Great movie, now I know a lot of people don't agree with how it ended and think, logically enough, that Andie should've got together with Duckie instead of Blaine (Hughes's original ending in the script). First of all, I think making movies by committee is the worst idea ever, but on this occasion; it could be that, for once, they got it right. Look at it this way: Andie changed a little, Blaine changed a little and their mutual compromise paid off in the end. It also fits in with Iona's character arc in that everyone, including Duckie, made slight changes to accommodate or try new things and in doing so; broke down the artificial, ideological barriers of class, cliques and social designation. In fact, the only person who didn't change at all was Stef; sleazy and ruthless to the bitter end!
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I've been on the fence for this one for years. I think Duckie would have given her a longer and healthier relationship than Blaine, but the Duckman did OK for himself in the end too picking up Kristi Swanson.
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yesssss they got it right!!!! my gosh, duckie was so immature and wrong for andie, IMO. yes he adored and loved her but she did not feel that way about him. it's perfect, the way it is. Posts: 4807 | Registered: Oct 2002 | Site Updates: 39
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'Blane, his name is Blane'? - 'That's not a name that's a major appliance'. ;-)
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kevdugp73
He's eating after dark again....
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I love the Duckman...my heart broke when his did. I think I just like the idea of childhood friends growing up together and it turning into something more...a rarity in real life though. Maybe in the inevitable remake...Duckie kills Blane...there...no more fuss...all problems solved Posts: 2148 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Aug 2007 | Site Updates: 0
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Muffy Tepperman
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But Andie didn't love Duckie like that! I like the way it ended because Andie and Duckie were better as best friends......any girl knows you always want the guy that makes your heart flutter not the one that makes you roll your eyes haha Posts: 2912 | Registered: Jun 2003 | Site Updates: 26
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quote:Originally posted by Muffy Tepperman: But Andie didn't love Duckie like that! I like the way it ended because Andie and Duckie were better as best friends......any girl knows you always want the guy that makes your heart flutter not the one that makes you roll your eyes haha
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Muffy Tepperman
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I do have to agree SKOW is correct! The buildup of Keith and Watts relationship was stronger there were definatly heart flutters.......just that kiss alone on the car....awww so there I saw the friends becoming a relationship.
Duckie and Andie never had that? it was more like they all couldn't stand Duckie.....his Otis didn't even make Andie swoon????.....so sad haha
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I hated that she didn't laugh at his Otis....and I hated that they didn't end up together too...but Hughes never really did pave the way for Duckie and Andie...he just made Duckie a bit creepy if you really examine it. I mean if someone was riding around outside your friends house, and crying in alley ways etc it would actually creep you out. That said.....Duckie is still the coolest. Blaine is the obvious choice though despite falling in love with Andie regardless of their rubbish date, his rubbish friends, letting her down for prom and consequential locker pushing incident. Love???? Naaaaaaaaah.
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80'sRocked Play it Loud, Play it Proud
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My vote goes for option "C"....none of the above. I don't think either character, Duckie or Blaine, fits the bill for Andie. Duckie is too much of the annoying, dorky, clumsy, side-kick type and Blaine is the opposite....too much of the "cool, rich guy" for her. She really needed someone right in between....more like me. Posts: 3614 | From: Caught Somewhere in Time.... | Registered: May 2008 | Site Updates: 101
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Kash I love the topic and would definitely like to see more of them about other 80's movies "Did they get it right?" It is just rife with cool conjecture and a multiplicity of insights and takes on a subject. Good job!
As for the ending of Pretty in Pink, my views are two-fold: 1. I will let Duckie explain it in his own words. "This is an incredibly romantic moment and you're ruining it for me!"
2. I agree 100% with option C 80's Rocked. Duckie was a child and Blane was a milktoast. Neither deserved her. I do have to say though 80'sRocked, this is a first for me. Until this day I had never heard anyone reference the words Andrew McCarthy and Cool on the same sentence. Posts: 253 | From: ILLINOIS | Registered: May 2009 | Site Updates: 0
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I love Andrew McCarthy. Well 80's Andrew McCarthy anyway....not so much the Lipstick Jungle one I've seen in the adverts (he may be cool in the show, I've never seen it). He is sooooooooo cool as Blaine. I love it when Blaine does the computer thing in the library....that.....I liked a lot.
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kevdugp73
He's eating after dark again....
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I've never seen the alternate ending where Dukie and Andie stay together....how exactly does it go down?
Yeah...and I don't get the Andrew McCarthy thing either...if he didn't get lucky and make it big...I bet he'd be the dude at school wearing colorful knit sweaters...like Bill Cosby.
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I think Pretty in Pink was the second most realistic portrayal of high school romance that came out of the '80s behind The Last American Virgin. If she hooked up with Stef at the end, that would have been perfect. Sorry, but most girls I knew in high school were stupid like that. All the ones I treated like crap were totally in love with me and the ones I pined after wanted nothing to do with me. In my experience, that's how it works at that age.
