Which film has the greatest ending of all time? I am not looking for a list so much as just one film and the reason why you feel it most deserving.
I would pick Chaplin’s
The Circus. The ending is simple and bittersweet – the Little Tramp, selflessly letting go of the girl he loved so that she could be with the one she loved, sits alone in the center of what had been the ring. A scrap of paper – a remnant from the girl’s horseback riding act – is at his feet. The tattered paper with a star in the center represents everything he lost; fame, hope for the future and the girl he loved. He picks it up, crumbles it into a ball, and kicks it backward. Then, the solitary figure, straightening himself up, shakes off his past and walks away from us into the morning light and an uncertain future.
Chaplin, of course, used this image often (and even satirised it in his dark comedy, Monsieur Verdoux) but never was used to such a brilliant effect. Perhaps, the single loneliest image in film and for me, the greatest of all time.
To see clip, click
here
By the way, the clip was filmed in Glendale, CA., approx. the spot where Woodrow Wilson Middle School is to-day.
You know my pick, but I do not know yours. Pray tell.