The movie with the “greatest final shot in the history of cinema” according to Spike Lee
It’s fair to say that Spike Lee knows a thing or two about filmmaking. After all, ever since making his directorial debut in 1986 with She’s Gotta Have It, a wildly important film in the world of independent cinema, Lee has established himself as one of the most significant American movie directors of all time.
There have been countless iconic movies released as a result of Lee’s prowess as a filmmaker. His 1989 film Do The Right Thing is widely considered one of the greatest of all time, and the likes of Malcolm X and Inside Man are also well worth consideration of the highest esteem.
With all that in mind, it’s only right that Lee would have a deep fascination with the medium of cinema itself, and he has regularly stated his admiration for some of the older works of film. Perhaps a surprising entry among Lee’s top choices is Billy Wilder’s 1951 drama film Ace in the Hole, starring Kirk Douglas.
Douglas plays an aggressive journalist who has been fired from eleven major newspapers as a result of his behaviour but does everything in his power to get another job at a big paper again. Lee once discussed his impression of Ace in the Hole and said that it Wilder showed “the power of the media and how people could be manipulated.”
In addition, Lee learned from Wilder’s film that “no matter how dark the subject matter [of a film is] humour can still be put in”, which is something that he always tried to do in his own movies, particularly in Do The Right Thing. From a production perspective, Lee was also blown away by Ace in the Hole, particularly its final shot.
The director told TCM, “Another thing I’d like to say about Ace in the Hole is that the final shot of this film, in my opinion, is one of the greatest final shots in the history of cinema. I’ve never seen a shot that ends a film like that.” According to Lee, the final shot of Wilder’s film sees Douglas’ character walking around for 10 or 15 minutes with a “mortal wound” from being stabbed.
After making it back to the newspaper he works for, he “falls right down, and his face is just like this close to the lens.” The shot always stayed with Lee, as did the overall themes of the movie, which the director described as being “about morals, values, scruples and how people will pray at the altar of the almighty dollar and put their mother on the corner and then there comes that reckoning moment like, ‘My God, why did I do this?’”
Ace in the Hole was the first time that Wilder had been involved in a movie as a writer, producer and director and the first movie he made after breaking with his long-time writing partner Charles Brackett. Even though Lee admires the film, Wilder’s effort was a commercial and critical failure.
However, with Lee holding it in such high esteem, Ace in the Hole seems like an important film that explores the hidden nature of the press and how they can manipulate the public and from a production point of view, there are few movies that have ended a film in such a striking way.