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Hard to pick for sure; how would everyone here have felt had it been an open ending in the end where it would be left to we the viewers to decided who she'd take in the end without actually showing us? (And if the answer would have been none of the above, we the viewers know that Cameron and Brian, among the others of the same age in Shermer, would have been open as possibilities...)
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I hate Duckie and everything about him! On the other hand, Blane was completely devoid of a personality!
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quote:My vote goes for option "C"....none of the above. I don't think either character, Duckie or Blaine, fits the bill for Andie. Duckie is too much of the annoying, dorky, clumsy, side-kick type and Blaine is the opposite....too much of the "cool, rich guy" for her. She really needed someone right in between....more like me. [Wink]
2. I agree 100% with option C 80's Rocked. Duckie was a child and Blane was a milktoast. Neither deserved her. I do have to say though 80'sRocked, this is a first for me. Until this day I had never heard anyone reference the words Andrew McCarthy and Cool on the same sentence. [Wink]
I disagree. All the characters are flawed in some way. If you look at Andie objectively, she isn't the nicest person in the world either. The boys weren't any worse; they all have their 'juvenile' qualities. In that way, the 'me' aspect to the characters is one of the things that rings true in the film. They are all teenagers, and they're all somewhat selfish. Iona came across better than anyone else in the film.
quote:I think Pretty in Pink was the second most realistic portrayal of high school romance that came out of the '80s behind The Last American Virgin. If she hooked up with Stef at the end, that would have been perfect. Sorry, but most girls I knew in high school were stupid like that. All the ones I treated like crap were totally in love with me and the ones I pined after wanted nothing to do with me. In my experience, that's how it works at that age.
It was realistic in as much as Duckie didn't get the girl. Steff was certainly portrayed as being popular with a certain crowd, and he did have a 'hot' girlfriend, so it wasn't like he didn't get the girl ("I've been out with a lot of girls at this school") he just didn't get Andie, which is plausible because it was never expressly stated that she didn't find him attractive, more that she thought he was arrogant and slimy.
quote:Hard to pick for sure; how would everyone here have felt had it been an open ending in the end where it would be left to we the viewers to decided who she'd take in the end without actually showing us? (And if the answer would have been none of the above, we the viewers know that Cameron and Brian, among the others of the same age in Shermer, would have been open as possibilities...)
Everyone here would be thinking with hindsight. The audience back in the day would've gone nuts. They didn't want her to get Duckie, and they certainly wouldn't have been happy with a neutral ending.
It's worth contextualising PiP a little bit to see why the original ending didn't work for the audience beyond the narrative failure: Back in '86 Andrew McCarthy was something of a b-grade pinup, who turned up in the teen magazines alongside Rob Lowe and Matt Dillon and other more popular stars. Whereas Jon Cryer was barely known, having only been in a film or two (and no hits). This film put Cryer on the map and reinforced McCarthy's position with the teen crowd. For Duckie to get the girl when most of the audience wanted her to go with the more famous guy (whom she clearly wanted more) seemed crazy, so the audience booed. Justifiably so, in my opinion. SKoW with it's similar story went to great lengths to make sure the audience was with Keith when he walks away with Watts at the end in a way that PiP didn't.
As McCarthy says in the DVD features; the re-shot ending works because PiP is a fairytale. And he's right; It's a fairytale with Andie as the heroine. So the only way it could end is with her getting Prince Charming. If the story had been about Duckie, then he would've gotten Andie and the audience would've been happy with that. But it wasn't about him, it was about her, and she wanted Blane. You can’t have Andie pining for Blane throughout 90% of the film, and then at the end do an about-face and end up with that nice guy that irritated her for most of the film. It just doesn’t work. If the filmmakers had wanted the audience to be happy with Andie getting Duckie, then they should’ve established that she had romantic feelings for him earlier in the film - they didn’t, and so the preview audiences were horrified and the ending had to be re-shot.
It really doesn't matter who you personally found more attractive or likable, or who you as the viewer would've chosen; it comes down to who Andie wanted, and for the entire film - right up until the end - Andie wanted Blane.
The second ending works well, and with it we get much more than the original – everyone grows: Blane stands up to Steff and his opinions then kisses Andie in front of everybody (social suicide), when he says the line "I always believed in you… just didn't believe in me", it sums him up. Duckie realises that if he loves Andie he has to sacrifice some of his happiness for her, and by saying, "You're right, he's not like the others", he lets her know that if she wants Blane she can have him, and he'll still be her friend. Andie realises that she had it back to front; she wanted Blane to be her knight in shining armour, and in one way he was - he saw past the class and the different clothing, seeing how special and how strong she was - but in another way, she had to be his knight, by seeing his weaknesses and helping him with them.
The only thing that doesn't work about the new ending is the weight McCarthy lost and the awful wig they put on him.
