OK just saw this film and am unclear about the ending:
De Niro and Crazy Brit director after much fighting edit their film, changing the ending so the dog doesn't get shot, and instead is left alive, licking dead Sean Penn.
BUT when the film is shown in Cannes, it's the earlier ending, with the dog shot, Sean Penn shot, much blood, etc.
What did I miss? Why and How did this happen?
The director allowed the ending to be edited in the U.S. so that the film could get to Cannes, but he must have changed the ending again once he arrived in France before it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
"Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
Or he just used the previous film reel instead of the edited one.
Ironically, this isn't even ironic at all.
Wasn't the ending of the Cannes version in fact even stronger than the original edit, or was that just my imagination?
shareI'm pretty sure it was exactly the same.
We call this the Loom of Fate.
yes it was. it actually was a minute long shooting, which is quite obviously stronger.
share*** SPOILERS ***
It's not your imagination. In the DVD commentary they talk about this. During the "confrontation" in Lou's office where she first tells them to change the ending, the director claims he has *already* toned down the ending from his initial concept. When the film is shown at Cannes, he has returned it to his original full "artistic" vision, and the dog takes a barrage of gunshots.
On the DVD there are deleted scenes of an alternate ending that tell us "Fiercely" became the salvation of the studio - the runaway hit of the year, grossing almost $500,000,000. It was hailed as a boundary breaking, artistic tour de force; a breakthrough that would change the way movies were made, etc. Lou was accepting awards for her courage in allowing such artistic freedom at her studio. Bruce Willis signed a new three year contract with the agent who was so worried about losing the client who paid his mortgage. The crazy director had a complete meltdown, went off the wagon, and was seen staring at himself in a mirror, dressed in some kind of 70's hippie style women's clothing with smeared make up. Ben, who was back on the A-list, said he wouldn't mind working with him again.
Listen to the speech in Cannes before the movie plays. It's a condemnation from the French point of view of Hollywood's commercialism defiling art and artists. It's quite clear from the F Y attitude what he thinks about efforts to change his artistic vision and what he intends to do.
It seemed to me he had even added additional shots and graphic scenes to increase the level of violence portrayed.
It's a fitting end to a movie about a producer who was talking all the time to all kinds of people but relating to none and in control of nothing, not his love life, his daughter, his plane ride, his actor or his movie.
well said GrassRootsGuy. I also believe the new ending was much more violent, more blood and bulletholes. And you can clearly hear the gun going off constantly. It was like saying, 'Don't change my *beep* film' It just made him angrier and he put that anger into the ending of the film.
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Every man, has to go through hell to reach his paradise - Robert De Niro (Cape Fear)