A major change was made in the ending to the movie from that in this final draft. It speaks for itself.
"A small dot"; "the little figure". "Embrace".
The ambiguity is, literally in the end, dissipated into crystal clarity: They love each other, whether father and daughter or not. Emotionally, for me, that is the ending I secretly wished for, but...In one of my first posts, I opined that this ending would be inartistic, too Disney, schmaltzy. The ambiguity led me on this obsessive (I admit) research quest. Don't you want that from a movie, intellectually? Don't you want a movie to make you think? A movie--any work of literary art--whose ending you can anticipate is boring, however emotionally satisfying it is. If I had seen the screenplay's ending in the movie, sure, I would have had something in my eyes; would have left with a satisfied grin. As a creator of cinematic art, Peter Bogdanovich clearly made the right call in keeping Moze's love for Addie ambiguous. That is why he altered the inscription on the photo-card. You can see him thinking to himself, "What, am I making a fucking Disney movie?!!"
Now, what about the movie's ending. Sure, I laughed when "cold", "hard", "all business" Addie played her "You still owe me $200" trump card. ...Let me think this through. I was going to write that I thought that didn't work, wouldn't have worked. But...the movie ending is clear to me that the $200 was not the reason Addie ran away from her aunt's house. She ran away for her love for Moze. And the movie ending is subtly clear that Moze, despite throwing his hat on the road in exasperation, did not take her with him because of the $200. He could have driven off and left her there. Instead he says "Come on" and picks up her bags and runs together with her to the truck. So no, I think Bogdanovich's ending is better. He made a perfect movie, if you don't have too soft a spot for children.
