#5: The Departed
As I said in my review of Contraband, I am a big Mark Wahlberg fan. The reason of my fandom is because of this movie, not the whole movie itself, but the final scene. So much so that it deserves a place on my all time favorite movie endings. Before this scene, Matt Damon's character received awards that he did not deserve and people died for the wrong reasons because of him. The scene is silent with no music as Damon enters his apartment where he is greeted by Wahlberg pointing his gun at him with a look of pure hatred on his face. Damon utters the word "ok" before Wahlberg shoots him in the head, finally bringing justice to him. Wahlberg then silently puts on a hat and quietly exits the apartment. The camera then focuses on a rat on the balcony of the apartment once music starts to play. The overall silence of this ending is really unique, and for a movie with so much violence and misunderstanding, this was a great choice to end it ever so calmly. Watch the scene.
#4: Citizen Kane
As a huge film fan it would be a shame to not include this ending in my list, especially when it is so well deserved. The ending scene of Citizen Kane is the single most important scene in the movie where the viewer discovers what Charles Foster Kane's last word "Rosebud" actually means. The whole movie is a journey through Kane's life to discover what Rosebud means, but the ending shows that the people who are trying ever so hard to find out, never actually find out and it's all just part of a "jigsaw puzzle" that was Kane's life. However, the viewer is luckier than the characters in the movie when the camera pans over all of Kane's accumulated meaningless junk. Eventually we see some people throwing junk into a fire pit, a man throws a sled into the fire, the camera zooms in on the word on the sled, "Rosebud". Kane owned the sled as a child, it represents his last happy moment of his life, but is burning in the fire, to remain the missing piece of the puzzle forever.
#3: Inception
Inception is one of those movies that became and instant classic because of it's unique storyline and well pulled off twist ending that no one could have predicted. I'm very glad that I got to see this movie in the theaters when in came out. The ending scene shows that once Leonardo Dicaprio's character finally gets to be with his children, he spins his top to see if he is dreaming, or if he's in reality. The camera zooms on the spinning top, the top starts to wobble a bit, but before the audience sees if it falls over or not, the screen cuts to black, the peaceful music stops, and the title of the movie pops up, forever disguising the secret. Seeing the ending in the theater was hilarious by the reaction of the crowd, and I must admit I was one of the many people who loudly said "aw!" once I knew that I wouldn't see what really happened. This was a very clever and somewhat comical way to end such and intense and long film. Best of all, it left the conclusion up to the audience so everyone has a different opinion of it once they left the theater, and I certainly thought about this ending for weeks to come after I saw it and had many discussions about what the ending meant. What do you think?
#2: The Great Gatsby
This is the most recent movie on my list that just came out this past May. This movie got very mixed reviews because of it's controversial soundtrack and over-the-top glamour. I did read the book and thought that the movie made me appreciate it even more. However the best part of the movie, which made me leave the theater thinking I had a new favorite movie, was the ending, or the endings I should say. The movie had two endings, the first being the end of Gatsby's life when he is shot while hearing the phone ring, believing it is his lover Daisy calling him to tell him what she had decided. He dies while reaching for the main symbol of the story, the green light, symbolizing what he had been wanting for the entire film, but never quite being able to grasp it. He died with the thought that Daisy was calling and he would never know what she would say, however we later find out it was Nick who was calling when he was killed, just to check on him. The other ending is when Nick Carraway, who is writing Gatsby's story finishes. As in the beginning of the film when Nick is narrating while showing the green light over the water, a similar scene is shown while Nick speaks the last line of the actual book. We hear a typewriter then he finishes, and he neatly stacks the pages titled "Gatsby". He takes a pen and writes "The Great" before finishing and ending the movie. The ending of this flashy, yet sad tale was perfect to say the least. It was a solemn finish, but it fit the mood perfectly and left me thinking "what a beautifully tragic tale". Since this is a new movie, I don't have a clip of the ending, so here is a preview instead.
And finally #1 is.... The Life of Pi
The ending of this movie is a lot like Inception in that it leaves the audience to choose what they think the true story is. I read this book years before the movie came out and I loved it, when I heard they were going to make a movie I was just as much worried as I was excited. I didn't know how anyone could possibly pull off a story let alone the major twist at the end. I was wrong to be worried, Ang Lee the director, did a wonderful job of this and ended it exactly like the book. The story is of a kid, Pi, who is stranded at see with an adult bengal tiger, he tells this story to a writer, but at the end when he finally reaches Mexico, he tells that story and a different one to two men trying to find out how the boat sank. The different story involves people instead of animals, but I won't go into either story because I could write pages about both, so I'll just assume you have seen or read it so you know what I'm talking about. What makes the ending great, and what makes it deserve the #1 spot is that it really doesn't give you a correct answer of what happened. It gives two stories that both seem possible, one is more miraculous, and the other realistic. This type of ending some may not like, and others do, but they pick one of the two stories. After reading and seeing the movie I couldn't stop thinking about the ending and came up with my own theory, that Pi invented the tiger story because he had to do things that he didn't want to admit to, as in killing the chef and eating meat. But that's just a very brief summary of what I think, I could write pages trying to explain what really wasn't meant to be explained. Here is a trailer of the film.
So there is my list of my top five favorite movie endings of all time. Agree with me or disagree with me, let me know what you think! Also don't forget to follow if you want to read more lists like this. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment