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Great movie endings

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I was watching the movie “Broadcast News” last night, a film I’d seen in a movie theater when it first came out (1987), but didn’t remember all that well—except, that is, for the scene where wannabee news anchor Albert Brooks is so nervous he sweats up a storm in his tryout appearance, sabotaging his chances at anchor stardom.

“Broadcast News” holds up fairly well as light entertainment, and is also somewhat amusing in its quaint assumption that some people in news have some sort of commitment to the truth. But its ending is a remarkably unsatisfying and lackluster afterthought.

Which got me to thinking about movie endings in general. As with novels or plays, it’s a lot easier to think of a wonderful beginning than to think of a great ending. But it can be done—some movie ending are just about perfect. And good movie endings do not necessarily ride on complete resolution, either; ambiguity can be just as good if done well.

Witness, for example, one of the most famous movie endings of all, that of “Gone With the Wind.” (And by the way, it practically goes without saying that the rest of this post will contain SPOILERS, so if you have somehow remained unaware of the endings of certain well-known movies and don’t want to know them, then please don’t read the rest).

Does the scheming but lovely Scarlett win back the scheming but charming Rhett? After all, we the audience know that these two were made for each other. But Margaret Mitchell would never tell; she closed the book with the question unresolved, and an emphasis on Scarlett’s indomitable will to go on. In the movie, the music doesn’t hurt, either:

And then there’s “High Noon,” one of my favorite movies of all time. Purists may quibble that Will Kane would never have disrespected the office he held by throwing his badge in the dirt the way he does. But still, it’s a great device. The ending is well-nigh perfect (actually, as far as I’m concerned, the whole movie is pretty perfect): the Quaker wife killing a man in order to defend her husband, the tormented look on Cooper’s face throughout, the townspeople emerging from their cowardly hiding, and the stupendous musical theme. Even watching the clip just now, I got a bit teary-eyed:

After that we’ll have a little comic relief. “Some Like It Hot” (1959):

Watching that clip now, in isolation from the entire movie, it occurs to me that what was once preposterous—Osgood’s casual acceptance of the possibility of marrying a man—is now mainstream. And of course Hollywood has in recent years been part of the project to get us to that point, making many movies that present gay relationships (and by implication, I suppose, gay marriage) as a perfectly reasonable alternative to heterosexual ones.

But “Some Like It Hot” played the transvestite aspects of its plot strictly for laughs, making the heterosexual nature of its protagonists crystal clear. If there was a subtext in the movie that was pro-gay (and there may have been), it certainly was exceedingly well-hidden at the time, and was submerged in a genre with an ancient lineage—that of the male performer in drag. In addition, the movie was one of the most genuinely funny films ever made.

And then there’s this one—a movie closing to close the post. It’s not the actual ending of “Casablanca”—that occurs just a few minutes later—but it’s the emotional ending:

Comments

Great movie endings — 41 Comments

  1. The writers drafted three ending for Casablanca.

    After the first was filmed the other two were tossed… not even shot.

    That ending sent the director over the top. He knew he’d hit it.

    GWTW was the biggest film with anti-heroes as leads. Both are total scoundrels.

  2. Burning question: How were they able to so convincingly make 5′ 8″ Bogart look taller than 5′ 9″ Bergman?

  3. The better the movie, the more important it is that the ending match the rest. Thus, the better the movie, the greater the disappointment a bad ending brings.

  5. blert Says:
    August 19th, 2013 at 5:14 pm:”GWTW was the biggest film with anti-heroes as leads. Both are total scoundrels.”

    Good point. But, was GWTW bigger than The Godfather?

  8. “Always look on the bright side of life”.

    It’s especially difficult to end a silly comedy. “The Holy Grail” ended with everyone getting arrested — very unsatisfying.

  9. NCC, “The Third Man” is one of the films that crossed my mind as I read neo’s post. And Geoffrey makes a good point.

    “Casablanca” is great from start to finish, and even though the ending imo was inevitable given the tone and events throughout, it’s still brilliant.

    Among epic films, “Bridge on the River Kwai” features, I think, a particularly great climax/ending.

    And coincidentally, just last night I caught the last 10 minutes of a certain film and rewatched the final scene several times. For many years I’ve considered it to be the greatest movie ending ever – the way it draws on previous events, the music building during the final scene (then suddenly hushing), even Christopher Lloyd’s maniacal laughter.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3c2cXiEUHo

  14. I second City Lights, even over my above comment of Shane. It also gets my vote for the best movie I have seen.

  17. Another vote for City Lights. I think I’d fallen in love with the movie even before I saw it for the first time, thanks to Walter Kerr’s description of it in his book “The Silent Clowns.”

  18. Older and Wheezier:

    Yes, indeed, “Bridge on the River Kwai.” I still remember the shock of seeing that one when I was young.

    Which reminds me of a more recent one: “The Sixth Sense.”

  19. Frankie Laine’s cover of the theme from High Noon was good, but Tex Ritter did a masterful job with the soundtrack.

  21. “Even when Judas hanged himself there was a storm, too.” –Tuco,meaning his betrayal was worst than Christ’s.

    Tuco was a better informed villian than today.

    And hard to imagine a better ending than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’s ending.

