ATTENTION: Purple Hearts spoilers ahead!
Netflix’s new novel Purple Hearts originally had a darker ending. The plot of Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum’s film centers on two young men, Cassie (Sofia Carson) and Luke (Nicholas Golitsyn), who decide to get married. The catch, however, is that Cassie and Luke’s marriage stems not from love, but from their mutual desire for military gain, which comes with marriage. In the course of Purple Hearts, the two begin to love each other after Luke is wounded in battle, which forces them to take a much more intimate position in their relationship.
Towards the end of the film, the sanctity of their love is threatened when someone accuses them of insincere motives for their wedding. When Luke is brought to trial, he pleads guilty to illegitimate marriage, serves a six-month sentence in prison and faces a disgraceful dismissal. However, the film does not end there, as its final moments depict an emotional reunion and a sweet scene after the credits, which makes it clear that Cassie and Luke are now in a real marriage full of love, and not just practical.
Related: Explanation of Purple Hearts Ending (in detail)
Surprisingly, in an interview with Remezcla, Carson says that this happy ending wasn’t always the plan Purple hearts. Check out her full comment on how the ending of the film has changed, below:
We ended the movie with Luke being put in jail and Cassie waiting for him at the gate, hoping he would come home. [Netflix executives thought] it was important for viewers to see Cassie and Luke again.
It was so cathartic and so beautiful to see them together because you really fell in love with them. And it’s such a great feeling to see a happy ending that they never had.
The chosen ending is certainly a much more romantic climax to this story than the alternative. Although many viewers who are looking for something inspiring may gravitate towards Purple Hearts for this reason, a more pleasant ending may play a role in the existing criticism of the film. Recently, “Purple Hearts” was criticized on the Internet by real military spouses who did not believe that the film accurately reflected their significantly less glamorous experience. While criticism has not focused on the film’s ending, it certainly could have been a contributing factor to the claim that Purple Hearts embellishes the harsh reality of military marriages.
Could their reaction have been different if Purple Hearts had come to a sharper conclusion? This may be the case, although other scenes, such as Cassie and Luke’s romantic farewell before he was sent to service, have also been criticized by members of the military community. As “Purple Hearts” continues to stream on Netflix and is gaining more viewers, the reaction to the film is likely to change. Given the change in the ending, even those who have already watched “Purple Hearts” can now treat the film differently.
