| Posted: 27 July 2016 at 6:51am | IP Logged | 11
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Going back to the original post and Harry Potter. The series matured in a way that mirrored its protagonists, but it had a very traditional, happy ending, didn't it?
Main villain vanquished finally. Heroes not just riding off into the sunset with the prospect of living happily ever after, but we're actually given proof that in the future they are still living happily.
It depends what you mean by 'entertainment'. Is there really a standard history of happy endings throughout the history of tale-telling?
Harry Potter incorporates all kinds of Arthurian elements. But not the unhappy ending, where he is mortally wounded in final battle with his nemesis.
Many cherished pieces of storytelling feature tragic endings. From King Lear through to A Farewell to Arms. In the grand scheme of things, sanitized, happy endings are something associated with Hollywood.
Compare the real ending of A Little Mermaid (i.e. involving sacrifice and death, as well as the promise of redemption) with the Disney version (everyone gets what they want, no one has to make any selfless act, villain dispatched in the last 5 minutes). Or do the same with The Natural. Or I Am Legend. The whole point of the book is he is the end of his species. The fairly recent version with Will Smith has an unbelievably happy resolution, that guts the intention of the book.
But even big screen entertainment has had its fair share of ambiguous or unhappy endings over the years. Pick a serious film from the 70s and chances are it won't have a pat happy ending. Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather, The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver, Network. Even Rocky -- one of the big feel good movies of the era -- ends with Rocky losing.
We've been talking about horror.
The Thing, An American Werewolf in London, The Wolfman, Frankenstein, The Exorcist, The Omen, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Rosemary's Baby. Not a happy ending to be found. None of them particularly modern films.
So, I'm not sure I'd agree with the contention that happy endings are what we used to get and now the norm is unhappy.
I do think there is a trend for series to go darker as they progress as dark is 'kewl' and mainstream TV has become unquestionably more graphic, while the Dirty Harry mindset seems to have bled through to pretty much every hero, with a few notable exceptions.
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