand finale, only to completely betray it in favour of something else, much to either the amazement, or more often, the disdain of viewers everywhere.
1. No Country for Old Men (2007)
No Country for Old Men was one of the most heavily anticipated films of 2007, and with absolutely good reason, given that it came from the brilliant minds of the Coen Brothers, adapting Cormac McCarthy’s legendary novel of the same name. It featured an all-star cast, a winding, engrossing plot, and some fairly wily tricks on the part of the Coens which are either going to make you love the film even more or totally hate it. Note how Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), the protagonist of the piece, not only dies ahead of the climax, but is killed off-screen; I firmly recall hearing groans from the other audience members as I watched it in the cinema. But it gets worse…
At the climax, the villainous Anton Chigurh, who has been in pursuit of a large sum of money for the entire film’s duration, escapes virtually scot-free (minus a broken arm from a car accident), while Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Ed Tom Bell simply retires, lamenting how he is no longer for this violent, harsh wilderness, being one of the titular “old men”, as it were. With little more than that, we glance at Bell’s face one more time, before the Coens cut to black and the film is over. While more savvy viewers might note how the Coens seemed to intentionally toy with convention and challenge our visceral need to see a bloody shootout climax, it didn’t go over particularly well with all viewers, even if it still garnered the Academy Award for Best Picture.
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14 Comments
Great article, Shaun, although Josh Brolin doesn’t die halfway through NCFOM – he dies at around 100 minutes, with just 20 minutes to go.
Corrected, thanks T.J.!
I thought the end to Superman Returns was very ant-climactic (some might say the whole movie).
Interview with a Vampire was somewhat strange in that you know the narrator (the vampire) obviously does not “die”. When he is then confronted by Tom Cruise character at the end it seems again odd that it does not result in a confrontation but a musing about their lives.
Crimson Tide with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington seemed a bit anticlimactic despite a great deal of drama throughout the middle portions of the movie.
Honorable mention (from an older film) The Entity in which a ghost is haunting a woman. The movie ends with a group of scientists trying to trap and freeze the ghost. It is frozen and then it breaks free and that the end.
No Country For Old Men is my favorite film of all time because of the ending. For me it was extremely climactic in a different kind of way and chokes me up every time I watch it. The ending, and events leading up to it, drives home the point that the film wasn’t about the chase. It was about a man coming to terms with aging and death and not being able to do his job anymore. The chase that the story revolves around is merely a device that embodies everything that Sheriff Tom Bell has combatted in his life, and it has become too much. The evil, the pure evil embodied by Anton Chigurh, the innocents that fall victim to this evil, those who get in over their heads embodied by Llewelyn Moss, and those who try to profit from such dealings are familiar to the Sheriff. He enters each horrifying scene as if he were going home, but every man has, if not a breaking point, then a stopping point. This is reached when Llewelyn Moss is found murdered. This is the moment he realizes he’s had enough, he’s seen enough evil, enough innocents fallen victim, comforted enough grieving family members. Anton Chigurh is not stopped, just briefly slowed because evil will never be stopped, it can only be slowed. The film is bookended with the Sheriff’s musings on aging and death and it is in a language that, I don’t want to say uniquely American, but uniquely rural. The Sheriff’s voice isn’t one of a highly eloquent man which is why it is so beautiful, these bookend monologues in the film are infused with a poingancy through the simplicity of the language – “I always liked hearing about the old timers…and never missed a chance to do so.” “A man’s gotta be willing to put his soul at hazard…he’d have to say…ok…I’ll be a part of this world.” In the beginning of the film we’re looking outward into the world of the Sheriff, looking for answers, by the end of the film we realize there aren’t any out there. At the end of the film we’re shown the Sheriff, he shares with his wife and the audience his dreams, they are cryptic images of the unknown, there he sees his deceased father there who carries fire, his father rides on ahead of him to make a fire and the Sheriff knows that he’d meet his father again soon. The Sheriff finishes his story, a shade of fear and uncertainty saturates his calloused face and we are given a glimpse to where all of the answers are – not outward, but inward.
LOVED your comments. It was incredibly deep and insightful. I’ve always found this to be a pretty deep film, but you nailed it right on the head.
What about the horror film Saw? I felt the first in the many sequels was pretty anti climatic cause the whole time the “dead guy” turned out to be Jigsaw, the master mind behind the whole thing. Nevertheless, to watch Jigsaw get up and walk out not only made my sister and I upset, but we never watch the following sequels after that.
As far as The Matrix, I think you have to be a sci-fi aficionado to really understand what happened throughout the 3 sequels
Cool Runnings………
Yes, I am still pestering you for a “view all” option. It would behoove you to make your site more user friendly.
The ending of this year’s ‘The Grey’ certainly vexed a lot of people. Personally, I think it’s a perfect ending.
As for ‘The Village,’ I knew the “big twist” about thirty minutes in. Unfortunately, once you know it, the rest of the film just becomes ludicrous.
The end of War of the World is TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!
Rule #1 of space travel = take your atmosphere with you.
We’ve only been to the moon, but we know that we have to take oxygen with us. If these aliens were so advanced, not to mention the fact that they had been here before to BURY THEIR SPACESHIPS, you think they would have figured out that they’re not used to our atmosphere.
Also, how is Boston not completely destroyed, but the aliens were in the suburbs exploring every single basement earlier in the film?
It’s a completely BS ending.
STILL MAD about The Village. I was riding on a train a few years ago when I caught it. The STUPIDEST ENDING EVER.
The Village could’ve been soooo much more. Shamhammer should’ve made the “present” be the year 2100 or more…a crazy 30 second sweep of a world gone Blade Runner would’ve made bricks be shat. It should’ve ended with Ivy finding out the truth of The Village without knowing what happened to Lucius.
The Village might be one of my all-time favorite movies. Beautifully made, beautifully scored, beautifully acted. The twist isn’t important–it’s the characters. It’s like a modern fairy-tale. Wonderful film.
Terry Jones wasn’t Lancelot. John Cleese was.