... i'm so confused! Did the boy's father(sorry i forget all the names) die at the ending? I thought he died when he collapsed under the rocks.. but then they brought him up in the elevator and showed him at the dinner table at the end. So did he die or did he live?
shareHe did die in the mines. At the end, Huw was just remembering back when the whole family was together.
"I don't even own A gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack..."
Its a John Ford trademark utilized in several of his movies to show a divided family whole again
It is not our abilities that make us who we are...it is our choices
The only reason I assumed it was any different is that the father is walking w/a cane in the last "scene" - & I never saw him w/one in the movie.
Those who study history are doomed to watch others repeat it.
And how about the daughter - did she marry the priest in the end or not?
sharehullo mgtx3. thank you kindly for asking this question and to others for answering as i was unsure about the fate of the father as well!
cheers!
Didn't the mother say something about "seeing" her husband with her departed son? This is the shot right after the father dies in the mines. I thought that indicated that he for sure died, but she is a bit hard to understand.
shareThe mother said something like she felt her husband's presence and he was telling her he had experiencing something glorious - in other words he was now in Heaven.
Yes the father definately died and while the ending was very moving, it did leave several stories unconcluded. Did the sister really leave her husband? Was she really planning a divorce? Will the preacher leave town and/or the minstry? And does Hew stay a coal miner and go on to a new life. It would have been great if these questions were answered.
imo, the ending was very nicely done.. the dad died, and the mum having spend all her life with him, said she felt his presence and he was happy in heaven with her 1st born. that scene is all the better because she didnt know that the dad has already died.
the final scenes were shots of flash back and how the kid wants to remember his valley (the sister being happy with the priest).
they didnt explain why he was leaving the valley in the begining of the story and watever happened to the other members of the family(those who went to america, the sister in law, the mother, the sister) but i suppose its up to interpretation..
the way i look at it, the kid stays there for many more years, immediate families has passed on, he has nothing left in that valley, so he's moving on. after all, everything he needs and loves about that valley is with him(his memories).
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I've always thought the reason Mr Gryffud gives Huw the watch is because he can't marry Angharrad, and will not marry anyone else, therefor he will never have a son to pass it to. Giving it to the brother of his beloved is as close as he will get to passing it on to a family member.
It is not our abilities that show who we truly are...it is our choices
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First of all regarding Angharrad and Father Gryffud, I agree the scene where he gives Huw the watch, including the reference that the watch was given him by his father, indicated a resolve to not only not marry Angharrad, but never get married.
The problem I have with it as a practical matter is the sermon in the church shows how his sacrifice benefitted no one. Not the town in general, for sure, and not him or Angharrad, who was left instead to a life of leisure, but also an unhappy marriage.
Anyway, the part I do not understand about the ending is what the father intended to do and did when he went down in the mines for the last time, and what connection it had to chapel and what he thought was going on there.
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As for Morgan, i felt the film implied he had some particular mission in mind when he did not go to chapel. It may have been merely my misunderstanding the film at that point.
My previous post did not question the extent to which Gryffud may have considered his decision to be noble. I merely pointed out it did not benefit anyone, whatever his own view of his motives.
He didn't have a mission in mind. He was disgusted with the dirty-minded, judgmental churchmen who assumed his daughter was having a tawdry affair. He had to go to work, on the night shift, and was basically saying that, if they decided to punish his daughter for something she hadn't done (as they had done to the woman Angharad defended earlier in the film) he would never go to chapel again. The minister verbalized what Morgan was feeling but could not express, when he lectured the congregation.