I'm not sure what possessed me to subject myself to Darren Aronofsky's masterpiece again tonight.
It really is one of the best films of the century thus far.
If you haven't seen it, see it, and stop reading this post.
I hate that people still say that the ending is ambiguous.
This is actually a problem with a handful of films.
After The Dark Knight, there was speculation that Harvey Dent was still alive. That was always dumb. Also the same year as The Wrestler.
How stupid do you have to be to watch the ending of The Wrestler, and think that Randy the Ram didn't die at the end?
Did you really need a post-credit scene with paramedics trying to save him and declaring him dead? Can you not put two and two together as a viewing audience member? Do we have to feed you everything in order for you to get it?
There are movies with ambiguous endings. One of the greatest failures of Nolan's career was trying to make the ending of Inception ambiguous.
Still, it seems that most of the endings that people label as ambiguous never were, and it defeates the point of the movie if they were.
The ending of Memento is not ambiguous. If it were, the point of the movie would have been lost.
The ending of Shutter Island is not ambiguous. If it were, the point of the movie would have been lost.
Still, it's this specific case, with The Wrestler, that really grinds my gears.
The happiest ending that Aronofsky has ever given us was The Fountain, and that was depressing as hell. It was a happy ending in that the protagonist finally accepted the inevitability of death.
You're telling me that it was in Darren Aronofsky's mind for one second that after the film cut to black, and the Springsteen song started over the credits, that Randy the Ram was gonna get up, take his bow, take Pam's arm, and they were gonna get married and live happily ever after?
Do you even know what the word "catharsis" means?
This wouldn't bother me so much if this weren't a cinematic masterpiece that people are shitting on with their Dead Poets Society, post modernist, "Art is whatever you interpret it to be." kind of bullshit.
Randy the Ram died at the end of The Wrestler. If you think that that's open for debate, you're wrong. You're reading movies at a fourth grade level.
Okay, rant over.