The end of The Social Network, which I saw about a month ago, reminded me just how important the final shot of a film can be. Crafting a poignant final shot is, I would imagine, a balancing act; it has the power to provide the film with its ultimate moral, but it has to do so in a subtle way that doesn't hit the viewer over the head. Would The Social Network still have been a meangingful film prior to the final shot? Yes - without a doubt it was the best movie I've seen so far this year. But that shot, which concisely and subtly bespoke Mark Zuckerburg's spiritual emptiness and regret, and his desire for redemption, hammered home my impression of the character and the film. It was a good film before the final minute or two, but afterward, it was a great one.
If you accept my friend request, I'll never diss B.U. again.
I can't always remember precisely how my favorite movies begin, but I can invariably remember how they end. As I left the theater, I started thinking about other similarly cathartic final shots. One thing led to another and before long I was crafting my...
List of Top Ten Final Shots (Part I)
10.) Primal Fear (1996)
(This cuts off the final thirty seconds, which makes the whole scene. Oh well...)
This is chronically underrated movie, if for no other reason than that it was most people introduction to Edward Norton. Subsequent performances and Oscar Nominations have proven that the man has some acting chops. And in portraying Aaron, a (possibly) schizophrenic suspect in a murder case, he gets to show off both extremes of his substantial range: sweet and naive (which we would see later in Keeping the Faith) and sociopathic (which we would see later in American History X). The final scene is a meeting between client and lawyer (played by Richard Gere). Gere's character has just gotten Aaron off the hook on a successful insanity defense. As Aaron thanks his lawyer for the counsel, he drops a bombshell - which I won't reveal even though the statute of limitations has long since run out on the ending of this movie. Final Shot: Richard Gere's character, a hot-shot lawyer who is never at a loss for words, and who believes in the fundamental decency of his fellow man, stands outside the prison, dazed with the shattering information he's just learned. "There never was an Aaron, counselor." (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Cue mournful saxophone - and cue goosebumps.
Joke's on you, Richard Gere...
9.) The Bicycle Thief (1948)
If I ever do a list of the saddest movies I've ever scene, this Neo-Realist Italian classic, which I saw for the first time in college, just might be at the top. Antonio Ricci, a kind, decent man and a good father, has spent the entire movie searching for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to support his family. At wit's end, he spots another abandoned bicycle in an alley and we are allowed to read his mind: "Should I, or shouldn't I?" The moment is drawn out agonizingly, until Antonio finally decides to take the plunge (crossing a tall phone pole - a threshold - in so doing). Just his luck: he is stopped immediately by everyone in sight, and is thus humiliated in front of his little son, who has been tagging along on the whole adventure. The bicycle's rightful owner pardons him by declining to file a complaint, but he doesn't leave without slinging a barb in Antonio's direction: "A fine example you set for your son." Antonio walks away like a zombie. The camera cuts to his son, looking just as forlorn. Son looks up at Dad, Dad looks down at Son, Dad - an emotional rock until this point - bursts into tears, Son - not knowing what else to do - takes his hand, the two of them are swallowed into the crowd as they walk away, the music swells, and - FINE. What is he going to do to support his son and pregnant wife now? We don't know - but at least he has the support of his son. Just the thought of those soaring violins is enough to send me over the edge. Better move on to the next one...
8.) The Wrestler (2008)
(This clip is in Italian, but it hardly matters.)
"Don't do it, Randy! It's not too late to resurrect your life and your relationship with your daughter. You are a kind and decent human being. Wrestling doesn't have to define you." I try to tell him this every time I see the movie (which quickly rose to the short list of my all-time favorites after it came out in 2008). But every time, he defies doctor's orders by wrestling the Ayatollah in Wilmington, Delaware. (Is there any more appropriate location for an ignominious end to a human life?) And every time, he jumps from the top rope to do his patented Ram Jam. And every time he jumps, the screen fades to black and the Boss starts singing. I'm not sure what happens next, but how can it be anything other than horrible? As the most famous man ever to be buried in Rockville once said, "There are no second acts in American lives."
The Final Ram Jam
7.) The Godfather (1972)
(Link is in Spanish, but you own the DVD anyway, don't you?)
It has been well established that nineteen of the greatest twenty scenes ever filmed come from The Godfather, and why should the final scene be any different? You know this by now, I'm sure: Michael Corleone's lackeys kiss his hand and call him "Godfather," in the office where his father used to hold court, the office where the film began. Kay (Diane Keaton), Michael's desperate fiance looks into the room, one of the lackeys shuts the door on her, and on us. Cue credits. Is this ice-cold mercenary really the same principled army hero who saw at the wedding in the first scene? The final scene invites to look back through the entire film - and Michael's entire progression - to answer this question. A story that has taken us across generations and continents, ends in the most intimate of places: in a room shared by a dad and his son.
6.) Babel (2006)
(The person who made this link decided that one of the most haunting pieces of music of ever heard in a film wasn't good enough, and has replaced it with something else. Youtube is a weird place.)
I think some people were scared away from Babel because it is a movie that is about everyone, and takes place everywhere. And I guess I understand that; it's easy to be overwhelmed by a movie whose first shot focuses on one decrepit old man walking through a Moroccan desert and whose last shot focuses on Tokyo's endless skyline at night. But to me, this movie works because its core it is about something so much smaller: the relationships between the members of four different families. The last family the film focuses on consists of a Japanese father and daughter. That is all - the mother, we learn, took her own life some time before the start of the film. As the father rushes upstairs - he has left his unstable, deaf, nymphomaniac daughter home for the evening - we sense (for various reasons) that this will be her fate too. Instead, the father finds his daughter standing naked on the balcony of their high-rise apartment. He puts a blanket over her, stands behind her, and the two share a moment of unspoken understanding - all to an understated score of piano and strings. It is physiologically impossible to listen to this piece without getting chills, whether or not you are watching the film while listening. The first line of the credits - "For my children" - is just the icing on the cake.
Top five to follow...
