How come there just arent anymore happy-ever afters?

[L&HH]

I was in that thread about best gangster/crime films of the last 5 years and I decided to watch two of the films listed as I was already going to check them out after seeing them on Richard Roeper's top ten movie list for the years 2011 and 2010. The movies were The Town and Drive.

Both these movies end with neither protagonist with the girl. I suppose in the case of The Town there's still a chance they could be together as she knows where he relocated to but its left to the imagination of the viewer. I'm not a movie buff but is the "open-ended" ending some new movie trend movie-makers are trying to use. Which type of endings do you guys prefer? (Im sure most are going to say open-ended)

 

[MidniteJay]

That's why I liked

Spoiler

A Prophet and 22 Bullets (w/ Jean Reno)

a lot.

Many gangster films have the main dude catching serious Ls in the end but those two go against the tide.

 

[Real]

Man i thought u meant the cartoon show tht came on hbo early in the morning.

Loved tht shyt...had black versions of all the fairy tales.

 

[L&HH]

Man i thought u meant the cartoon show tht came on hbo early in the morning.

Loved tht shyt...had black versions of all the fairy tales.

never heard of this, but I might check it out

 

[MBwithadream]

Maybe this will brighten your day

 

[WaveCapsByOscorp™]

i don't know about gangster movies specifically, but all i can say is that the technique itself is a post-modern approach. with that type of approach, outcomes and conclusions are relative instead of concrete and obvious. that's why you can have the "good guy" lose or not win, because in reality it doesn't happen that way, or better yet the perceived good guy doesn't always "win". the only problem is, most stories still have typical character assignments. like the protagonists and antagonists are still pretty clearly defined when the post-modernism style demands of an objective view of all characters. so when you look at a movie, the story is taking from both styles and adding the post-modern flare at the end, and you do feel a little cheated instead of feeling relieved...

 

[DaylitoJames]

Probably because in today's world there are really no more good guys/bad guys. Most "good guys" today are anti-heroes... not necessary good but you can root for him, because of that movies and shows end with the anti-hero having some kind of hazy non-clear ending where you don't know where they win or not.