Meaning of the last line
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gojirob — 20 years ago(July 04, 2005 10:17 AM)
I always love seemingly ambiguous lines like these. They force you to look at the language, and how its used at a given time. I go with explanation #1, and view it as : "Maybe it wasn't me pulling off the miracle, after all." Yet it still forces you to wonder who Kris really was. The remake, sadly, has no room for faith : Its him, no doubtno wonder. Here's a fully furnished house to prove it.
I place that one with one from Return Of The Jedi : "It is pointless to resist, my son." It always sounds to me like Vader is speaking to the Emperor, rather than Luke. -
gladden-2 — 20 years ago(July 21, 2005 08:10 AM)
Oh, come on folks, don't be so analytical. I've seen the movie more times than I can count and I never thought the last line was troublesome at all. In fact I thought it was one of the great last lines in moviedom. Yeah, Fred the lawyer, is patting himself on the back (figuratively) for taking a "little old man" and proving to the world that he was Santa Claus. Of course Fred, the adult (and a lawyer) didn't believe him at first. How many adults REALLY believe in Santa. But all of a sudden they're in the EXACT house that Susan had dreamed of and there is Kris's cane. Now Fred is wondering WAS he just a "litle old man" or was he really Santa? He doesn't know, the viewers don't know and that's pretty much the point. And what about that cane? Did Kris leave the cane there by accident or to send a message to Fred. Who knows? Such ambiguity is a literary device and, in the case, a good one. Don't analyze it to death. In 1947 (and I was 10 years old at the time) viewers would accept the scene for what it was, smile, shake their heads a little and not worry about it. They didn't have to have everything spelled out and made absolutely clear the way we do today. It's a delightful, fantasy movie, for Heaven's sake, not a legal brief. Accept it, enjoy it and get over the pop psychology nonsense.
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mandlk — 20 years ago(August 29, 2005 01:43 PM)
I agree the delivery leaves a bit to the imagination but I NEVER doubted that it was Kris's cane and that he scoped out the house, causing young lawyer some doubt. I never even considered the idea that Chris did NOT live at the retirement home and might have lived in that house. Interesting things that get brought up here.
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so_it_goes — 20 years ago(October 28, 2005 09:57 AM)
Right, let's remember that we don't actually KNOW what Fred meant to the letter, but my take on it is, I believe, one that hasn't yet been mentioned:
He was merely comparing his own achievement (getting the judge to acknowledge that Kris was, BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT, Santa Claus, for purely mercenary reasons on the judge's part, it has to be said!) with Kris' achievement: of making a didactic family believe in dreams, and of pointing them in the right direction of a house that he knew the little girl would like.
Err.and if it WAS his cane, couldn't he have bought another? or was it surgically attached? The spirit of the movie is surely that life is much more of an adventure if we accept things that defy explanation..and if the movie is taken in that spirit, it will be enjoyed much more than if you try to analyse it to death.
Merry Christmas to you all! -
thomas196x2000 — 18 years ago(December 25, 2007 05:19 PM)
I would like to believe it is number 1, but I don't know.
Why does Doris go "Oh noooo it can't be! It must have been left here by the people who moved out". Why would she be saying that if suddenly they realized he was real and the attorney's skill is not what got him off? She says "oh no" as if she realized something bad, not good, as maybe he must be nuts and that he is meddling in other people's affairs to try to prove he's Santa.
And then his reply: "Well, maybe, and maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all". That does not sound to me like he was thinking Kris got off because he really was Santa. If he meant that, he would have said something like "Maybe I didn't do such a good JOB as I thought".
Don't get me wrong, I love the movie, but those two lines spoken by those two characters have to be among the worst dialog clinkers I can think of.
To me, it made the whole ending a little off. Not to rain on anyone's parade, but watch it again. You can find the end on youtube. -
viaggio1 — 15 years ago(January 18, 2011 04:01 PM)
Another possible take on the line Fred realized that because he freed Kris, Kris was then able to "find" Susan's house and thus set up the eventual marriage and housekeeping of Fred, Doris, and Susan. Despite the facts that Fred clearly loves Doris and Susan, and marriage with Doris is "in the cards," no one likes to feel that they are being pushed or "manipulated" into taking such a huge step as matrimony even if the manipulator is Kris Kringle !
"A bride without a head !"
"A wolf without a foot !" -
Nemesis7293-1 — 14 years ago(July 20, 2011 07:27 AM)
Wow.just, Wow. Really??? Your profound and ludicrous misinterpretation of those lines and their delivery beggars my imagination. The tone is OBVIOUSLY one of shock as they are jarred out their complacency by the realization that Kris really is Santa Claus. That is the correct and ONLY interpretation.which should be abundantly clear even to the intellectually challenged. Justwow.
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viaggio1 — 14 years ago(July 22, 2011 05:17 PM)
"Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all"
"The tone is OBVIOUSLY one of shock as they are jarred out their complacency by the realization that Kris really is Santa Claus. That is the correct and ONLY interpretation."
So, Nemesis7293-1 You're suggesting that Fred should have left him to rot in the insane asylum BECAUSE he was Santa !
"A bride without a head !"
"A wolf without a foot !" -
PillowRock — 14 years ago(November 14, 2011 03:17 PM)
No, they're not suggesting that at all.
In this usage "wonderful" is not being used by Fred as a synonym for "good".
It is being used to mean "amazing", "herculean", "unbelievable". He's saying: "Maybe I didn't really do something that was impossible, but just the run-of-the-mill proving that somebody is who they are." -
viaggio1 — 14 years ago(November 18, 2011 09:34 PM)
Hi Pillowrock
Thanks for your interesting take on Fred's comment.
My statement was in response to Nemesis' July 20th attempt at trolling.
Have you had a chance to read his posting ?
"A bride without a head !"
"A wolf without a foot !" -
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skohl632001 — 14 years ago(December 11, 2011 07:55 PM)
It's funny but I had the exact same response-as a kid I always got the idea that Fred suddenly felt that maybe he SHOULDN'T have gotten Kris off-not exactly sure why he would feel that way-it's just the wording of the line and the way John Payne plays it.
Now that I'm an adult, it's clear to me that he is in fact commenting on the suddenly very real possibility that Kris really IS Santa Claus.
I watched this the other day with my ten year old niece and I had to explain the line's meaning to her so there definitely seems to be something about the way it's worded that doesn't translate to kids.
It's about the only (marginal) flaw I can think of in this otherwise beautifully written, directed and acted film. -
Skye_Reynolds — 14 years ago(December 24, 2011 12:56 PM)
Yeah, he's definitely commenting on the possibility that Kris really is Santa. He thought that he made Santa out of a kind old man when really he was Santa all along. Of course, the film is rather ambiguous as to whether he really is or not or even if he's being facetious in that statement.
It's sort of an "I want to believe" in light of the improbability of the situation. -
viaggio1 — 13 years ago(December 04, 2012 10:44 AM)
Another possible take on the line Fred realized that because he freed Kris, Kris was then able to "find" Susan's house and thus set up the eventual marriage and housekeeping of Fred, Doris, and Susan. Despite the facts that Fred clearly loves Doris and Susan, and marriage with Doris is "in the cards," no one likes to feel that they are being pushed or "manipulated" into taking such a huge step as matrimony even if the manipulator is Kris Kringle !
"J'ai l'oeil AMRICAIN !"