At Arts and Faith, Buckeye Jones asked a distracting question today:
What’s your all-time favorite closing shot of a movie?
Here are a few of mine…
I’ll add to this list as they come to mind, but here is the initial rush of closing shots that played like a YouTube montage in my head…
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: The warehouse. Probably my favorite ending ever.
- Before Sunset: The peak of both Julie Delpy’s career, and Nina Simone’s career. Probably my favorite ending ever.
- Barton Fink: Plop. (Greatest big screen moment by a bird ever.) Probably my favorite ending ever.
- Three Colors: Blue, White, *and* Red: Crying through windows.
- Birdy: “What?”
- Raising Arizona: Maybe it was Utah. Best closing monologue ever… except for this next one…
- No Country for Old Men: “And then I woke up.”
- A History of Violence: Eye contact at the dinner table.
- The Mission: The shot at the end of the end credits
- Fargo: The Gundersons in pregnant anticipation.
- Beau Travail: The dance
- The Last Days of Disco: The subway dance
- Lost in Translation: The murmured secret
- Twin Peaks (the series finale): “How’s Annie?” (Okay, I know, that’s cheating. But still.)
- The Graduate: Of course.
- Se7en: Brad Pitt in torment.
- Blade Runner: Director’s cut or Final cut.
- Brazil: Gilliam’s own final shot.
- Once: It’s a good movie, but the closing shot makes it great.