Did you know there was a remake of Psycho in 1998 starring Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates?
- Think... I think we're all in our private traps. Clamped in 'em.
It was a commercial and critical failure.
It's more or less a shot-for-shot remake,
which makes for a cool case study into how the original Psycho worked so well.
We can compare the two movies and look at the subtle differences, and see why those differences matter,
and why it made the orignial Psycho so much better.
Let's talk specifically about the ending.
How did the original end? What did Hitchcock leave us with?
Most people remember the look to the camera from Norman Bates,
but it really ends with the car getting pulled out of the mud.
The shot leaves a very bad taste in our mouths because we know what's in the trunk.
Not to mention it's filmed very off-center, and it's coming right towards us.
The remake starts the ending in a similar way
but it ends by panning out to a landscape as the credits roll.
This completely ruins the ending.
We're supposed to end feeling disgusted and uncomfortable,
but the pan reintroduces us back into the world, with its familiar landscapes and cars driving by.
The original Psycho ending is great because it's sickening.
If the camera moves away from the sickening image and ends with the familiar,
we're removed from the story and the murder, and are reintroduced back into society.
That's no way to end the movie.
The Psycho remake ending is closer to the "riding into the sunset" kind of movie ending.
This is a kind of shot where we're leaving the original story and get reintroduced into the world.
Normally it's also shot with our main characters, who went through some sort of ordeal,
physically moving away from the camera to continue their journey.
The Western popularized this kind of ending
but it's still very common in modern movies, just with a few tweaks.
Nowadays it can be a car instead of a horse, or a street corner instead of a picturesque sunset.
It's a very comforting ending.
We see something familiar and it's a cinematic cue that the story is over and we're back to the real world.
Twelve Angry Men ends with the men, who all came together to pronounce the kid innocent,
going back into the real world; a world where the American judicial system works,
and people are only convicted if they actually committed the crime.
It's a comforting ending, and it complements the feel-good theme
that even the most stubborn people can listen to reason and change their minds.
Albeit not so easily and not so nicely.
But I'm not saying that all riding into the sunset endings are feel-good.
How about having a serial killer walk back into society?
Now that's an eerie ending.
- I do wish we could chat longer, but...
- I'm having an old friend for dinner.
In a very similar way, doors closing at the end makes for a nice symbol to end the movie.
There's a physical separation now, literally closing the door on an adventure. Also very common.
You can even use it to separate two main characters within the story,
which is what Francis Coppola did in perhaps the most famous movie ending of all time.
Also The Searchers, which has an opening shot that starts at the doorway,
with John Wayne coming in from the desert;
and then the ending shot shows him leaving through the same doorway.
This ending symbolizes our hero returning to the wilderness from which he came.
Another common ending is when the ending shot relates to the opening shot.
There's a great supercut of opening and closing shots of movies shown side by side on Vimeo,
and a lot of them relate to each other.
The goal of this kind of ending is to show a shot similar to the opening shot,
but now that you've seen the movie it should evoke a different feeling for you.
The opening shot is the first impression.
The movie tells its story, and the movie ends with something similar to what it started with.
The last shot will always feel different because after the movie tells its story
the shot has an entirely different meaning.
With the Godfather sequel the shot is the same but Michael Corleone is not, and he looks it too.
In Gone Girl he uses violent imagery to refer to his wife
- I picture cracking her lovely skull. Unspooling her brains. Trying to get answers.
And by the last shot we know why.
It's a fun way to look at movies because the ending can potentially sum up the main ideas of the movie.
The difference between the opening and the closing is that the opening shot *hints* at the main ideas,
and the ending reinforces them.
It's as if the director is highlighting the most important part of the movie.
So go watch your favorite movie ending again. Maybe look for a symbol.
What do you think the feather symbolizes in Forrest Gump?
There's no right or wrong answer, but we know what the director wants you to notice.
What mood does the ending leave you with?
That's the most important feeling of the movie, because what you walk out of the theater feeling is what matters.
So give it a try.
And with that I leave you with a Simpsons parody of the Godfather ending, because I love The Simpsons.
Thanks for watching.
"Vroom! Vroom vroom!"
*vrooming continues*