When creator David Chase did stop “The Sopranos” Sunday night on HBO, people around the country were blogging, e-mailing, phoning and talking (cursing? laughing?) about his decision to abruptly end the series without major resolutions about Tony and his families. But many important works of art and entertainment have stopped without major resolutions. Here are a few examples from Tribune critics:
– “THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT” (1999), written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez.
Where it stopped: From the point of view of Heather Donahue’s videocamera, we see her searching a decrepit old house for her hiking/filming companion Mike (Michael C. Williams). She spots him hunched in a basement corner, the camera suddenly is knocked to the floor, and the picture goes black.
Major unresolved issue: What exactly happened to her and the others, and who was doing it?
– “GONE WITH THE WIND” (1936) by Margaret Mitchell.
Where it stopped: Rhett Butler packs a bag and leaves home angrily, informing wife Scarlett, “I don’t give a damn,” about what will happen to her, while she vows, through her tears, to someday win him back.
Major unresolved issue: Does she?
– “L’AVVENTURA” (1960), co-written and directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.
Where it stopped: With the uneasy alliance between the lover (played by Gabriele Ferzetti) and the friend (Monica Vitti) of a woman who disappears on a Mediterranean holiday.
Major unresolved issue: Antonioni — like his characters — shows little interest in solving the central puzzle of the disappearance. The puzzles of the human soul are enough.
– “STUART LITTLE” (1945) by E.B. White.
Where it stopped: As the plucky mouse drove away, “he somehow felt that he was headed in the right direction.”
Major unresolved issue: Much to the frustration and dismay of children everywhere, we don’t know if he ever finds Margalo, his beloved bird.
– “THE LADY, OR THE TIGER?” (1882) by Frank R. Stockton.
Where it stopped: “Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady?”
Major unresolved issue: Readers don’t know whether the prisoner/suitor gets killed by a tiger or lives happily ever after with the beautiful lady.
– “DON CARLOS” (1867) by Giuseppe Verdi.
Where it stoped: At the end of Act 5 (in the original French version of Verdi’s grand historical opera), the Spanish crown prince is about to be handed over to the Inquisition but is suddenly snatched into the ether by his dead grandfather.
Major unresolved issue: What really happens to Don Carlos at the final curtain?
– “GREAT EXPECTATIONS” (1860-61) by Charles Dickens.
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Where it stopped and major unresolved issue: Dickens wrote two separate endings, suggesting very different results. In the first, Pip and Estella meet casually with no suggestion of a future marriage. But Dickens wrote a second, more ambiguous version, at least hinting that a marriage might be possible. Contemporary printings typically feature both versions, enshrining this novel as a rare literary masterpiece boasting two separate, equally authentic resolutions.
– “BASIC INSTINCT” (1992), directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Joe Eszterhas.
Where it stopped: Seductress author Catherine Trammel (Sharon Stone) has been cleared of murder and is in bed with Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas). But then the camera spots under her bed … an ice pick, the murder weapon.
Major unresolved issue: Does she eventually kill her lover detective?
– “ANGEL” (1999-2004)
Where it stopped: The TV show’s good-guy vampire, Angel, and his loyal crew were in an alley, poised to take on an attack from a horde of baddies.
Major unresolved issues: Did they survive? Were there just too many bad guys for Angel and company?
– “EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH” (1976) by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson.
Where it stops: At the end of a nearly five-hour music-theater piece without plot in any conventional sense (the “story” is a transcendental meditation on the life and work of Albert Einstein, told through slowly shifting visual images and repetitive, incantatory music), two lovers are sitting on a park bench. “Kiss me, John,” the woman implores. He does. Curtain.
Major unresolved issue: Nothing is resolved in this opera. Or everything is.
– “WAITING FOR GODOT” (1952) by Samuel Beckett.
Where it stopped: The tramps Vladimir and Estragon await Godot, who never shows. “Well? Shall we go?” Vladimir asks. “Yes, let’s go,’ Estragon says. “They do not move,” says the final stage direction.
Major unresolved issue: Does life have any meaning whatsoever?
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And we’re sure there are many more. Please send yours to [email protected] (please follow this format and put ENDINGS in the subject field) and we’ll publish a selection in an upcoming Tempo.