"The End" ?

edited January 2010 in General Chat
Why did movies use to flash "The End" at the end of a film? If I had just seen the heroine agree to marry the hero, kiss him and then the music swelled and the newsreel started up again, I think I'd have been able to figure out that was the end of the film.
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Comments

  • edited January 2010
    Do not. Expect. A sequal.




    Maybe.
  • edited January 2010
    i was sat in a movie thearter for 4 months till i relised it was over cos no one flashed the end
  • edited January 2010
    i was sat in a movie thearter for 4 months till i relised it was over cos no one flashed the end

    When your mom told you to "get out more" I don't think that's what she meant.

    ...

    What finally made you realize it was over, anyway?
  • edited January 2010
    I just wish "the end"s were a little more accurate. Lord knows I've seen lots of things say "The End" but there's something after the credits.
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    When your mom told you to "get out more" I don't think that's what she meant.

    ...

    What finally made you realize it was over, anyway?

    the ushers wrote the end on A4 paper and i apluded and left
  • edited January 2010
    Did you take the paper with you? In case this happens again, I mean.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2010
    Sailorcuteness is one of a rare breed - people leave before the movie has finished all the time these days. You know how sometimes there are additional little scenes after (or during) the credits, and some people miss them because they rushed out of the cinema to beat the line for the bathroom? Yeah. That would never happen if "The End" was still around.

    Is it super-geeky that the title of this thread immediately made me think of the very first Red Dwarf episode? :p
  • edited January 2010
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    Is it super-geeky that the title of this thread immediately made me think of the very first Red Dwarf episode? :p
    Tehee, yeah, »The End« of the first episode of Red Dwarf… I didn’t know the show, but when I read »The End«, it was so funny I knew I’ll love it!

    Anyway, first thing I was thinking when reading this thread was a short-story we had to write in second or third grade… I wrote a cool time-travel-adventure with two guys and a professor in the stone-age… anyway, I proudly wrote »THE END« at the end, because it sounded so cool, like I made an epic story (that was only one page long).
    Then my teacher striked »The End« out, with her horrible red pencil. :(
  • edited January 2010
    Maybe she loved the story so much she was hoping you'd write more of the Epic Adventures of the Two Guys and the Professor? Or she hated fun.
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    Maybe she loved the story so much she was hoping you'd write more of the Epic Adventures of the Two Guys and the Professor? Or she hated fun.

    Oh, the story was brilliant, these two guys activate that time machine by accident, then a bunch of prehistoric men attack them, so they return home.



    I think she hated fun.
  • edited January 2010
    Majus wrote: »
    Oh, the story was brilliant, these two guys activate that time machine by accident, then a bunch of prehistoric men attack them, so they return home.



    I think she hated fun.

    I don't know. I like your time machine story better than H. G. Wells'; at least your guys were smart enough to keep away from the danger. Could use a little more Professor, though. And ray guns.
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    i don't know. I like your time machine story better than h. G. Wells'; at least your guys were smart enough to keep away from the danger. Could use a little more professor, though. And ray guns.

    and animation! XD
  • edited January 2010
    It probably became a habit back before it became standard to have credits at the end of a film. A lot of old films had all their credits at the beginning.
  • edited January 2010
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    Is it super-geeky that the title of this thread immediately made me think of the very first Red Dwarf episode? :p
    You, my friend, are a king amongst men.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2010
    Fealiks wrote: »
    You, my friend, are a king amongst men.

    I'm a girl... can I be a queen amongst women instead? :p
  • edited January 2010
    If I were you I'd be a Queen amongst Men. Well oiled men with palm fans ;)
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2010
    You are officially hired as my royal vizier!
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    If I were you I'd be a Queen amongst Men. Well oiled men with palm fans ;)

    O_O

    That sounds... kinky...
  • edited January 2010
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    You are officially hired as my royal vizier!

    I'll begin the hiring process immediately! Heads up, it uh, might take awhile ...
    Falanca wrote: »
    O_O

    That sounds... kinky...

    What do you expect from S&M fans? (Ha ha! That joke never gets old!)

