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| Robert Ellis |
I'm often asked why I
ended THE DEAD ROOM the way I did. It's not exactly a clean ending. It's not
happy or sad, really. If I were to describe it without spoiling the novel, I'd
call it a surprise ending with the feel of extreme danger and an even greater
darkness.
The reason I mention it
is because a writer has a lot of choices in the way he or she chooses to end a
story. In my mind, the most complete and definitive ending is the so-called
"happy ending." Most stories, no matter what the medium, end this
way. Every story question has been answered, every loose end, tied up. The hero
has won, and the opponent dealt with to the satisfaction of everyone involved.
Order has been restored to the world. |
| Noah Cross and Jake Gittes in CHINATOWN |
But maybe as an artist
you don't want your story to really end. Maybe you'd like your work to linger
for a while longer in the hearts and minds of your audience. If you have a theme, and
most movies and novels written these days don't, if you have a theme and your story is about more than circumstance, maybe
you'd like to underline your message and make everything stand out.
 |
| A Masterpiece, CHINATOWN |
Dashiell Hammett's THE
MALTESE FALCON ends with his private detective, Sam Spade, still wrestling with
the big question. The woman he's fallen in love with murdered his partner out
of greed. Was it worth it? Why does it seem so pointless? The story might be resolved, but it ends in
shadows and darkness, even despair. It's a novel, and a movie, with an
unusually strong theme. Hammett is writing the book, not just to entertain his
readers for a few hours, but because he has something he wants to say.
If you haven't seen or
read THE MALTESE FALCON in a while, then think CHINATOWN, which ends in an even
greater darkness. The two stories share exactly the same theme as they peel
away the layers of a human being's desire for power and greed. Like Hammett,
CHINATOWN's Robert Towne and Roman Polanski, the writer and director, had
something they wanted to say. There's no way that a happy ending would do.
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