    But perhaps endings are not the current subject.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uNHntjLqUs

  22. And then there’s “High Noon,” one of my favorite movies of all time. Purists may quibble that Will Kane would never have disrespected the office he held by throwing his badge in the dirt the way he does. But still, it’s a great device. The ending is well-nigh perfect (actually, as far as I’m concerned, the whole movie is pretty perfect): the Quaker wife killing a man in order to defend her husband, the tormented look on Cooper’s face throughout, the townspeople emerging from their cowardly hiding, and the stupendous musical theme. Even watching the clip just now, I got a bit teary-eyed:

    I watched that movie some years ago. Reminds me of the US now a days more and more.

  24. Neo, “Sixth Sense” is often brought up as one of the greatest movie “twist” endings, something that Shyamalan tried to duplicate in almost every film after it. The other movie mentioned most often as having the most memorable or unsuspected twist is “The Usual Suspects.”

    And then there are the ubiquitous “gotcha” endings, which may have begun with “Carrie,” but which are usually a feature of “B” movies rather than of great films.

  29. I do like Kolnai’s pick. The Japanese are so understated and keep tradition so well. Having stated that, I must kill myself.

  30. Two semi-classics that haven’t been mentioned yet:
    “Touch of Evil” and “The Postman Always Rings Twice”

    There are very good movies, and movies with dramatic endings, but the two don’t necessarily overlap that much. Here are some good movies with interesting or striking finales:

    “Taxi Driver”, “King of Comedy”, “Talented Mr Ripley”, “Groundhog Day”, “My Favorite Year”, “House of Games”, “Body Heat”, “Fight Club”, “The Getaway” (1972), “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Sling Blade”

    The following are all interesting, though somewhat (or very) obscure:

    “Spirit of the Beehive” (Spanish 1970s), “Days of Heaven”, “Love Serenade” (Aussie, 1997), “Terribly Happy (Frygtelig Lykkelig)” (Danish, 2008) and “Under the Volcano”

  31. OlderandWheezier wrote:

    “Neo, “Sixth Sense” is often brought up as one of the greatest movie ‘twist’ endings…”

    I like this movie a lot. But IMHO Shyamalan used a bit of shady directorial slight of hand to help create the final surprise. For example, a scene in which Bruce Willis sits opposite his widow at a restaurant table. Much of her behavior is timed just right so that it appears to be reacting to something Willis said or did. I believe there are other examples where characters coincidentally do something at just the right moment to make it seem like they’re responding to Willis (eg the boy’s mother).

  32. A question fellow readers. I liked the 2010 version of True Grit better than I expected. It still is about True Grit and I thought it portrayed a certain type of American woman with that kind of strength in a fanciful but acceptable way. The ending was perfectly logical – what the characters were like about 40 years later, but for some reason it didn’t work for me. Anyone have ideas? Thanks.

  33. The Sixth Sense can be termed a mystery, since all the clues leading to the culprit/truth was presented in the beginning. There were no secret roams that prevented the viewer from puzzling out the circumstances.

    Also home invasions like that are much more common than people living in Democrat wonderland may suspect.

  34. Twist ending are a different breed than the oddly satisfying non-happy ending of films like GWTW and Casablanca (satisfying because they are more in line with the characters and story).
    There have been several liberal “message” movies with twist endings that are especially galling, such as “The Life of David Gale” and “Nothing But the Truth.” They seem to intentionally destroy the case made over the course of the movie as an act of defiance rather than reason (as in: the cause is still just even when not having the moral high ground). I still haven’t figured out whether “The Last Supper” is meant to condemn or justify the liberal values gone wild behavior of its characters.

  35. Have to add a film that imo deserves mention, just because its ending is so graceful and understated – “Driving Miss Daisy.” A great example of when less = more.

  36. DaveindeSwamp, I’m with you. Two movies that touched me deeply.

    Bridges At Toko-Ri Came out the year I graduated from college. The question: “Where do we get such men?” It was a motivator through 21 years in Naval Aviation.

    Twelve O’clock High. Came out while I was still in high school. The awful strain of men flying dangerous missions over Germany and the courage required to keep doing it mission after mission. Their unfathomable courage was inspirational.

  37. Good point. But, was GWTW bigger than The Godfather?

    Depends on what you mean by “bigger”? GWTW is often claimed to have been the most profitable movie ever made. I mean, it was still showing in theaters when I was a child in the 1970s.

  38. A great movie has to have a great ending, otherwise the movie isn’t great. I have seen many a good movie spoiled by a lousy ending. Of the movies made in the last 40 years, two come to mind that had nearly perfect endings to truly great films- The Godfather Part II and Chinatown.

  39. Gone with the Wind portrays Southern culture in a way both the South and others could accept. Whereas many would have hated it and pointed out a different historical interpretation if it was released close to the end of the 1st Civil War, there was a better culture of acceptance in the 20th century.

  40. The Japanese are truly masters at the sublimely beautiful, yet painfully sorrowful themes.

    Much of this remains untranslated and thus inaccessible to the West or the Left.

    A positive benefit is that people can’t tell what you are educating your children with when most of it comes from a foreign language.

  41. Lorenz Gude,
    The ending of the 2010 True Grit didn’t move me either. I think it’s because of the stilted way of speaking throughout the movie — that almost complete lack of contractions, all “I did not” instead of “I didn’t.” It put an emotional distance between us and the characters.

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