    But seriously, nobody knows about "The End" thing? I'd have thought there were more films study majors on this board.
  • edited January 2010
    It bugs me as well. But what bugs me more is the classic film trailers where the movie titles are in quotation marks. Or the over usage of exclamation points in classic horror titles. Or the suffixes "-Of Blood" or "-Of Death".

    *grumble grumble*
  • edited January 2010
    Didn't movies use to have credits at the beginning?
    Then the credits were switched to the end and that's how people know it's over.
    Except they realised people didn't watch the credits so now they put something afterwards, too...

    I think it's because movies used to be shown continuously. You'd have one movie in the theatre all day, repeated over and over and over again (and you paid only once). I've heard stories about how you'd get in, and if you missed the beginning you just stayed afterwards and watched it the second time. Or how, when a movie was great, you'd just stay to watch it a second time.

    I think it said "The End" to be clear that it was over. I can't be sure of course but that's what I'd say.
  • edited January 2010
    Yeah, I know; I think that's where the expression, "This is where I came in" comes from. Even when my mom was young they were still doing it, although at that point they weren't usually putting "The End" at the end. But did they really think people wouldn't know the end of a movie when they saw it? I mean, more than once I've watched an old film and thought, "This was the original end, wasn't it? The stuff afterward was tacked on." And sure enough, out steps Robert Osborn proving my suspicions right.
  • edited January 2010
    I can't tell you...
    I would say it's because movies might have been trying to imitate books when movies were still a recent thing, but putting the words "the end" in the end of a book is ridiculous for the same reasons, plus the fact that you can physically see there aren't any pages left (while with a movie you can't know for sure there is nothing afterwards).

    Maybe someone wrote that in the end of his script, and they put it in the movie as a mistake/joke, and it caught on.

    EDIT: here, when looking for an answer to this question I found this series of "the end" pictures on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/djll/sets/72157608369709836/

    re-EDIT: I found an interesting article. It didn't say why there used to be "the end" in the end of movies, but explained why it was removed... Apparently to blur the separation between movies and reality, so that when you left the theatre, you were still inside the movie, living it, thinking about it, while reading "The End" was a way to break the fourth wall and bring you back to reality, and right away you were out of it, and back to your normal life.

    That was interesting.
  • edited January 2010
    Actually, looking at those photos, why did some say "finis" instead of "The End"? If producers were putting "The End" to let know viewers know, yes, the movie is totally done now, why stick a Latin word in its place on occasion? How many people in the 30's took Latin in school in America? Wouldn't the Latin have just confused them?

    And unlike ShaggE, I think "Of Death, Of Blood!!" is a great horror movie title :p
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    Actually, looking at those photos, why did some say "finis" instead of "The End"? If producers were putting "The End" to let know viewers know, yes, the movie is totally done now, why stick a Latin word in its place on occasion? How many people in the 30's took Latin in school in America? Wouldn't the Latin have just confused them?

    According to my dictionary, finis IS an English word... Comes from latin, sure, but so do lots of words. Maybe it was used more often at the time.
  • edited January 2010
    I wouldn't say it was an "English" word just because it's used by English speakers. Techinically "souffle" is an English word, especially since there's no other word for it in English, but most people would say it's French. And I've only ever seen it used at the end of a film or book, even though it could technically be used in casual conversation. I've read quite a bit of late Victorian to early 20th Century literature, and I've never come across it used outside of that context.
  • edited January 2010
    That's quite possible, but that doesn't mean it would be obscure. First, it's one letter from "finish" so it would be easy to figure out even in you didn't know it. Second, if it was used in the end of books and movies, people probably saw it often.
    Might not be an English word but that doesn't mean people would be all confused and wonder what it means. Just like if you talk about soufflé while holding one in your hand I'm sure people will understand you.

    But it leads me to another theory. Maybe people wrote "the end" to be snobbish. That would fit with using latin for no particular reason.
  • edited January 2010
    Personally, I prefer "IT'S OVER!"

    To be honest, whenever I see "the end", I always just think of it as the people who made the movie/book/whatever are making fun of us and our ability (or lack thereof) to know when the end of the movie is.
  • edited January 2010
    It's a valid technique. The end.
  • edited January 2010
    Maxilyah wrote: »
    To be honest, whenever I see "the end", I always just think of it as the people who made the movie/book/whatever are making fun of us and our ability (or lack thereof) to know when the end of the movie is.

