AndyM108 Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Talk about a bummer of an experience. That ending of Go Naked In The World has to be one of the most thoroughly disgusting finishes to a movie I've ever seen. Less than ten minutes after seeing his one true love (Gina Lollabrigida) driven to suicide by his maniacal control freak father (Ernest Borgnine), we see the two of them (Borgnine and his son, Anthony Franciosa) walking arm in arm along the beach as if they were two buddies at a Normandy invasion reunion. And that's the end of the movie! I guess a "happy ending" might have been a bit too much to ask for, given Borgnine's obsessions, not to mention the sick obsessions of the production code at the time - - - "bad women" have to meet disgrace or death or both. But brother, if that had been me in Franciosa's shoes, that old man of mine would've been feeding the sharks 10 seconds after I laid my eyes on him, if I hadn't already done him in about half a dozen times already. (Gotta hand it to Borgnine, though: He's one of the great cinematic Type A creepolas who ever graced the screen, and fortunately like Robert Ryan and Richard Widmark, his off-screen persona was a lot better than his screen characters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Father is happy because the hooker his son was dating is gone. Creepy, well yeah - when her ex clients crawls out from the woodwork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyM108 Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Father is happy because the hooker his son was dating is gone. Creepy, well yeah - when her ex clients crawls out from the woodwork. *Of course* the father is happy, since he got rid of his son's love. That's what he'd been trying to do ever since the scene at their anniversary party! He all but ordered a hit on her, regardless of that last scene where he "agreed" to their marriage in spite of the fact that he still considered her to be a ****. The only things the father cared about were maintaining the veneer of social respectability that masked his pathetic family situation, and to keep controlling his grown son's life. He never once saw Guilietta as anything more than a hooker, and never once attempted to listen to his son's POV. What's creepy is that the son didn't then kill that loathsome SOB on sight, but instead walked away with him arm in arm, as if Guilietta's death were now "in the past", even though the body was still warm. If this isn't the most misogynistic ending I've ever seen, I don't think I'd want to see the first place winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 There has been creepier fathers in film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyM108 Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Yeah, but he came by it naturally, which is kind of cheating. Borgnine had to work at being such a loathsome character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arturo Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I agree.....the ending is a cop out. I enjoyed this movie overall, the locations are stunning, as is the gorgeous Gina Lollobrigida. But the end, what a load of double standard crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougieB Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Elizabeth Taylor also had to die in "Butterfield 8", which would probably make a good double feature with "Go Naked In The World.". The moviemakers were probably worried about ending on such a downbeat note, so they figured the father-son reunion would temper that. I agree that the effect was just the opposite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyM108 Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 More than any movie I can think of off the top of my head, Go Naked In The World might have benefited by having a woman direct it, or at least edit the screenplay. Maybe Valerie Solanas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougieB Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Women could probably solve most of the problems in the world if we let them, but this movie may be beyond help. (Valerie probably could have made it even wackier than it already is, if not more coherent.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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