The Ending of A PERFECT WORLD
If a movie can end well, it can lift you up in ways more than one. Even an ending that is tragic can lift you up because if done right, it is cathartic. A Perfect World has a perfect ending. I’ve come to expect nothing less from a Clint Eastwood movie. A lot of people may debate that Eastwood may not be counted as an Auteur but I can make a pretty good case that he indeed is an auteur of highest order. But let’s talk about what’s perfect about the ending of A Perfect World.
(I highly recommend that you watch the movie first before reading further but if you haven’t watched it yet, then this should be a good exercise in interpreting how according to the filmmaker in you the climax should pan out – I’ll give you the set-up and what we know about the characters.)
Usually, the climaxes are meant to be cathartic. Aristotle’s Poetic mentioned the theory of Poetic Unity. This theory implies that the action of the whole tragedy will be building towards the denouncement of the complication in the end or climax. A Perfect World in its final 20 mins of screen time, is a movie in itself. I can make a case that you can simply watch the last 20 mins of the movie and would still have a catharsis of some form. A good ending brings together everything that you have already learnt about those characters and makes the events unfold in a manner where we can empathize with the tragic outcome.
The Set-Up of the Climax:
Clint Eastwood, A Texas Ranger and Co. are chasing down Kevin Costner, an escaped convict, who has taken an 8 year old as hostage. During the journey of escaping the Texas Rangers and Police, the hostage Buzz develops Stockholm syndrome towards Kevin Costner’s character Butch. A night before Butch asks Buzz to create a list of all the things that his Mum doesn’t allow him to do. Just before the climax, due to a series of very well written events, Buzz shoots Butch and flees in the fields. Butch doesn’t retaliate but lovingly chases Buzz and settles under the tree. Red, Eastwood’s character and Co. have finally narrowed on Butch. The FBI sniper is set. Butch has already lost a lot of blood. Buzz is by his side.
What We Know About Characters:
Kevin Costner’s Butch –
Sauvé. He seems to have a moral compass of some sort but believes stealing is right if you don’t have enough money at the moment. He is affectionate towards his hostage, Buzz and tells him that he has only ever killed two people in life – one, who hurt his mother and second, the guy who hurt Buzz.
Clint Eastwood’s Red –
He’s a Clint Eastwood character. He bribed a judge with a T-Bone and got a juvenile Butch a sentence of 4 years. Red thought that he was saving Butch and doing him a favor by sending him jail. According to Red, if Butch didn’t go to jail then his abusive father would have been granted the custody, turning Butch into a criminal in years to come.
T J Lowther’s Buzz –
A boy of 8, who is being raised by a single devout Jehovah’s Witness mother. He stole a Halloween costume while with Butch. He has also shot Butch in the belly and is sad about it though he doesn’t regret it.
Now, you know the characters, and the set-up. How do you figure the climax would pan out?
The Climax:
Clint Eastwood plays Clint Eastwood and takes the megaphone to start negotiating with Butch. The megaphone shrieks. This shriek of the megaphone implies the impending uneasiness that is to follow. Eventually Red asks Butch to give up. Butch threatens to shoot. Do you think Butch will shoot Buzz? Is he giving a threat or stating a fact? Buzz quickly tells Butch that he threw the pistola in the well after shooting Butch. The stakes are clear now. Red doesn’t know that Butch is unarmed. Butch doesn’t know that it was Red who sent him to jail when he was a juvenile. In the mix, Buzz’s mother is helicoptered in as well to persuade Buzz to leave Butch. The mother yells in the megaphone that she will give whatever money Butch demands in exchange of her son. Red takes the up the megaphone again. It shrieks again. Clint Eastwood says under his breath, “Goddamn, this son of a bitch”, to the megaphone. How does Butch respond? Do you remember the list that Butch asked Buzz to make? Butch yells the list to Buzz’s mother as part of his negotiation to give up Buzz. He shouts that Buzz be taken to roller-coaster rides, and be allowed to eat cotton candy as well. The mother reluctantly agrees despite her faith of Jehovah’s Witness not allowing these practices. This, right here should tell you everything you need to know about Butch’s character. Butch then decides to ask for “some candy and gum and shit like that”. The police officers and Rangers start collecting all the gum they have. Butch asks Buzz to start moving towards the police and his Mama while he himself starts crawling away from the police. Buzz initially walks towards his mother but then runs towards Butch, and hugging him. Observing this, something inside Red says that maybe he made the right choice by letting Butch go the juvenile jail. Maybe there is some good left in Butch. He proceeds unarmed towards Butch and Buzz to talk out the negotiation. Before walking towards Butch and Buzz, Red tells the FBI sniper not to shoot until he tells him when to shoot. Red walks towards them both and tells Butch that he is unarmed and thus, Butch should drop his gun too. Butch tells him, he doesn’t have a gun. Buzz, his friend, destroyed the evidence already. Red and Butch stare at each other and finally Butch asks Red, “Do I know you, friend?” Red responds, “No. Not really.” Butch seeks Red’s permission to talk to Buzz for a moment. Red nods.
Now, I don’t need to tell you what happens next. If you still can’t figure out, you should start watching more movies, a lot more movies. The FBI sniper shoots Butch at the opportune moment. Why he shoots, is not important. What’s important is how should Red’s character feel now? How should Buzz’s character feel? And these are the reactions that make you feel the pain and the catharsis. It was Kevin Costner’s Butch who died but as a viewer, we all feel that a part of both Red and Buzz died too.
This ending is perhaps a great example of Chekov’’s Gun rule. The Gun if introduced should go off sooner or later. There is no scene in this movie that doesn’t tell us something about the characters. There is no act performed by our characters that don’t build up to the climax. This movie is an exercise in working with multiple Guns and letting them all go off in the climax.
