HE END...OR WAS IT?
Anyone with a casual interest in film knows that sometimes a movie has more than one ending shot. Sometimes as an afterthought but most of the time after initial test screenings were greeted with negative reactions. Fatal Attraction is a classic example. In the original version Michael Douglas's adultery commiting-ass is hauled off to prison after the suicide commiting crazy lady Glenn Close frames him for her murder. Wham! Right? But no - supposedly audiences couldn't take such a downer ending in which the supposed male protagonist "hero" is done in by his evil deed. No let's give it a more conventional slasher ending with Close assaulting Douglas and wife Anne Archer and with a cliched she's-dead-no-she's-not-dead mentality driving it and audiences will love it! Well actually they did. Fatal Attraction was a huge hit for Paramount even making the cover of Time Magazine so maybe they played their cards right. Actually adultery as a social issue in the news was the real factor behind it's success I believe so the ending would've resonated more in it's original incarnation I believe as well. The special edition Fatal Attraction DVD (Paramount) contains the alternate ending so all is not lost.
Shortly before that the remake of The Little Shop Of Horrors was retinkered with to give it a happier ending in which Seymour (Rick Moranis) and Audrey (Ellen Greene) win the battle against gigantic killer plant Audrey 2 and run off happily to the suburbs and wedded bliss. The 1986 movie was based on the stage play that comically reworked the campy 1960 Roger Corman flick into a twisted '50's'sci-fi musical. The play on stage retained the original movie's ending in which Audrey 2 ate Seymour, his girlfriend Aubrey and everybody else then growing big enough to demolish New York and proceed to make a feast of the entire planet. There was even a song that accompanied this - "Don't Feed the Plants". Apparently test audiences disliked this ending and the happy ending was made and it was the only one ever after. To this day the original ending is a rare disc extra. A 1998 special edition of the film had it included but it was recalled (!) by David Geffen who hadn't given permission to use the footage to Warner Brothers. So don't look for it on DVD now but maybe it'll surface someday.
Also notable for being absent on what would be an excellent special edition DVD release is the alternate pie fight ending to Dr. Strangelove. That's right - a pie fight in the war room. Not that I've seen it. Only photos of it on one DVD edition. Too bad - it would be so nice to view that footage. Also Oliver Stone talked of filming a different ending of JFK in which Jim Garrison actually wins his case in court implicating one of the conspirators. Where the hell is that?
Of course you'll find as you click on the alternate ending feature in your DVD menu that some are not really alternate at all. In the case of Thelma and Louise is an extended ending in which nothing different happens - it's just a different longer take. The conclusion of Arlington Roadis only changed by the point of view shots of one character - the outcome and fates are still intact. 28 Days Later likewise is different only by the exclusion of a character in the editing. An alternate ending first and only is the 1984 board game inspired but Murder By Death retread Cluein which 3 separate endings revealing different muderers were released theatrically simultaneously meaning you'd see a different ending depending on what theater you went to. The gimmick didn't pay off - the flick flopped and all video releases contain all 3 endings. According to the IMDB a 4th ending was shot but never shown.
"They said to me on the phone 'you know if you had a happy ending on this movie we really think we could go through the roof with it - it would be a great cmmercial movie' and I said 'look that's the movie. The only reason I made the movie is because of the tragic ending otherwise I wouldn't have made the film" - Woody Allen on The Purple Rose Of Cairo
Nobody knows what the Woodman is talking about more than Terry Gilliam. The well documented struggles over his 1986 classic Brazilmake clear the implications of a comprised ending by committee. The alternate ending on the so called Sid Sheinberg version (he was the Universal executive that demanded changes to the film especially the bleak ending) caps an alternate movie in full. Butchered beyond the grasp of the intended thematic crux this Speilbergian "happy version" is sadly the TV version. Meaning its the only version a certain segment of the populace will ever experience. The horror...The Horror!
I started this piece on alternate endings as a list - something like Best Alternate Endings on DVD but I kept coming up short. Instead of a cool DVD curio the alternate ending feature seems more and more to say "artistic differences in view" or "compromises may seem bigger than they appear". Of course if the DVDs for such titles as Identity, Runaway Jury, or Matchstick Men had alternate endings that were actually good and less contrived I'd be more excited about seeing this feature in the menu. Nevertheless here's some of the most notable DVDs that have more than one ending to offer the discriminating viewer :
TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA
SE7EN - Not really an "alternate ending" - it's the test screening ending. I mean the same thing happens just with different shots.
AUSTIN POWERS : INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY - 2 endings labeled "original ending 1 and 2" on the DVD. Too bad neither is very good.
SPY GAME
UNFAITHFUL
FROM HELL
BANDITS
JOY RIDE - "4 shocking new endings!"
UNDERCOVER BROTHER - DVD box boasts "outrageous alternate ending!" Of course it was nothing of the sort.
NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE
COLD CREEK MANOR
ENTRAPMENT
Yeah - those last few entries were really going for quality control huh? You can see that the best movies (with a few exceptions) benefit by sticking with one definitive ending.