Spielberg's fatal flaw

Justin Kuhn

Justin Kuhn

Veteran
It seems like lately he can't end a movie for sh!t. Munich had about four endings, so did Catch Me If You Can, AI, MInority Report, and even Saving Private Ryan took a while to wrap up. To be specific with one of these examples, the best place to end Munich would have been when he's sleeping in the closet, trapped by his own paranoia--it brings things full circle and illustrates what the point of the story seems to be.

Sorry I had to bring this up again, I didn't get a chance to jump on the other thread. I've loved a bunch of Spielberg films, including the main aspects of the ones I brought up--but movies that just won't end get on my nerves.
 
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HappyGobo said:
But I loved Fight Club, and Se7en. Didn't see Panic Room, haven't seen Zodiac yet.
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I really like Fincher's film also, until the last five minutes. Some have been downright ridiculous...just watch THE GAME.
 
Haven't seen that either, but I'll definitely check it out. I know how Panic Room turns out, still wanna see it...Does The Game have the same sort of "twist" ending?
 
Billy Pilgrim said:
Man, the Lord of The Rings: The Return of the king had about 17 endings.
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That's the mother of all "just end it already!" movies... And the 1920's Joan of Arc... I was just saying to the screen... Just burn, already!... NOTE- you're supposed to be simpathetic with the character (dreyer fans don't crucify me...)...
 
I disagree about Spielberg, but in my eyes the man can do no wrong, so perhaps I'm not the best guage here.

Munich ended with the NY bridge shot (if memory serves, haven't seen it since release) which brings the story into the current day which was Spielberg's goal. It wasn't to come full circle, it was to come full circle and then leave an element of hope or a way out or whatever you want to call it.

Not liking the ending is fine, but I'd argue that Spielberg always knows what he's doing. He's not just standing around rolling the camera saying "Dang Janusz, how do we end this thing?"
 
I totally agree that SS has lost his ability to end a flick, but I think it's a "creative control" problem, not a Spielberg problem. These guys who become so big they get final cut almost invariably reach a point where they become so self indulgent that their later films lack the punch of their earlier masterpieces. I think the same can be said of Scorsese, Peter Jackson (happened fast with him), James Cameron, and the most egregious example, George Lucas.
 
Billy Pilgrim said:
Man, the Lord of The Rings: The Return of the king had about 17 endings.
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Yes, the happy hobbit frolicing got on my nerves so bad.

Hairy Lime said:
I totally agree that SS has lost his ability to end a flick, but I think it's a "creative control" problem, not a Spielberg problem. These guys who become so big they get final cut almost invariably reach a point where they become so self indulgent that their later films lack the punch of their earlier masterpieces. I think the same can be said of Scorsese, Peter Jackson (happened fast with him), James Cameron, and the most egregious example, George Lucas.
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I think you nailed it, although Lucas can still end a movie ok. But that's mostly because when you should never have started the film in the first place, who can tell? (EII, anyone?)
 
Was I the only one that didn't want LOTR: Return of the King to end? I was like, "It's over. I'm sad. Oh wait! It's not!" I do agree it had too many endings, but I didn't care. I didn't want that movie to end. It was one of the best epics I'd seen in a long time. All the others in the last few years haven't been that good.

As for SS, his endings have seemed OK to me. Munich ended not really bad, just different. I agree that the closet ending would have been cool.
 
MUNICH was a masterwork for the first 3/4 of its runtime ... but when Bana started boffing his wife as he imagined the airport "rescue" I realized Spielberg had jumped the shark.
 
Spielberg's fatal flaw is that he always feels the need to coddle the audience in the end, to pat them on the head and tell them that it's all okay. This is fine for some types of movies, like E.T., but not so fine for others. For me the only film of his that has a completely unsentimental ending is The Sugarland Express. While Munich had a dragged out ending, I felt it ended in the right place, it just took too long to get there...As far as Return of the King, yeah the film goes on for far too long, but it doesn't bother me because I can just shut the damn thing off after Aragorn is crowned and not feel like I've missed any of the story. Same goes for Schindler's List. As soon as the old fogeys start parading by with their rocks I turn off the flick.
 
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