MovieChat Forums > Monster's Ball (2002) Discussion > Confused by the final scenes.

Confused by the final scenes.


Can someone help to explain this?
Halle Barry finds the drawings, and it is my understanding that she is angry because she feels as though the reason why Hank is with her is to make up for something, the reasons behind the courtship were that he was making something right, for his own needs, and she was angry.
The explanation that she hates him for being part of the crew that killed her husband makes sense in the context of the final scenes (I guess?) but there was never any indication for me that she was angry with the people in the jail- or the system, but that she was angry with her husband.

So I'm a little confused? Anybody got any explanations or thoughts?

I mean ultimately is a story about race, right? And going through the things that break them down?

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I guess she was angry because he never told her. He had obviously realised quite early on, who she was but had never admitted it to her.

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No, it's a fable really... Like a Greek mythology story set in modern times. Well, it's a stretch, but these people had monstrous qualities, and Hank was looking for redemption, Leticia needed to be rescued, from her point of view it's a bit of a Cinderella story, she at the end is gazing at the stars feeling like perhaps her husband and son, she looked at Hanks graves? Were looking down upon her, at peace knowing she was going to be ok. She was nearly in the street when she is saved, given a car, her coach, treated like a princess in ways she never had before, she was finally at the ball. She even didn't have her shoes on when she started to drive, they had no reason to tell us that. If I've learned one thing studying movies, no lines are wasted, nothing they show has no meaning, well in good films like this one anyway! No filler. I think the title was used to figuratively describe the characters and the story line. It is the name of the night before an execution ceremony thing and all, but I think they used the name of that to say the monsters were at peace and finally he'd overcome his own tyrant King and was becoming a loving 'prince' in the neighbourhood while she was a fable kind of female, who would now be taken care of, for her, in a palace by comparison. There's a magic in the air for her at the end, whereas he is at peace and says, I think we're going to be ok... It's a happily ever after done really well. No sentimentalist nonsense. The constellation is Orion by the way, and those three stars are his belt, what's interesting about them is that in Christian mythology, the 'star' is actually the largest star and brightest, it is Cyrious, and it is just below this constellation and those three stars in the original language were called the three Kings that followed that star, the whole Christ story was told by the wise men of the day, and they were astrologers. The early form of astronomers, they were looking for a child born under these stars. Check it out!

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To me, she realizes at the end that Hank (and his son) played a part in the execution of her husband. This comes as a shock. But she also must realize that he was just doing his job and that he loves her.

Another poster implied that Hank's affair with Leticia is driven somewhat out of guilt over his part in the execution. I never read that into this. It's true that Hank realizes that Leticia was married to the guy he executed earlier in the film, when she talks about and shows him the drawings. But I don't think that that's why he gets involved with her.

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I don't think he dated her for that reason. You could tell he was interested before he found out.

I think the last scene was symbolic- her husbands last meal vs her first with a fresh start. Some people say she was out to get Hank but why? Unfortunately it was apart of his job at the prison & he probably didn't tell her because he felt horrible about it. Plus he quit his job because he couldn't handle it anymore.

You could tell his dad had bullied & belittled him in life, and he picked up some bad habits. He started to change because of Leticia and became a better person. When she sees the three gravestones, I think she realizes he was maybe hurting as much as she was. He needs to take care of someone just as much as she needs to be taken care of. So she lets him feed her ice cream.

-Who is it?
-It's Grandpa. And it sounds like he's gotten into the horseradish again.

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