Friday, September 30, 2016
Shiny, Happy People
The concluding scene of The Last Laugh depicts the incredible gluttony and generosity of the unnamed, demoted doorman after he miraculously inherits a fortune from a dying American millionaire. He feasts on mounds of food, eating caviar as if it were candy and drinking champagne as if it were water. A tracking shot of the "spread" emphasizes the opulence and indulgence of our hero. What is the point of this ending? Is is a happy ending or a parody of a happy ending? Is this supposed to be objective reality or a fantasy? Is this a cynical commercial ploy or is there deeper significance to the ending?
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The added ending of the film was so that the viewers were left with a happy feeling instead of despair for the man. They were able to be proud that he was able to come upon such fortune and in the end have a life that we all wish we could have. Because it is a life that we all wish we could have, being able to eat and drink as much caviar and champagne as we want, this ending is most certainly a movie ending. Movies are fantasies and they should allow their viewers to live in that fantasy world with them. We all know that the likelihood of a rich man collapsing to his death in a bathroom that just happens to have a will that dictates that whoever catches him will inherit his money is not something that is the least bit likely to happen. The producers wanted a happy ending so that their viewers would be happy about the ending. A movie world is the ideal world so for an ideal world to have such a sad ending takes the fun out of movies. This ending is definitely a glorification of all that it means to be rich however, because most viewers of the movie could only dream of becoming that rich, it is ok to make a mockery of it. To show a man taking advantage of and consuming everything in his reach allows the viewers to be happy for the man in his imaginary world. Movies are an embellishment on what we all wish the world was and this ending is exactly that.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of the last scene of The Last Laugh was to parody wealth and monetary success. Throughout the entire film, the wealthy are portrayed as rude and pampered individuals who look down their noses at the working class. This is shown through moments such as the scene after the main character's love interest finds out that he is the bathroom attendant and not the hotel's doorman. In this scene, while the main character is emotionally distant and not paying attention (reacting to his love interest's rejection), a wealthy-looking man is having the main character shine his shoes, dry his hands, and brush off his jacket. When the main character doesn't perform these tasks to the complete satisfaction of the hotel guest, the guest gets the manager of the hotel to reprimand the main character. Additionally, once it is discovered that the main character has lost his job, he is ridiculed and rejected by his own community. However, once he gains the wealth of the man who died in his arms, he is suddenly loved by everyone and is consuming even more than the guests of the hotel were in the beginning of the film. Because the entirety of the film showed the despair of the main character, the nature film's added ending was likely the director's response to being forced to add more to his story. I think there is deeper significance to this ending because it still has an element of darker undertones behind it, despite so different from the rest of the movie; these darker undertones being the difference in how the main character is treated once he becomes so wealthy.
ReplyDeleteThe last scene in The Last Laugh is a parody of what is considered a happy ending. Many people consider a happy ending to be something that ends well for the protagonist. However, that is a very unrealistic portrayal of what happens in life, which the director satirizes. The world seems to be perfect for the old man, and he seems to thrive in his newfound wealth. However, the atmosphere seems to be a little too happy. The old man seems to be really living it up, but others around him also seem to be very jovial and upbeat. It is unnerving because in reality no one is like that. The old man also overindulges quite a bit, throwing money around and eating caviar by the bucketful. None of this is realistic in the slightest, at least in our current reality, which goes to show that the director really was trying to go for a parody of a happy ending. A perfect world isn’t realistic; it would be monotonous and nothing would ever change. The director definitely portrays a fantasy world, most likely something the old man would like to live in regarding the circumstances. However, the ending does show one quality of the old man that may not have been shown earlier in the film: he shows compassion to those around him but only if they show the same to him. The night guard who comforted him is invited to eat with him and his generosity is shown to be very biased. No one else from his neighborhood is shown to be given the same generosity and he commands the doorman to let someone ride with him. The original ending did portray a realistic world, since in real life anything can be objectively “bad” or “good”. It all depends on perspective, really. And so the old man’s life was shown, realistically, as just another person who lived out their life and whatever happened just did.
ReplyDeleteThe doorman in, The Last Laugh, ultimately causes his own downfall, and is symbol of Hollywood’s portrayal of a happy ending. Although the doorman’s neighbors and even his family, laugh and tease him for being demoted, ultimately it was his fault for not being thankful for what he had. Also, the doorman’s age and inability to efficiently transfer crates and boxes from the travelers’ cars to the hotel, played a major role in his relegation. However, if the people in the doorman’s community would have been supportive, things may have played out different for the doorman’s occupation. Even though the doorman was demoted, it was wrong for him to lie and try to hide his downgrade, in order to shield his reputation. The film, The Last Laugh, mocks a happy ending, and portrays a strong message about the American Dream and what it means to be successful. Once the doorman gets demoted, his life turns upside down, and allows people to mock and taunt him. He miraculously inherits a large amount of money and becomes rich instantly. The likelihood of this scenario is a million to one, and is only possible on set in Hollywood. The doorman loved being a doorman, even though he wasn’t rich and prospering, which is what I define as being successful, however; the film declares that to be successful, you must be rich. This particular film teases the idea of a “happy ending”, and allows the viewer to comprehend that life doesn’t always work out.
