And they all lived … happily ever after?

Striking a Chord...

“Well, that was a disgusting way to end a movie.” That was my reaction after watching “Avengers: Infinity War” with my family members one recent Sunday night. (Note: Spoilers ahead; you have been warned.) I know, I know — all you Marvel fans out there are probably thinking, “She is just now getting to watching that movie? That was so four years ago.” My response is: You do have a point. However, there are some interesting themes in the movie that are worth revisiting for the sake of a larger discussion.

Also, if you are wondering why I am just getting to watching these movies, there’s a bit of a backstory—I’ve never been much of a movie person, but my brother watched all the Marvel movies a few years ago and decided it was his duty to share them with me and my parents. So, we have been slowly watching the movies in timeline order whenever the four of us find time to get together and also feel like sitting down and watching a two-and-a-half-hour movie, which isn’t too often — maybe every month or six weeks. With about 30 movies to watch, depending on which ones you count, it is taking quite a while to get through them all. But, for the most part it’s been enjoyable.

Anyway, we sat down to watch “Avengers: Infinity War” the other night and as the movie progressed, I kept waiting for things to turn around but they didn’t. The movie kind of felt like a slow descent into despair as the main characters kept failing to defeat the villain despite their most valiant attempts. It is kind of annoying when you have an indestructible bad guy, Thanos. You can drive him through with a sword, drop a gigantic boulder on him and shoot him a billion times and he still doesn’t die (yes, I know he captured all six Infinity Stones, giving him unyielding power, but this was before he had all six). I was especially thrown off because the typical plot of these movies is the good guys band together to defeat whatever horrible evil force is out there, despite the tremendous odds stacked against them. So when the movie ended with half of the characters dying, or more accurately vanishing into thin air in Rapture-esque fashion, and the villain ruling the universe seemingly unchallenged, I was disappointed.

It got me thinking, why did the ending bother me so much? Well, for one, I share the typical American mindset of how a movie is supposed to go. We Americans tend to have a love affair with happy endings. American film historian David Bordwell found that “of 100 randomly sampled Hollywood films, over 60 ended with a display of the united romantic couple.” Hollywood filmmakers are committed to the happy ending, while foreign filmmakers, not so much. For example, “French films are so notorious for their realistic and even tragic endings, that they have earned the name ‘French endings,’” one website called “Lost in Frenchlation” noted. It’s not just France, though. Of course there are exceptions, but, in general, in other countries’ markets, there is not the same expectation to end a movie with a neat little bow.

So why do we Americans feel the need for a happy ending? Well, according to an article by Bridget Foster Reed entitled “The American Obsession with Happy Endings,” part of it is situational. When people were going through the Depression or a world war, they wanted to see something that would uplift their spirits and offer an escape from the turmoil around them. Filmmakers accommodated their plot lines to what would sell.

But beyond current world events, the desire for happy endings may also have to do with other values embedded in the American psyche. At least that’s what Charlotte Jolley purports in writing for French website “The Local.”

“Hollywood films are more obsessed with the happy ending, the ‘one-day’s’; the ‘what-ifs.’ Perhaps this is because America prides itself on the ‘American Dream’ – that anybody can do anything in America, even if they come from nothing,” Jolley writes.

As Americans, we place a high value on hard work and problem solving, so it would make sense that we would want to see the problems of a movie resolved before the final credits roll. A lot of us would consider ourselves “fixers.” We just want to figure out how to fix the problem and make things better as quickly as possible. However, some problems are fundamentally unfixable, at least without divine intervention. Always having a happy ending is just not true to life.

The playgoers of Shakespeare’s day watched tragedies probably just as often as they watched comedies. But they viewed those tragedies as an opportunity for catharsis, a way to release and thereby experience relief from strong or repressed emotions. They didn’t shy away from negative emotions. “The tragic thread is the part that touches us most deeply,” says Dr. Jonathan Young, founder of the Center for Story and Symbol. “The healing and wisdom that comes from watching things unfold in a disastrous direction is good for us because it humbles us.”

Humility — a virtue that is not often celebrated in our culture.

Young continues: “People find tragic stories comforting, because they have already accepted that adversity is not a mistake. It is a normal part of everyday life. People who accept the tragic aspects of the journey tend to be more contented. They have fewer rude surprises.”

In other words, tragic stories have the potential to make us more grateful for the good parts of our lives, because we are less likely to take those parts for granted. And although we may not like those films with a less-than-happy ending, maybe they do something for us that a film with a happy ending couldn’t do. Not to say that “Avengers: Infinity War” did anything profound for my soul — it’s just a superhero movie, after all. And I’m still waiting for that happy ending. But in the meantime, I will sit in the tension and be OK with it.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and may you have a blessed New Year!