Name a movie that breaks a common cliche (spoilers ok)

[NewJeffCT]

This is in response to the movie cliche thread...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=9655145&mesg_id=9655145

However, I want to know a movie where the cliche is not used or broken.

I thought of this when I saw the movie "Deep Blue Sea" the other day. It was not a great movie, but it had two things that surprised me: The hero (Thomas Jane) did not end up with the girl (Saffron Burrows)- she died to save the hero. Meanwhile, the comic relief sidekick ended up surviving (LL Cool J)

[applegrove]

1. The Orchid Thief broke cliches by using cliches. It was hilarious.

[Broken_Hero]

2. No Country for Old Men....

Bardem's character not dying...

I think its cliche that the bad guy almost always dies, or gets served "justice"...

[Broken_Hero]

6. The Mist

the ending to that one was a curveball to me...

[Frank Cannon]

10. It was a different ending from the short story it was based on.

Stephen King himself said he thought it was brilliant, and he wished he'd thought of it.

[Broken_Hero]

17. Yep,

I read the short story about 6 months after I saw the movie, and by far the ending for the Movie was better, which in itself is against the usual cliche(that books are better than movie adaptations).

I wish I would've seen The Mist in the theater, I was going to but family financial issues swamped me during the fall of 07, so I missed it...

[charlie and algernon]

3. Friday Night Lights

the last second, last ditch play does not work.

[Sabriel]

4. Rocky loses by decision at the end of the movie

It was refreshing at the time.

[NewJeffCT]

9. That one came to mind for me later, too

good one

[mucifer]

5. Loved the movie "Brazil" I saw it on tv once and they

edited it so that it had a happy ending. I almost puked.

[Orrex]

15. That's not the fault of the tv network.

What you saw was the American version of the film. The European version has the superior ending.

[mucifer]

19. No, I saw it several times in theaters here in the USA. It never

had that ending til it was on tv.

[Orrex]

22. Well, it turns out that my quick summation was imprecise:

Here's what wiki has to say about it:

The film was produced by Arnon Milchan's company Embassy International Pictures (not to be confused with Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures). Gilliam's original cut of the film is 142 minutes long and ends on a dark note. This version was released internationally outside the US by 20th Century Fox.

US distribution was handled by Universal. Universal executives thought the ending tested poorly, and Universal chairman Sid Sheinberg insisted on dramatically re-editing the film to give it a happy ending, a decision that Gilliam resisted vigorously. As with the cult science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), which had been released three years earlier, a version of Brazil was created by the movie studio with a more consumer-friendly ending. After a lengthy delay with no sign of the film being released, Gilliam took out a full-page ad in the trade magazine Variety urging Sheinberg to release Brazil in its intended version. Eventually, after Gilliam conducted private screenings (without the studio's approval), Brazil was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for "Best Picture", which prompted Universal to finally agree to release a modified 131-minute version supervised by Gilliam, in 1985.<1><13>

So I'm guessing that the version you saw on the big screen was the Gilliam-approved original, while the one that aired more recently on TV was one of the other cuts.

I'll need to double check, but I believe that my three-version boxed set includes the "European" version and the two "American" versions.

[XemaSab]

7. The Sum of All Fears

The bomb goes off.

[NewJeffCT]

13. good one

I remember that now.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

8. One more thing about that movie.

The scene where Sam Jackson was eaten by the shark startled the hell out of me.

[Frank Cannon]

11. To Live and Die in L.A.

Kind of jarring when the "hero" gets shot in the face just before the final showdown with the bad guy.

[tavalon]

12. Summer Lovers

The production values where awful but it was a fun romp into polyamory. I still have it, shitty soundtrack and all.

[deutsey]

14. Unforgiven took a lot of old Western cliches and broke them up

especially in how it de-glamorized the Big Shootout, real life in the Wild West, and how the "bad guy" (Gene Hackman) ultimately dies pathetically saying he didn't deserve to die this way and how he was building a new house.

[Tikki]

16. Miracle Mile....

The La Brea Tar Pits will reveal all.....eventually.


Tikki

[Bucky]

18. Blow Out

Blow Out by Brian De Palma actually lets the killer murder the heroine in the final scene right in front of the hero's eyes... and then he gets clean away from the crime scene--the end.

[WolverineDG]

20. My Best Friend's Wedding

not only did she (Julia Roberts) not break up her best friend's wedding, she didn't end up with any man at all, seeing as how what would have been the back-up boyfriend was played by Rupert Everett & was gay.

dg

[Recovered Repug]

21. The Bad News Bears didn't win. nt.