Which movies have the best endings?
09.06.2025 00:38
Pardon me if I don't take you very seriously if you don’t have The Graduate (1967) on your list of the greatest movies AND endings…ever.
After Ben interrupts the wedding between Elaine and a young suitor named Carl, the two board a bus together, and head off into the unknown.
“So, what are you going to do with your life?”
Ben is never able to truly avoid that nagging “injury” or “question” that he had been running away from since the very beginning.
The story, and it’s a simple story, is about a 22 year old named Ben (Dustin Hoffman) that returns home after college, not knowing where his future is headed, and wanting to avoid that dreaded question: “So, what are you going to do with your life?”
This entire movie from front to back and from back to front, explores the themes of bucking authority and challenging norms and what’s “expected of you.” This was a late 60s flick, so it fit in perfectly with the mood of the time.
The way Elaine and Ben look at one another after finally calling the shots is impossibly great. Reality sets in for Elaine first, as evidenced by her putting her head down, that they still don’t have a clue or a plan. Ben smiles, and finally succumbs to the same fate as Elaine, with that blank stare on his face.
Ben has an affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), a sexy but lonely next door neighbor. After the tyrst is over, he begins to fall for her daughter, Elaine, played by actress Katharine Ross.