At The End Of The Road (1983)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | At the end of the road |
| Original title | Right of way |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1983 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | George Schaefer |
| script | Richard Lees |
| production | George Schaefer |
| music | Brad Fiedel |
| camera | Howard Schwartz |
| cut | Sidney Katz |
| occupation | |
| |
At the end of the way (Original title: Right of Way ) is an American television film by George Schaefer from 1983 , which is based on the play Right of Way by Richard Lees . Lees also wrote the script for the film. At the end of the road was the last film that James Stewart starred in and Stewart's first collaboration with Bette Davis .
content
Teddy and Miniature "Mini" Dwyer are a couple that grew old together. When her daughter Ruda comes to visit her, she is appalled by the condition of the house and farm. Messie-like states have set in here since she last visited them. The front yard is unkempt and the whole house is chaotic. But the old couple feels comfortable in the chaos they have created themselves, after all, they have deliberately arranged themselves that way. Neither of them want to live controlled by others and - what is even more important - they don't want to die either. Mini suffers from an illness that over time will make her a shadow of herself. That's why she wants to die. Teddy, on the other hand, cannot imagine being separated from Mini, which is why he too wants to die. Both open up her daughter that they plan to in the near future suicide to commit, and which reacts in horror. She sends a psychologist into their house to keep them both from their plans. And so the mills of bureaucracy begin to grind.
In the days that followed, the net tightened around the Dwyers, who were gradually denied their self-determined life. When both are about to become incapacitated, they put their suicide plan into action: Teddy buys a vacuum cleaner pipe , connects it to the exhaust pipe of the car, and they both get into the car in their garage and turn on the engine. But their plan is thwarted by overzealous neighbors and both are now captured as potential criminals and taken to separate hospitals.
production
At the end of the road was James Stewart's first film, which was produced exclusively for cable television from the start . The television premiere of the film took place in the United States on November 21, 1983. After long discussions, the ending was changed so that the couple sits in the car in the garage and daughter Rudy comes to the house. She smells the exhaust fumes, but respects her parents' wish to die. The German premiere was in April 1988 on West German television, in which the originally filmed, tragic end of the arrest was shown.
criticism
Jonathan Coe described the end of the road as an "all too serious television film about euthanasia ". James Stewart's portrayal of Teddy Dwyer was sometimes referred to as "the role of his life", but the film was also criticized as "cool and aloof". Lees also attributed the criticism to the filming team's negative relationship with leading actress Bette Davis, who regularly took out her bad mood on the set on the filming team.
The lexicon of international films rated Am Ende des Weg as an “emotionally charged melodrama” that “does not shy away from being overdone” and “advocates the right to suicide in a questionable generalization without admitting counter-arguments”.
Web links
- At the end of the path in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Donald Dewey: James Stewart. A life for the film . Henschel, Berlin 1997, p. 409.
- ↑ Jonathan Coe: James Stewart. His films - his life . Heyne, Munich 1994, p. 187.
- ↑ E.g. by the author of the play Richard Lees. See Dewey, p. 408.
- ↑ Dewey, p. 407 f.
- ↑ At the end of the road. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 11, 2015 .