    Definitely a trope that could use a little more parodying than it's gotten. I'd love to see a movie end with a long diatribe about how it is indeed the end of the film.

    "It's over, people. Just get out. Stop looking at the screen. Stand up, take your popcorn bags and cups, and move toward the exits in an orderly fashion. Seriously, get out. Snape kills Dumbledore. See what you made me do? I told you to get out. You people really have nothing better to do with your lives? ... We're just going to sit here and play this game, are we? So be it. *cue five minutes of loud, obnoxious electric guitar squealing*"
  • edited January 2010
    Maxilyah wrote: »
    Personally, I prefer "IT'S OVER!"

    Nah, only Looney Tunes got it right.

    "That's all, folks!"
  • edited January 2010
    We always indicate the ends of our films. Sure, the modern way to do it is to either have the music swell and then cut as the scene cuts to black, or to fade out as the music lowers toward silence. That the visual indicator has changed from an ending card to a clean transition to the credits doesn't really change the point of the thing. A show can't just "stop", even if everything we expect to happen by the end happens. We don't jump cut to the credits once we check off that last box of necessary resolution, we mark the end of the film in some way.

    Th-thuh-the-the-thuh-th-the-that's all, folks!
  • edited January 2010
    I want a movie to finish with "The End?" and then after the credits go, "Just kidding! This is actually the end." Then after fifteen seconds up pops, "No, really, we're done. Totally done. Finito. Complete. It's over, people!" Another fifteen seconds, "Oh, right. You thought you'd see some cute little extra scene or something, right? Yeah, no. We just gave you a whole fricking movie; we're done."
    ...
    "God, fine." Cut to lemur attacking the camera.
  • edited January 2010
    I can't help but think of "Holy Grail" as I gaze through this thread. The only movie ever to leave it up to our own intellect to decide whether or not the black screen and looping organ music that cuts away from a scene involving a really random plot twist was an indicator that the film has concluded. Now THAT'S how it should be done! ;)

    .... Now for those who, like me, actually waited or had to be told that it WAS the ending, some form of visual conclusion--which usually comes in the form of the credits or "The End"--is appreciative even though the credits method can be iffy when it comes to those secret scenes and sometimes, I'll admit, provides little closure :)
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    I want a movie to finish with "The End?" and then after the credits go, "Just kidding! This is actually the end." Then after fifteen seconds up pops, "No, really, we're done. Totally done. Finito. Complete. It's over, people!" Another fifteen seconds, "Oh, right. You thought you'd see some cute little extra scene or something, right? Yeah, no. We just gave you a whole fricking movie; we're done."
    ...
    "God, fine." Cut to lemur attacking the camera.

    That reminds me of the end of Return of the King, the first time I saw it I got about five times thinking "Oh it's ending, oh wait there's more".
  • edited January 2010
    That reminds me of the end of Return of the King, the first time I saw it I got about five times thinking "Oh it's ending, oh wait there's more".

    You should be glad they cut the Scouring of the Shire.
    even if it was the best chapter in the book.
  • edited January 2010
    How about: Fin

    Or has that been mentioned already?
  • edited January 2010
    You should be glad they cut the Scouring of the Shire.

    Yeah I know, but the most anoying part about the ending of the film was they took almost half of the book after they destroy the ring and compact it into a fifteen minute sequence.
  • edited January 2010
    Majus wrote: »
    Tehee, yeah, »The End« of the first episode of Red Dwarf… I didn’t know the show, but when I read »The End«, it was so funny I knew I’ll love it!

    Yeah, another Red Dwarf fan!
  • edited January 2010
    How about: Fin

    Or has that been mentioned already?

    That means "The End" in French. Either it was a French movie, or they took it from French movies for some reason (the cinema was invented by the Lumière brothers, who were French, so the first movies were French.)

    EDIT: by "invented the cinema" I meant "invented the cinematographe" (cinema is short for cinematographe).

    It's possible THEY put "fin" in the end of their movies and are to blame for that silly idea.
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