1) Star Wars (1977) - starting this because seriously everyone on this FB feed has seen it so there's no spoilers...
Yeah yeah I know but I've seen this film over fifty times and every time I watch the final assault on the Death Star - every time! - I forget Han Solo comes to the rescue, such is the skill with which the film has been put together. Okay maybe the final medal presentations has slight Nazi rally overtones but the Allies had medal presentations and... anyway...
(Aside - did any film have as many overweight pilots as "Star Wars"?)
2) "Good Will Hunting" (1997) - confession: I don't even particularly like this movie. Too much Duologue Acting. Every time characters get together they Duologue Act. But I did really like how they resolved Will's dilemma (academia vs CIA vs making money vs manual labor... hang out with girlfriend!) Set it up in act two and don't pay off until the end of act three.
3) "Shakespeare in Love" (1998) - does anyone remember this film any more? I've always really liked it including the ending. Couldn't figure out how they were going to do it, felt it worked really well, great music.
4) "Rush" (2013) - this is a weird one. The film is flawed and Chris Hemsworth, while he tries, isn't that convincing as a womanising James Hunt. And when I first saw the movie I felt the ending had way way too much on the nose dialogue. I while I love Peter Morgan scripts this was one of the ones I loved the least. But the ending has stuck with me in part because of the Zimmer score but also because I have a soft spot for sports movies which involve confrontations between rivals and one of them is an enigmatic genius who will never live up to his potential.
5) "Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974) - a classic heist film, pointlessly remade, which has one of the greatest 70s anti heroic leads from Walter Matthau and a fantastic final shot. A prime example of screenwriting pay off (it was written by Peter Stone who was an amazing writer).
6) "The Searchers" (1956) - an obvious choice and the film has been ripped off by too many baby boomer directors for the good of cinema, but it's a brilliantly touching ending, with Ethan Edwards realising he's not fit for the world he's fought for and walking off into the sunet. (And TBH looking like he needs to go to the toilet).
7) "The Birds" (1963) - a divisive ending among film buffs but I think it's brilliant. I remember watching it going "are they going to end it here... are they... they aren't... can they... or they are... wow"
8) "United 93" (2006) - you know what the ending's going to be, all along, all the way through, which makes the tension agonising, but at the end it still hits with a wallop. No one seems to talk about this film any more.
9) "Casablanca" (1942) - another obvious one but it's set up so beautifully... It looks like Bogie is going to prison but then Claude Rains does one of the most beautiful turn coats in the history of cinema.
10) "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) - are we still allowed to like Woody Allen films anymore? Mia was uncomfortable making it realising it was about Woody (played by Michael Caine here more than the character played by Woody) wanting to hump Mia's sister (played in the film by Barbara Hershey)... little did she know that things would get worse rather than better. But it's a lovely heartwarming ending for what is one of Woody's masterpieces.
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