MovieChat Forums > Down in the Valley (2005) Discussion > THE CLIMAX. NOT FITTING WITH THE MAIN CH...

THE CLIMAX. NOT FITTING WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER !!

posted 16 years ago by Serpico1988
13 replies | jump to latest

overall a "good" film.. but, WTF !!! Seriously the end was one of the worst final acts I've seen on screen. I saw it at night & woke up the next morning; thought about it.. and recollected the characters of Harlan & Tobe; and then I thought about the way he was killed off... basically the last 30 minutes , from the point where he shoots Tobe and thereafter coaxes her brother to leave with him, to the point where Wade shoots him dead. I don't believe that was a suitable way to end his character. Sure finish him off..Fine. But God ..! really if they had made an emotionally intense film, they should have ended his character in the appropriate manner; take his role into consideration, and maybe you'd realise that, the spiritual aspect of Harlan was lacking toward the end. They could have made the ending more powerful by , maybe letting Tobe and her brother leave with him.. & done a heavily scripted scene where Harlan talks to Tobe about life, the direction his life was taking, maybe talk a little about his supposedly dark childhood, and why he was so into being a cowboy, and then maybe they should have killed him off by letting the young boy kill him.. or Tobe kill him herself.. OR Harlan trying to teach Tobe how to fire a gun, but at the same time they shouldv'e made the scene more grippingly sad .. by something like...Harlan wanting Tobe to set him free.. Now that !! That would've been the ideal climax for a character of his sort.
It was such a huge letdown, seeing Harlan trying to rid the boy of his fear of the dark... and then doing the almost action packed routine --running around Midwest America ..and getting shot at the end. That didn't fit together at all with everything that had transpired prior to that.

I was expecting a rather substantially darker romantic ending, with more dialogue ..and focused more on the relationship between Tobe and Harlan.. the boy was annoying anyway, not to mention the fact that it became almost a chase movie.

6/10 because of Ed Norton and Evan Rachel Wood's and the story overall.. however I take off 4 because..well the ending was so terrible.

Danny Vinyard: Hate is baggage.

[–] gtimm2003 16 years ago

I disagree I think that was a good ending from a father protecting his family point of view, they couldn't have Tobe and her brother get involved with killing him because they were set up as these innocent kids that Harlan came and interfered with. In the establishment of the film they establish the father as being not a very good father who has no involvement with the kids other then feeding them and housing them, the father killing Harlan was him stepping up as their father

[–] Serpico1988 16 years ago

Yeah, but if you take the entire movie into consideration, the father can be seen irrelevant; he's not the point of the story; it's about our protagonist -Harlan and even though that's true, the writer just totally screwed up his character by presenting the overly cliched' climax, not to mention it was terribly written as well.

Plainview: I'm gonna bury you underground, Eli.

[–] marthalorusso 16 years ago

I didn't like how it ended, too.
I liked all the movie, but I expected a more ambiguous ending.

The characters were complex ones. And the end was like black-and-white/Harlan bad-the father good, and I don't think that things were that simple.

As gtimm said, Wade has no involvement with the kids, Lonnie has a conection with Harlan, and not with W., and that's because he's an absent father (at least absent, because you even can smell some fear in the kids of the father).

Harlan is obviously disturbed, but I can't see him as the classic villain.
The story could have had a twist, where these two characters where exposed as what they were not that good, not that bad none of them, despite Wade was protective at the end, that not means he is the hero here, he was a terrible father, and Harlan needed help, and he could have found it, maybe Tobe could have saved him in any way.

The end made me feel weird.

[–] Serpico1988 16 years ago

"The story could have had a twist, where these two characters where exposed as what they were not that good, not that bad none of them, despite Wade was protective at the end, that not means he is the hero here, he was a terrible father, and Harlan needed help, and he could have found it, maybe Tobe could have saved him in any way."

That would've made the film a little more optimistic and lighter ..not that there's anything wrong with that. I too, prefer an ambiguous climax.. hmm, interesting stuff.

Plainview: I'm gonna bury you underground, Eli.

[–] kaunte 16 years ago

I agree, what a horrible ending. They were getting all emotional, releasing Harlan's ashes and all, but all I kept thinking was "This guy shot an innocent girl, kidnapped a small boy, and got gunned down by the law, and now I'm supposed to be feeling sorry for him?"

"Be it a grain of sand or rock, in water they sink as the same."

[–] jamesericmcgee 16 years ago

I think the special features or the commentary track said that Norton and his friend had a friendly competition to wright and/or direct their respective first features along the lines of the Jessie James stories. The Assassination Of Jessie James By The Coward...is really the same Greek tragedy by Norton's friend. They examine what happens with the work associates, friends, and loves of an Outlaw, or at least a guy like Martin, living an Outlaw life-style of sorts. This info helped to smooth out some of the aforementioned slightly odd bits. All in all, I thought DITV was a great vehicle for this type of story.

[–] Walls Of Jericho 15 years ago

You're right about that. Their father saved them and instead they are hung up on some whacko.

[–] gaderaden 15 years ago

This movie went downhill the minute Harlan shot Tobe. I liked it up until that part, but him shooting her didn't make any sense to me... at all...

Didn't really seem like an accident or anything. He was angry, sure, but drawing and firing his gun like that out of nowhere seemed very weird...

"I did not care for the Godfather" - Peter Griffin

[–] swansonben 15 years ago

so Evan dies?? that sucks.

[–] soggybottom 15 years ago

I agree with you 100%, Kris. I just got through watching it, and there was absolutely no reason for him to shoot Tobe. She was the only good thing that ever happened to him in life, and she hung on his every word, and then he decides to shoot her out of the blue like that? If his temper had been reaching its boiling point, it would made at least a little bit of sense, but we saw no signs of that whatsoever.

And then he immediately decides "Oh well, the hell with her--It's the boy that I REALLY liked all along anyway"

What???

I LOVED this movie up to that point, and then it made a sharp turn downhill in a hurry.

[–] Walls Of Jericho 15 years ago

He was crazy, not just a con-artist. He realized she wasn't going with him and lashed out.

It's not supposed to make sense to anyone sane.

The kids reverence for him......now that didn't make sense.

[–] LadyDi4476 12 years ago

Harlen shooting Tobe showed he was a ticking time bomb. When things go wrong and not according to his plan he'll snap. We were getting hints of his mental breakdown through out the film, but I don't think we as an audience understood the full extent of his psychosis until that moment where he shot her. It may not have been the first time he'd done something like this. The father had him pegged out from the very beginning and he was right.

I didn't mind any of that, but I do felt the ending should have been a little stronger. I would have liked to have seen a moment between Tobe and her father. They had such a hostile relationship through out the entire film and it would have been nice to have seen her apologize to him or thank him for looking out for her. Just something instead of him being in the car and them throwing Harlan's ashes in the wind.

Still a good film!

-Di

[–] zharth 13 years ago

Actually, I thought the ending was the perfect fit for his character. He finally got to be a real cowboy - even down to the final duel.

screamingaxe.blogspot.com