I wish they could have stayed together. The script was great, IMO. I love this movie.
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The ending in the book was even more of a downer, the movie is more upbeat.
Don't Make Me Have to Release the Flying Monkeys!
It would have been nice to see them stay together, but going off to school was what she needed to do. Leaving the movie open ended like they did wasn't so bad in my opinion. It allows everyone to draw their own conclusions as to whether he ever saw her again or not.
Mecca
The Hollywood censors of 1965 would not have allowed it. We were still in the Civil Rights Movement, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was still two years away. I think Hollywood was scared off by the possibility of a Black man and a White woman having a long-term relationship. They took it as far as they felt comfortable with at the time.
You Can Lead a Horticulture, but You Can't Make Her Think!
I think you're right. But after she's had a few years' at school, and come
out into the world, things were changing, and we can imagine whatever we
want.
:) either way, I'm still mad they ended the movie there. I wanted Gordon to return the music box to Selina. I have something with interracial couples that makes me sooooooo mad when they dont get together in the end(thats why The Bodygaurd drives me insane whenever I watch it). :(...now im sad again...lol
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Yea can someone please tell me the ending of the book...or maybe I should just go and read it...(nah, too depressing)
shareWhen I saw the movie and he didn't get to return the music box, I took it as a sign that he would see her again. Because he had to return the music box to her- it was a reason to go see her.
shareThe ending is happier the way it is. She needs to go away to school to become an independent functioning member of society. She can always return to him after school.
If she stayed with him, she would just be dependent on him for the rest of her life. The novelty would wear off. She would get bored sitting around all day while he worked and he would get tired of her dependence and eventually resent her.
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It's been years and years since I read it so I can't remember the details completely but Ole Pa and Rose Ann work at a hotel as restroom attendents and there is lots of discussion on how much they hate that job. When Rose Ann and Sadie decide to move and set up a business they are going to be the madamns Selina is going to be their 'girl' they intend to 'turn her out' and make her prostitute herself. The place they are renting is in the black area and Selina is to cater to that clientel. The end is very downbeat, ends at the park where Selina and Gordan are trying to escape as in the movie Selina falls into the rose bushes only the people in the park think Gordan is attacking her and Rose Ann screams that is what he is doing and unlike in the movie people believe it and take out after Gordan. Gordan has to flee ane leave Selina behind but he still arranges for her to go to school and be rescued from the horrid life she lives. There is no farewell scene between them, no good byes, it ends with Gordan making good on his promise but the feeling that they will not see each other again.
Don't Make Me Have to Release the Flying Monkeys!
Wow that is a depressing ending. Thanks for the summary. This is one case where I'm glad the movie was changed from the book.
Mecca
Oh yeah. I'm so glad the ending was changed. Not sure if I could handle the stories ending...
shareI think it's very important that the story ends with Gordon sending Selina to school with no strings attached.
There are only 2 possible reasons why Gordon would want to help Selina.
1. He wants to help her out of goodness of his heart.
2. He wants to get into her pants as Mark would say.
If the story ends with them two running away together, there would always be a possibility that Mark was right.
If he loved her, he must set her free.
If you listen to the audio commentary on the DvD, you'll find out that the director left it open so you could assume that they continued this relationship. This makes me happy. I'm pretty sure they ended up together and continued their relationship while she was in school. I'm also certain that once she learned Braille, she would've read as much as she could. She seems the personality type to do that.
shareDirector Guy Green left the ending open -- only to an extent. Does anyone else find it significant that Gordon races down the stairs to return the music box Selina left behind, only to find he's too late and the bus has driven away? The film literally ends with him returning to his own life, with one prominent tie between the two of them (the music-box memento, loved by each for different reasons) loosened.
I love this movie unequivocally; but based on the evidence of the action, the above is how I read the ending. Green says in the DVD's audio commentary that Gordon will return the music box to Selina and they'll resume their relationship. Well, to sell that, the director should have had Poitier smile with resolve; as it plays, Gordon shows me wistfulness, regret -- and distance. Selina's future will improve. But Gordon, facing several realities, will step back and not try to be at the center of her life.
