So what's next
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Paris, Texas
lamont-hard — 11 years ago(December 22, 2014 04:07 AM)
They raise the boy from now onTravis raises him, she raises him, he goes back to his uncle. They reunite as a couple. I hated that the film left this open. I did not get why she would not see the boy.
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suspiria777 — 11 years ago(January 10, 2015 10:34 PM)
I kind of hated the ending, too. I thought this was a very beautiful movie and Harry Dean Stanton was incredible, but Travis was not sympathetic to me in the latter half of the movie. His judgment was awful and I thought his decision to just basically kidnap Hunter from Walt and Anne was messed up. Even if that was his biological son, Hunter was more their kid now and had a stable, loving home there. I think dropping Hunter off at Anne's was likely the only responsible thing she did. She still didn't seem ready to be a mother. Who could look at her life as a 25-year-old peepshow girl with an unstable income ("Sometimes she sends $300, sometimes $5) and think after 4 years of knowing where her son was and never going to see him meant she wanted Hunter in her life now? Even if she did, it seems selfish to me.
My heart broke for Anne and Walt and Travis and Jane, too, to be sure. But it's like every adoptive parents' nightmare. I hope Jane returned him to Anne and Walt and just maintained a better relationship with them all until she got her life together. -
fairy_depp — 10 years ago(August 22, 2015 03:09 PM)
I didn't mind it having an open ending but I did find it an unnecessarily unhappy ending - it didn't feel particularly real to me but let's hope Jane returns Hunter to the only parents he's ever known and she perhaps moves there so that she can build a more healthy life and relationship with her son
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kenny-164 — 10 years ago(August 27, 2015 11:57 AM)
I understand that some might focus primarily on Hunter's future coming out of the ending. But i don't think the ending is supposed to be primarily about Hunter. Before proceeding I think what happens with Hunter will depend. Does Jane have any ohter options that might be a better fit for raising Hunter than working in the peepshow? I do think she loves Hunter and wil try to make it work, but whether she can is open ended. I will return to Hunter later, but in the context of what follows.
Imo the real meaning and point of the ending has to do with Travis and Jane. That in turn is a reflection of the overall attitude of Wenders and his people toward what the film's larger context is, which is America. But Sam Shepard's hand in this can also not be overlooked, him an American, Wenders German. The net result, when one also considers the mix of American and European cast members, puts the subject of America in a rather mixed, ambiguous context.
If you read enough about this great film you know it is sometimes or often compared to John Ford's The Searchers, and with good reason. Read Roger Ebert's review fo an analysis of that aspect:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-paris-texas-1984
Ebert though also points out another great film inspired by The Searchers, that being Taxi Driver, whose lead character is also named Travis (Taxi Driver obviously was made before Paris, Texas). Along with The Searchers' lead character Ethan, played imo in the performance of his life by John Wayne, all three have several elements in common. They are on an existential search, a journey, seeking meaning, but in the context in each case involving a woman or girl, and at differing points the reveal occurs that some element of sexual bondage is involved for all three. (Not to digress but I suppose hte point can be asserted that Taxi Driver is not limited to one woman, Jodie Foster's character, being in bondage, but bondage of a different type for Cybil Shepard's? Perhaps)
Another similarity amoung the three is that the lead character is deeply flawed, at least in some measure due to an alienation from the environment, and other people, which they find themselves dealing with. In the case of this film's Travis, this aspect of him is quite significant in understanding the ending. In all three, the protagonist ends up alone. (Ethan in that famous shot walking out the ranch house door by himself, Travis in TD driving his taxi away, Travis here also driving away, presumably on a freeway leading outside of Houston.) But of course there is much more to Paris, Texas than its similarities to those earlier two films.
One last note about them, however, is relevant here - The Searchers is also set in Texas, or mostly in Texas, but post Civil War and of even greater significance in rural settings exclusively. Taxi Driver instead is entirely set in a city, New York City. Paris, Texas, whether intentionally or not, sort of splits the difference, adding not only rural Texas, urban Houston, but also suburban Los Angeles. Well it is certainly intentional that all three types are included.
THe middle ground of surburban LA is found to contain no small measure of ambiguity. We and Travis recognize it has been the safe place where Hunter has been growing, in what appears to be the stable household of Walt and Anne Henderson, solidly middle class or even above average. In this setting Travis finds enough support and comfort to slowly move toward a more "normal" interaction with others. THis includes his humorous attempts to learn to act like a father. But in this setting he also finds reminders of Jane, and of equal importance does so while Hunter not only is also reminded of his mother, but asks questions why in effect things turned out as they had.
Travis knows much about that, but not all - Travis does not know why Jane sent Hunter to live with Walt and Anne. But he also has to wonder to what extent his own failings on their behalf contributed to the situation where Hunter was not living with his natural mother. Guilt in short becomes a motivator.
Guilt is found in the surburban LA "paradise", and we soon see how it makes it impossible for Travis to stay there himself. Hunter's questionings are interpreted by Travis to mean Hunter is also set to pursue the quest that they soon take up. Was it really Hunter's intention that his father would interpret his questions in that way? Perhaps not, but soon when the nature of the quest is made known to him, he accepts that he is on it, and off they go (or rather continue going).
Earlier of course we saw the rural environment of Southwest Texas as a place Travis escaped to, from others, from that which alienated him as we understand later in his shared monologue with Jane. As he says to Walt in looking at the picture of hte lot he supposedly owns in Paris, Texas, there's nothing there. But of course that is not literally true - there is escape. But now Travis is on his quest, -
gobears87 — 9 years ago(July 16, 2016 09:38 PM)
I will re-post comments I made on another thread on this board.
I think maybe we're to infer that Travis came to the conclusion that he can't be around Jane again. I.e., to put himself and Jane into proximity again is opening the door to recreating the same disastrous ending they went through already. So the four of them (Travis, Jane, Anne, and Walt) raising Hunter together in some arrangement isn't going to work. At the same time, Travis believes that he had robbed his son of a relationship with Jane through the sins of his former life. And he believes that Hunter needs to be with Jane. So perhaps he is counting on Jane to do the right thing and make her way to L.A. to start over, get some support from Anne/Walt, and at least have three of them raising Hunter. OK, maybe that's a stretch. But short of kidnapping Jane and bringing her back to L.A., Travis tried to set the first domino in motion by reuniting mother and son.