I’ve seen this movie a week ago and was so crushed by it, I couldn’t even write anything. I became spoiled by all the happy endings in the old movies, but this one chooses to be realistic, and boy, it hurts.
Why did she let him go... He was so obviously convincing himself, not her, and they both knew that; all she had to do was to touch him, hug him, he would never be able to pull himself away from her body, her arms and lips, he would stay, for better or worse, and of course, their life would be tough, and maybe he was right, but it was so worth a try, my God...
It’s Charlton Heston’s favorite movie, and you can clearly see him relishing this character of an aging, illiterate cowhand. He’s still strong and resilient and unbreakable in a way - it’s still Chuck Heston, for God’s sake. (And I claim my fandom-given right to call him Chuck, ‘cause, honestly, it’s my only way of dealing with the sheer epicness of both his screen persona and his own personality.) But Will Penny is just a man, not a hero, and he doesn’t think he could be one. And you can’t tell whether it’s insecurity or good judgement, because all the other Heston’s roles mess with your head, frankly, you just expect him to be yet another knight in shining armor, and that’s why this ending is so crushing.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I couldn’t bring myself to accept it, it just cannot end this way. I thought - say, seven years will pass, he will be old (yeah, kids, fifty five was fucking old back then) and looking for another job, which will be an increasingly hard task for him, and one day some young farmer, almost a kid really, sent by his widowed mother who owns the farm, will be hiring help, and because he doesn’t know any better (as everyone will think), he’ll hire this old man, along with some others. And it’s not luck, of course, it’s just Cath never told Will her husband’s last name, and that little boy who he was so fond of grew up rather unrecognizable in those seven years. You see where it leads? Yes, to me writing a perfectly corny and tearful happy ending that I was robbed of.