Today, after viewing one of my favorite films, one I have seen innumerable times, I got reflecting upon how a powerful emotional ending is one of the most crucial ingredients of a classic movie. Here is a very subjective list of several of my favorite films with endings that emotionally drain you, leave you baffled or cheering, leave you aghast or bewildered, or just completely amazed and thankful for the wonderful cinematic experience. The List is in alphabetical order:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Angel Face (1952)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Body Heat (1981)
Brazil (1985)
Breaker Morant (1980)
Casablanca (1942)
Carrie (1976)
Chinatown (1974)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights (1931)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
Detour (1945)
Diabolique (1955)
Dinner At Eight (1933)
Django Unchained (2012)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Easy Rider (1969)
Fail Safe (1964)
Glory (1990)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Hail The Conquering Hero (1944)
High Noon (1952)
Hombre (1967)
House of Games (1987)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Judge Priest (1934)
King Kong (1933)
King Kong (2005)
Meet John Doe (1941)
Metropolis (1927)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
North By Northwest (1959)
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (2019)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Psycho (1960)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Queen Christina (1933)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Saboteur (1942)
Seven Days in May (1964)
Shane (1953)
Sleuth (1972)
Spartacus (1960)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Testament (1983)
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1956)
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966)
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Lady From Shanghai (1948)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Miracle Worker (1962)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
The Purple Heart (1944)
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
The Searchers (1956)
The Sting (1973)
The Third Man (1949)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Wind and the Lion (1975)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Things To Come (1936)
THX 1138 (1971)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1963)
Under the Volcano (1984)
V for Vendetta (2005)
Vertigo (1958)
White Heat (1949)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Z (1969)