As Gordon told Selina earlier in the movie (more or less), "There are many different kinds of love, and most of them have nothing to do with marriage." He cared about her as a person and eventually as a friend, but I don't believe he was in love with her; and certainly not that they would "end up together." The unreturned music box, AND Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully expressive music -- which even reprises the music-box melody for final fade-out -- tell us that.
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Selina fell in love with Gordon because he was the first man who treated her as a "real person", and was nice to her. Lots of people fall in love with their psychiatrists the same way.
Gordon may have been in love with her, I didn't get that impression. His feelings may have been more paternal, than romantic. He felt a great deal of compassion for her, because of her circumstances and miserable life.
He was an educated man, as was his brother Mark. She was a nice, but ignorant, young woman... Perhaps after a few years of education, they may have had things in common to talk about (other than all the basic things she needed to be shown).
Had they ever really become a couple, it would've been very difficult for them. A white woman marrying a black man in the 1960s? HA! Sammy Davis Jr married a white Swedish woman, and there was no end of derogatory comments about her, even though he was famous, wealthy, and as a performer, very popular with white audiences. All they cared about was that she married an "N" word, and in their eyes, that made her even less than one! I heard it everywhere. And black women weren't exactly nuts about it either, believe it or not.
The only way Gordon and Selina could've made it through would've been if they'd lived in a black neighborhood, I guess, or hung out with the "Champagne liberals", society's literati who were supposed to be above such things.
I'm not sure what he did for a living, exactly - but it was white-collar, and although his workplace was integrated, who knows how marriage to a white woman would've affected his career? For many, it would've been a career killer (her studio, Columbia, went so far as to have Sammy Davis Jr kidnapped, to force him to stop seeing actress Kim Novak in the 50s. Studio boss Harry Cohn knew what news of the relationship would've done to her career!). Hard to imagine now, but things were very different a few decades ago.
I've known lots of people who could work with a black person and get along OK, even be friends, but would never let their sons or daughters or sisters, marry one. That was completely out of the question, for most people. Sad, ignorant, but true.
You don't generally hear someone say with repulsion, "Eeewwww! I could never have a relationship with a red-haired person [or a blonde, or a brunette]" - yet people still say that about someone with brown skin - and like hair color, it's only pigment!!!
Ooops - I do believe I'm proselytizing again!
I need a man, not a boy!
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I love the movie, too and it would have been a happy ending to see them together but I think he did the best thing. He gave Selina a chance to live and learn.
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For me at first it was a sad end but on second thought it was a promising and perfect ending. He ran through the stairs to give her the music box, but on finding the bus leave he stood there with a look in his eyes walking back into his house.
He wanted her to explore the world & learn on her own in the school which she deserved. For the positive thinking romantics like me, for that one moment in the end while holding the music box & looking at the bus leaving he must have known that he will give it to her personally at the school. That end definitely meant that he was sure they will be together in future once she spends a year at the school.
To say Hollywood studios played it safe might be true but i'm sure the movie couldn't have ended in a better way even if it was made in today's era.
Well, I think Gordon was a very determined person with strong views on race equality - I think he could take all the challenges of the prejudiced society in his stride once he was sure that Selina's love was pure and free of this prejudice. Which it was. So I'm all for the happy ending and their marriage after she leaves school :).
sharePlus people would be less likely to resent it considering she was blind. They would excuse it (to themselves) as pity and be ashamed to say anything.
shareSure he'll see her again. But there likely will be no marriage. Selina at 18 is too young for him under normal circumstances. With a developmental age of about 10 she's a mere child. The woman she will become will bear little resemblance to the child he knew.
shareShe doesn't have a developmental age of 10, in the medical sense. She's uneducated, isolated, and ignorant. But that doesn't mean that in school, she will be taught and progress to her natural potential.
So they could certainly marry.