On The Waterfront - Ending Scene Analysis

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On the Waterfront: Ending – Analysis A solemn and moving string piece establishes the mood of the scene upon the rooftop. Edie rushes into the pigeon coop, lackadaisically thrusting open the cage door breaking the physical and metaphoric barrier that has separated her from Terry. As the music delicately fades, Edie opens another door to reveal a close up of Terry that depicts him huddled on the floor on the inside of the coop. This shot exaggerates the depressive and desperate state that Terry has got himself into following his testimony against Johnny Friendly. Edie attempts to quell the situation by suggesting alternative options regarding how to deal with the predicament that he finds himself in, she suggests “Somewhere inland, maybe someplace out West, a farm?” Terry scoffs at this idea. She goes on to tell him, “You can do lots of things, anything, as long as your away from that Johnny Friendly” Terry’s facial expression changes and he becomes enthralled with what Edie is saying, she continues, “Even those Longshoremen, you try to help them and they just turn their backs and stick to their stupid D and D.” As Edie is delivering this line, Terry’s theme, the French horn theme that reoccurs throughout the movie begins to play, this is a moment of realisation for Terry. At this moment he has momentarily stopped acknowledging Edie and instead is staring ominously at a large ship that travels down the Hudson River that separates the Hoboken waterfront from New York City. Terry then reaches for his labour hook and with that hauls himself to his feet, despite of Edie’s pleas for Terry not to go down to the waterfront, he states, “They always said I was a bum, well I’m not a bum, Edie. Don’t worry I aint gonna hurt nobody, I’m just gonna go down there… and get my rights.” This mini-monologue reinforces his moral standpoint and is, in many ways, seen as an attempt at

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