Homework #10: Endings

It seems fitting to discuss endings as our class draws to a close. For this last homework assignment, please consider the importance of endings to films and discuss one of your favorite endings. Note how the ending to Truffaut’s 400 Blows ended with the freeze frame of Antoine facing the camera, an ending that is intentionally ambiguous, forcing the viewer to continue the story. The ending to Truffaut’s film is so iconic that it is frequently quoted or parodied. See this short clip that shows how Truffaut’s ending was used for the final shot of Nelson’s film in a Simpsons episode. To complete this homework assignment, please submit your favorite endings in a comment.

Homework #10 is DUE by Tuesday December 15th (2 days BEFORE the in-class Final Exam). ‹Everyone should submit a COMMENT to my post.

15 thoughts on “Homework #10: Endings”


  1. Similar to 400 Blows ending with the freeze frame of Antoine facing the camera in This is England (2006) Shaun one of the main characters wraps up the movie similarly by going to the beach and throwing a flag into the water as a disappointment to what he once believed in my opinion as well as staring into the camera and that being the last take to leave the audience to imagine beyond. I don’t want to spoil the rest you all should really watch this movie.

  2. My favorite movie endings is from one of the films we covered this semester, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). I like this ending because it adds that extra creepy to the film. Spoiler Alert: At this point we know that Mrs Bates is dead, and Norman is the real killer. But instead of hearing Norman’s voice, we hear his mother’s voice, in Norman’s head. Plus the music doesn’t make it any less creepy. Great ending to a thriller such as this one. It leaves the audience a little scared and shocked at the name time.

  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PamLPnXk2ic

    My favorite ending of all time is “Fight Club”, the song goes well with the film. The narrator tells the girl he likes Marla, that’s okay and that she met him at strange a very strange time in his life. They hold hands while the buildings that made all people slaves to there jobs, explode. The narrator has also shot himself in his mouth but he tell Marla ” everything is going to be alright “, mainly because he has taken control of his life and Tyler Durden is gone.

    THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB, IS YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.

  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PamLPnXk2ic

    My favorite ending of all time is “Fight Club”, the song goes well with the film. The narrator tells the girl he likes Marla, that’s okay and that she met him at strange a very strange time in his life. They hold hands while the buildings that made all people slaves to there jobs, explode. The narrator has also shot himself in his mouth but he tell Marla ” everything is going to be alright “, mainly because he has taken control of his life and Tyler Durden is gone.

    THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB, IS YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.

  5. This show is about the professional and private life of Don Cheadle (character name Marty Kaan). Marty Kaan is a dishonest, scheming, obsessed and cold hearted management consultant. Marty was part of a firm company called Galweather Stearn; he was the manager of Kristen Bell, Josh Lawson and Ben Schwartz. He later left the firm to start his own company called Kaan& Associates. A perfect example of freeze frame would be when he stop talking to his two associates and the screen has frozen for the moment and Marty began talking to the viewers about what’s happening next. https://youtu.be/Prpd6YJJexM

  6. There were many films with Freeze points in the 80s and 90s. My favorite was Rocky III. In Rocky III, Rocky and Apollo are walking to the ring so they can fight. Apollo sayed you only beat me my one second. They get in the ring and bounces around like three times talking crap to each other. Then both of them gives a big right hook to the face and it Freezes. It’s a good movie. They are many other films like this and 400 Blow.

  7. The Film “Lord of War” (2005) is one of my favorite Nicholas Cage’s movies and the ending is done quite well. Nicholas Cage plays an infamous gun seller, selling to many countries illegally. The beginning on the film shows a fantastic sequence of the life and “death” of a bullet and also shows Nicholas Cage delivering a speech to the viewer about arms dealers. The ending shows Nicholas Cage again in the same setting facing the viewer ending his speech he started in the beginning.

    This film is one of those films that make audience aware of whats going on around the world. In this case it is about the corruption of arms dealership illegally selling guns to war torn countries, fueling war instead of preventing it for profit.