ReplyDeleteF. W. Marnau’s was asked to remake an ending to his silent film, The Last Laugh and In turn he created a classic “Hollywood” happy ending. The doorman, against extreme odds, is granted millions of dollars from the will of the man who died in his arms in the restroom. When his life seemed to be at an all-time low, and his dreams of being a doorman were over, he climbed all the way back up to earn the respect that he wanted in the most unlikely way possible. Modern fantasy and fiction films have extravagant endings similar to the one in The Last Laugh but rarely as unpredictable as this one. In my opinion the ending of The Last Laugh is a direct mockery of happy endings purposely done by F.W. Marnau in retaliation for being asked to create a new ending because the original one was not good enough. From a directors point of view a questioning of technique can be taken as an insult and F.W. Marnau may not have been too happy about this. The alternate ending to The Last Laugh changes a meaningful story into an unrealistic, fantastical that sets it apart from all the rest of the film. I believe that the ending to this movie is entirely made as a parody and mockery to the people who asked Marnau to change his ending. If I wrote a book, went to publish it and was told to rewrite my ending I would be just as upset as Marnau. He may have felt mocked by his production company so he turned around and created a new ending but insulted them just as they had insulted him; he created an ending to a movie that was as unrealistic as some modern animated movies.
ReplyDeleteThe overdone, lavish ending scene of The Last Laugh is a parody of a happy ending. Because the critical audiences’ response to the dark ending, true to German Expressionism, F. W. Murnau, changed the ending despite himself. However, this happy ending was so against his usual style that he decided to make it a parody of the cliché happy endings viewers want. First off, the character receives his fortune in such an out of the ordinary, one-in- a-million way, it is almost impossible. This highlights the fantasy aspect of the ending: these events would never happen in real life. The bottles on bottles of champagne, the bowls and bowls of caviar, is a poor man’s dream. The ending is depicted to be exactly that, a fantasy, dreamlike ending. Even the man’s facial expressions and body language are extravagant and over-the-top, which further highlights the parody aspect. His gliding strides, the way his face lit up upon seeing food (which also pokes fun at his size), and the flamboyant hand gestures he used when addressing people all makes fun of people in happy endings, and mocks their enthusiasm in a way. Though a parody, this ending is much more than a cynical commercial ploy; there is much deeper significance. The message is this: too much happiness is not happiness at all. I noticed how even though this man was now surrounded by wealth, his family was nowhere to be found. Perhaps F. W. Murnau was trying to punctuate the importance of family over money. Although the man was surrounded by cash, he was really alone at the end of the day, which, at the end, isn’t a happy ending. Isn’t this what F. W. Murnau wanted all along? Ironic.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, The Last Laugh’s portrayal of the doorman after his newfound fame is a parody of the typical happy endings seen in movies. This is because it was forced into the end of the movie as an afterthought, as the director did not see it as part of his original vision. He was told to put it in at the end to better end out the plot. Therefore, this ending is not truly sincere and the director’s depiction of the doorman’s happiness is intended to make a mockery of the concept of ‘happily ever after’. The world is not always happy, and it is a common theme in German expressionism to depict the grief of life. In the original ending, the director truly stays within the description of German expressionism, showing a broken down man who lost his faith and his friends by no fault of his own, but rather by the fault of fate. He is doomed to live a miserable life after being demoted, and nothing can cure his sorrow. This is all cancelled out in the additional scenes of a now rich and happy doorman who is respected by all. All of his problems were solved when he came into money. This is simply not realistic and would not happen in the real world. The fact that he miraculously came into so much money that all of his problems were solved is extremely impractical and would only happen in a movie. There is no plausible way that the doorman could suddenly be happy in the end because of the simple facts of life. In his situation, happiness seems too far away to ever be possible.
ReplyDeleteThe point of the ending in The Last Laugh was to provide viewers with the typical “Happy Ending” that many Hollywood films exhibit. The ending wasn’t the original ending and was only added because F.W. Marnau was asked to do so. He didn’t really want to do this so as a result he made a parody of a happy ending. He makes a mockery of what a happy ending looks like. At the end of the film, the main character is seen being doing things like eating tons of food, drinking lots of champagne, and eating caviar like it’s a regular food. All these things are things that would represent wealth or happiness but by doing it in the way that he does it (jokingly) it’s more of a mockery or parody of a happy ending than an actual happy ending. This is an example of fantasy and not objective reality because like I said previously the main character does things in the end that are not per say realistic. Although someone could act the way he does, typically people don’t act in that manner in reality so this is more fantasy than reality. I think that there is a deep and underlying significance to the ending. First off, it’s an act of rebellion from F.W. Marnau because it isn’t the ending he wanted so he made this one as a result and he wanted to stray away from the norm of having a “happy ending” and he couldn’t. Also, the doorman is seen as being “happy” in the end but in actuality he really isn’t because many of his circumstances are the same and it’s showing that money couldn’t fix all his problems.
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