Abstract
In this chapter, six examples of the most prevalent ending tropes and motifs are discussed in more detail: sunsets; voice-overs; ‘Let’s go home’ (and the wider resonances of ‘home’ in the US cinema in particular); looking at or addressing the camera; emblematic shots, scenes or objects and theatricality, which includes the use of the tableau. These are part of a repertoire of often rhetorical devices which are regularly found in film endings. Each trope/motif is explored through the examination of a range of examples.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Bordwell, David. 1985. Narration in the Fiction Film. London: Methuen.
Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson. [1985] 1988. The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960. London: Routledge.
Brewster, Ben, and Lea Jacobs. 1997. Theatre to Cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brown, Tom. 2012. Breaking the Fourth Wall: Direct Address in the Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Burch, Noël. 1990. Life to Those Shadows. London: BFI.
Fussell, Paul. 1975. The Great War and Modern Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jones, Gail. 2007. The Piano. Sydney: Currency Press.
Joyce, James. [1914] 1956. The Dead. In Dubliners. London: Jonathan Cape.
MacDowell, James. 2013. Happy Endings in Hollywood Cinema: Cliché, Convention and the Final Couple. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Pevere, Geoff. 2002. Atom Egoyan in Canada. In Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers, ed. Yvonne Tasker, 146–154. London: Routledge.
Tolkien, J.R.R. [1955] 1966. The Return of the King. London: Unwin Books.
Walker, Alexander. 1977. Rudolph Valentino. London: Sphere Books.
Walker, Michael. 1982. Melodrama and the American Cinema. Movie 29/30 (Summer): 2–38.
Walker, Michael. 1992. Robert Siodmak. In The Movie Book of Film Noir, ed. Ian Cameron, 110–151. London: Studio Vista.
Walker, Michael. 2017. Steven Spielberg and the Rhetoric of an Ending. In A Companion to Steven Spielberg, ed. Nigel Morris, 137–158. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Walker, M. (2020). Key Ending Tropes and Motifs. In: Endings in the Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31657-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31657-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-31656-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-31657-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)