ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. Opening with Phil Connors and ending with Brody and Ripley, the book argues that the films progressively situate their protagonists within an ever-widening web of social relationships until, finally, those relationships break apart. In this body of films so arranged, the central characters are of two distinct types. Characters in the first three movie chapters become virtuous, or embark on their moral improvement, as moral traits supplant their vices or flaws. In the second triad of film studies, the virtues of the protagonists are already in place but are brought to full flowering in the crush of do-or-die crises. The book considers the three films(Groundhog Day, The African Queen, and Parenthood), which are filled with humor, contain almost no violence or death, and have happy endings that perhaps strain the credulity just a bit.
