The atmosphere of the movie is amazing, as you say. But the storyline in the end seems not to tie together, and not in the intentional way like, e.g., a David Lynch movie would mess with the story on purpose, but in the sense that "we had this much footage when the director died, so we had to put together what we had and call it a day".
Still one of my favorite movies though.
Yeah, will definitely rewatch. I vaguely remember that it felt a bit arbitrary in the end what happened with the pianist "nick nightingale".
I read in Roger Ebert's review, that he would have enjoyed a twist in the end, where Bill would notice the body of nick being pushed out on a bed on a hospital corridor, adding some more doubt about what has really happened. (I vaguely remember some bigshot has promised Bill that Nick was fine.)
I don't want to give things away, but we know Nick gets taken by the bad guys. I'm not sure what visually confirming that would do. Regardless, imo, the point of the movie isn't really to factually confirm those various issues, but how rattled Bill is from it all. If you read the article they place on the screen twice, it's filled with these double words and sentences, all clearly referential to elements of the film. I used to think it was Kubrick "trying to tell us something" but these days I take them more as Bill's incoherent approach to the world around him as he's on day 3 of his bender, i.e. the words and phrases are doubled up because he can't see straight anymore, his dreams are blending into his life (just as his life blended into his dreams).
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The atmosphere of the movie is amazing, as you say. But the storyline in the end seems not to tie together, and not in the intentional way like, e.g., a David Lynch movie would mess with the story on purpose, but in the sense that "we had this much footage when the director died, so we had to put together what we had and call it a day". Still one of my favorite movies though.
You should really rewatch the film if you think it doesn't come together in the end. What explanation are you looking for that was missing?
Yeah, will definitely rewatch. I vaguely remember that it felt a bit arbitrary in the end what happened with the pianist "nick nightingale".
I read in Roger Ebert's review, that he would have enjoyed a twist in the end, where Bill would notice the body of nick being pushed out on a bed on a hospital corridor, adding some more doubt about what has really happened. (I vaguely remember some bigshot has promised Bill that Nick was fine.)
I don't want to give things away, but we know Nick gets taken by the bad guys. I'm not sure what visually confirming that would do. Regardless, imo, the point of the movie isn't really to factually confirm those various issues, but how rattled Bill is from it all. If you read the article they place on the screen twice, it's filled with these double words and sentences, all clearly referential to elements of the film. I used to think it was Kubrick "trying to tell us something" but these days I take them more as Bill's incoherent approach to the world around him as he's on day 3 of his bender, i.e. the words and phrases are doubled up because he can't see straight anymore, his dreams are blending into his life (just as his life blended into his dreams).
That prick piano player Nick Nightingale ended up making some interesting movies of his own.