The meaning of the movie AND the last scene . . .

I have to admit I have ALWAYS been confused by the last scene as well as the meaning of the movie.

I may have found, to my own satisfaction if no one else's, what is going on.

Last night, I watched the movie again. I was still as confused until literally the last moment of the movie, when I watched the tilt pan--the upward sweep of the camera--into the stars. I caught a very brief sight of three stars in a row. We've all seen it in the night time sky.

I looked up the constellation. I believe the stars, interpretively or otherwise, are in the constellation Cygnus. The constellation is visible in the summer and autumn It features the Northern Cross and has the famous three stars almost in a row. (The stars in the IFC cut are visible for a very brief time.) The name is an adaptation of a Greek word that means swan.

In mythology, the name Cygnus is associated several times with swans.
* Zeus disguised himself as a swan to seduce Lyda, the wife of the Spartan king, Tyndareus.

* Orpheus was transformed into a swan after he was murdered, and he was placed in the sky by the ruling deities next to his lyre, an instrument of pleasure and expression.

* In Ovid's poem, Metamorphoses, three people are named Cygnus, all of whom are transferred into swans.

* And in 16th Century art, women were frequently shown as having sex with swans.

It's obvious that Hank Grotowski undergoes a transformation, like a swan transformed from an ugly duckling, from racist man filled with rage and hate, into a man who falls in love with Leticia, and treats her very tenderly and lovingly. The transformation begins after Sonny commits suicide in his presence, when he is called on by Leticia, whose son is killed by a hit and run driver. We can see Hank struggle with the decision whether or not to help Leticia. He does, and is thus thrown into the roll of hero.

But Hank is not the only hero. Leticia, obviously, grieves for her son, and is at least deeply rattled by the execution of her husband, Lawrence. (We know that Leticia was hurt many times, perhaps in many ways, by Lawrence. And we know because as, Lawrence is led away back to the execution watch cell, he apologizes for the times he has hurt her. We get a glimpse of the inner character of Lawrence when, coldly and deliberately, he tells the warden to "flip the switch" when the warden asks if he, Lawrence, has any last words. His eyes are empty orbs of hate, perhaps the same expression he had when he killed or raped his victim or victims.)

And Leticia has probably been without sex for years. When she asks Hank to come in when he takes her home after Tyrell has died, she drinks whiskey and asks Hank to "make me feel better." As I watched the scene this time, I realized that, when at the end of the sex, she says, "I needed that so much," or however she expresses it, she is not talking merely of the sex. She is also speaking of her need for male contact, for at least the pretense of love. It's important to note that, in what we see of Leticia's life, every man she interacts with somehow mistreats her, except perhaps for the concerned men neighbors who come over to see what's going on when the sheriff's deputy shows up with the crew to evict her.

It is at the point of their lovemaking that she begins the process of rescuing Hank from his hate-filled, evil self. See, she, too, is a hero. (The change in him happens just a little bit at a time, when Hank admits he wasn't much of a father to his son who died.) Leticia is not aware that she is helping him, but we see the changes in him start and come about. Hank's change is so complete that he quits his job, gets rid of the very influence and source of evil in his life, Buck, and, he repaints the house to make it lighter. He gives Leticia Sonny's truck. And, we happily note that she begins to return his gift with affection. Buck, of course, ruins that and almost, by his action, crushes Hank and Leticia's relationship.

Now, the meaning of the last scene: Leticia goes upstairs when Hank goes for ice cream, and is alarmed that Hank has the portraits of himself and Sonny drawn by Lawrence. She becomes enraged because she fears, and believes, that she has once again been drawn into an abusive situation at the hands of simply another man--this time, a white man, the son of the man, Buck, who deeply wounded her by his reference of her as *beep* juice[/i].

She comes down the stairs, bewildered and unsteady, to meet Hank who is happily returning with a chocolate ice cream and plastic spoons. He has no idea what has happened to her, but he invites her outside for ice cream. He hands her a spoon. She does not immediately dig into the ice cream, but she groggily looks around, at the lawn and at the three graves at the back of the property. It seems to me that, at that moment, she begins to understand that Hank, too, has suffered great loss and hurt.

Now rather than abusing her, Hank offers her a bit of ice cream from his spoon. She takes it and almost smiles. Her look seems to be a hint from her that she begins to understand that she is safe and loved. Hank has already told her he wants to take care of her, and she has already told him that she's ready to be taken care of. In the past few minutes, he has sexually satisfied her orally without requiring that she relieve him also. (Perhaps Hank is the first man to give her pleasure and love without a selfish purpose.) AND, he tells Leticia that he went by their station, and that he really likes the sign. Of course, the sign says Leticia's.

Leticia, rather than retreating and being angry, though cautious, takes the ice cream and savors it. When Hank has eaten his ice cream in her presence before, she has always been an outsider to Hank's moment of self-indulgence. This time, she is a participant in his happy little moment.

As for Hank's use of plastic spoons, who knows physically why he uses one to eat his ice cream? Perhaps he has tooth fillings that, along with the cold of the ice cream, hurt him if he touches them with a metal spoon. But in the course of the movie, the plastic spoon is a symbol that, at first, is the symbol of his momentary self-indulgence, but it becomes symbol of his love for and sharing with Leticia.

That's my rambling take on the movie and the meaning of the last scene, anyway. You can probably do better.