Big Night (1996) is a favorite of mine for the final scene. In a film where food is sumptiously featured, the denoument is a five minute single camera scene, no dialogue, no score, of a man silently reconciling with his brother over a shared omelette. Sublime.
The film opens with Scott's rendering of Patton's speech to the Third Army, set against a huge American flag.[17] Coppola and North had to tone down Patton's actual words and statements in the scene, as well as throughout the rest of the film, to avoid an R rating; in the opening monologue, the word fornicating replaced ****ing when he was criticizing The Saturday Evening Post. Also, Scott's gravelly and scratchy voice is the opposite of Patton's high-pitched, nasal and somewhat squeaky voice, a point noted by historian S.L.A. Marshall.[13] However, Marshall also points out that the film contains "too much cursing and obscenity [by Patton]. Patton was not habitually foul-mouthed. He used dirty words when he thought they were needed to impress."[13] When Scott learned that the speech would open the film, he refused to do it, as he believed that it would overshadow the rest of his performance. Director Schaffner assured him that it would be shown at the end. The scene was shot in one afternoon at Sevilla Studios in Madrid, with the flag having been painted on the back of the stage wall.[18] All the medals and decorations shown on Patton's uniform in the monologue are replicas of those actually awarded to Patton. However, the general never wore all of them in public and was in any case not a four-star general at the time he made the famous speeches on which the opening is based. He wore them all on only one occasion, in his backyard in Virginia at the request of his wife, who wanted a picture of him with all his medals. The producers used a copy of this photo to help recreate this "look" for the opening scene
Whiplash Final Scene. Triumphant culmination of a hero’s journey to straight up tragedy in the blink of an eye.
Fantastic movie by a fine director, Bruce Beresford. I just wish that they still made movies like this - - - well-drawn characters, sharp dialogue, intense drama, in one word, riveting.
Great acting by Newman, and great interaction between him and the Redford in that private conversation before the confrontation gets underway.
Yeah, that whole final sequence, (which has only one cut, its incredibly well directed) is the most devastating finale I can imagine. So it is basically one scene. I recall that in the original run, people just sat there through the credits. I assume, like me, they were stunned. Nicholson's best acting was his expression. Not saying more than as little as possible...
"Listen, I don't mean to be a sore loser, but when it's done, if I'm dead, kill him." "Love to." <smiles and waves> There's also: "What's the matter with you?" "I can't swim!" "Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill ya!" That got a huge laugh in the theater, maybe the biggest laugh in the whole picture. BTW, the conversation and the jump were shot in two different places -- the start in Colorado, and the end in Malibu State Park -- but they made it look like it was the same location with clever editing.
Colonel (played by Richard Crenna): "I don't think you understand, I came here to rescue you from him."
