An exceptional piece of art created by one of cinema's greatest directors: Akira Kurosawa. The film centres around a group of samurai hired to protect a small farm and its people from a group of bandits. A simple enough premise. But it is choreographed and executed with such skill that it is heralded as the greatest Japanese film of all time, and a true behemoth of international cinema as a whole. Since it is on this list you can probably gather that this is all partially due to the movie's end shot. The film ends on an extremely well framed shot of the few survivors of battle, observing the graves of their four samurai comrades who fell during the skirmish, their katana's marking their resting places. After the storm of warfare has calmed the image stands out as a harrowing one, highlighting the defeat that hangs inside of victory. The farmers that have been saved may feel joyous, but the now three samurai, and the audience, cannot share in such blessed relief. The final image allows us all to ponder on the actual cost of success. So those are our picks for the 10 most interesting final shots in cinema. There are, of course, hundreds of other excellent examples that are missing from this list that would have been equally worthy, but we only had a small quota to fill! Perhaps you feel there are some glaring omissions? What are some of your favourites that we missed out, then? Let us know in the comment section below.