    Its a great ending because you first see how Nicholas Cage rises as an arms dealer, being rich profiting from war torn countries. Possibly being one of the most powerful person in the world, and then in the end it lead him to being alone ; having his wife and son leave him and his family disowning him. In the end its never pretty.

    End Clip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AftHOPB3Bqc

  8. One of my favorite movie endings would have to be the film, “Grease” starring John Travolta. The entire movie, Sandra D is a “good girl” and is hurt that Danny decides not to acknowledge that they liked each other. In this scene, Sandra changes her look and he makes it obvious in front of everyone that he wants to be with her, kind of giving her power over the situation.

  9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14pdNYXY3Zo

    I think it is amazing that certain scenes in film history can have such a large impact on future film.

    The movie ending I decided to post is the last scene from The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols. Ben stops Elaine’s wedding and they run off together on a bus. However, we see their excitement quickly turn to confusion/sadness, realizing the intensity of what they have done and the trouble it will cause. “The Sound of Silence”, a sad, melancholy song is played during this scene that perfectly fits the mood. This scene demonstrates that humans sometimes act impulsively without thinking ahead into the future. I think the emotion during this scene is obvious, even without dialogue.

  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgI9GtlAsUA
    Endings to films could be really crazy. So much could happen in the ending, we could have a plot twist and then it be left on a cliff hanger, we could have closure or we just a very touching ending to film. The ending of films like Furious 7. To me was great, since I really enjoyed watching the entire film series. Even though there could be better ending to movies, I really enjoyed this ending of the movie. The ending was so touching due to the fact that paul walker die when shooting the film, so the movie wasn’t done but they manage to finish the movie. The ending had such a meaningful tribute to paul walker. The quotes “its never good bye” the song used have feels to the ending , what he said at the end “I Use To Say I Live My Life A Quarter Mile Away And I Think That’s Why We Were Brothers, Because you Did Too”. Then use see them driving one last time and end up split to two roads in which its show Paul walker on the road and the screen pans out and starts showing the sky. The ending to me was so good. It was a great tribute to Paul at the end of the film.

  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bZdm8asYSk

    My favorite ending is from one of my favorite movies, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I love this ending because it sums up the whole feel of the movie. This movie is about new beginnings, great friends, overcoming obstacles, and living life. The ending wraps the invincible feeling into the last two minutes. Charlie ends his last letter of the movie with “and in this moment, we are infinite.”

  12. One of my favorite movie endings is from “Love and Basketball”. This movie came out in 2000, and was directed by Gina Prince. The movie is about two friends, Quincy and Monica, who have a deep passion for the game of basketball. They grow up together, best friends, always helping each other out. When they get to high school, they start to become on a more romantic level, which was obvious throughout the film. When they reached college, they both were the two star players on the team. After an argument, they decide to break up and talked on and off. Quincy dropped out of school to go pro, and tore his ACL. While injured, and not playing basketball for over four months, he starts to realize his true love is for Monica. They end up getting married.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nDWfrmLkoc4

  13. In one’s opinion endings are a vital part of the film because if the ending is weak or lacks meaning the film was not worth it but this is only an opinion, it is just the fact the if the beginning and/or ending are strong one gets a really good movie in other words it makes more sense. One ending that I loved was Black Swan (2010) directed by Darren Aronofsky. This film was a psychological thriller and until the end of the movie one can understand what was really happening. But the film tells the story about a ballerina who struggles to get the lead role in a recital but it is not until certain events start happening that one notices her real struggle which is to remain sane.

  14. The freeze ending clip that I used was the ending of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The ending of this clip shows how Harry learns he is more powerful than he imagined after saving Hogwarts from the dementor’s kiss.

    The ending of the movie with the freeze clip is something definitely strange in my opinion because out of all the film endings we see it like this. In my opinion, it just makes the film look a bit more like an old styled film and corny and un modernized.

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