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mamamiasweetpeaches
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For the person who asked about the "Andie ends up with Duckie" footage, I dont think theres any in existance anymore. They came out with a special DVD (I have it but havent viewed it yet) and a lot of us clammored to get it only to find out the Alternate Ending isnt on there.
I had the book PRETTY IN PINK and it ends with Andie dancing with Duckie. It really doesnt imply they end as a couple though and I like that. As much as I was disappointed by the Andie and Blaine ending (I found it hard to believe Duckid who had pined a large chunk of his life would just give up so quickly, even IF Kristy Swanson was flirty with him!) I dont know if her ending up with Duckie woulda been that easy to swallow. I guess I want Option C! So in the book it sort of DOES end Option C. Because I really dont think it ended all that romatically in the book, her and Duckie just partyed their asses off at the prom: Happy Ending.
* Blaine really didnt appeal to me. He didnt really have a good personality, did he????
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kevdugp73
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Ending "D"...after frequenting the bar one too many times...Andie can't decide between Duckie or Blane...so she hooks up with the bouncer at the bar...Andrew Dice Clay! Posts: 2148 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Aug 2007 | Site Updates: 0
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kevdugp73
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* Thanks for clarifying mama...I always assumed the alternative ending had Andie and Duckie together.
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the otis singing part made me feel more embarrassed for duckie. he was sweet, but annoying. and in that scene, you could tell that andie was more annoyed with him than anything. i always saw blaine as a guy who didn't quite fit in with all his "richie" friends, although he was..rich. he took a liking to andie, from the moment he saw her in the record store..i love that scene! the glances between the 2 of them (as muffy said.. heart flutters! you can see it all over her face.)
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quote:I had the book PRETTY IN PINK and it ends with Andie dancing with Duckie. It really doesnt imply they end as a couple though and I like that. I guess I want Option C! So in the book it sort of DOES end Option C. Because I really dont think it ended all that romatically in the book, her and Duckie just partyed their asses off at the prom: Happy Ending.
Happy ending, sure. But one that's deeply cinematically unsatisfying. It lacks any sense of resolve. That ending works on paper only. The audience clearly thought the same. It would be like ending SKoW with Keith and Watts walking into the party together and then the credits rolling.
Now, if you're looking for reality, then Journey's Andie-does-Steff ending is more real. Heck, even Kevdugp73's Andrew Dice Clay ending is more plausible than Andie ending up with Duckie. Friends, sure, but lovers? Never.
Here's some shots of the original ending:
A before and after Blane comparison:
quote:* Blaine really didnt appeal to me. He didnt really have a good personality, did he????
Yeah, but once again; it's Andie's story. Some girls will relate to her pining after bland Blane (bland as written, anyway), others will feel more drawn to Duckie because of his style (even if they wouldn't want to date him because of his neediness). Other's would want to jump Steff.
Andie's personality really isn't that great either, and if you watch the film objectively, she's both miserable and self absorbed. Frankly, Iona is the star personality, but even Andie's gym class friend (name escapes me) comes across as more appealing to me than her. But still, it's her story and even John Hughes recognised he'd fumbled the ball with the original ending.
All the characters have obvious personality flaws:
Steff comes across more interesting than any of the other guys to me (largely due to Spader's performance).
However, in terms of believability, I can go 100% with Andie wanting Blane: If you look at Andie's position in life, it's easy to see why she would want Blane - he represents everything she doesn't have but wishes she did; he's stable, easy going, from a good secure family, with normal conformist friends. She craves normality because everything in her life is a abnormal - her mother ran away, her father is emotionally stunted because of it, her male friend is a needy oddball and obsessive towards her, her female friend is in trouble a lot, her boss doesn't want to act like an adult, she's poor and she gets picked on. From her eyes looking at Blane - what's not to like?
As for Duckie just switching off Andie when he saw the other girl, I always took it as a shorthand that what Duckie - and people like him - are lacking, is the emotional validation from the opposite sex that tells them they're attractive and worth caring about. Andie, for instance, not only got the guy she had a crush on (Blane) but she was hit on by Steff (one of the popular crowd), and probably had other offers in the past. It's pretty clear Duckie hadn't had that, which is why he gives us that little "Can you believe this?" look before moving off. He managed to let go of Andie because he realised how much Blane meant to her - that was a selfless act for him - his (movie) reward was emotional validation by another girl - she liked the Duckman's style. One of the great fuels for obsession is a lack of viable alternatives causing people to fixate on the one thing they think will make them happy. Duckie never believed that any girl would want him unless she was nice, felt like an outcast and didn't conform (Andie) - he had low self esteem. But Andie believed that 'other' people could want her, in fact she knew it because Steff hit on her. That's why she felt comfortable wanting Blane.
Dammit... I'm really rambling.
[ 10. September 2009, 17:21: Message edited by: logan5 ]
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mamamiasweetpeaches
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