Monthly Archives: October 2013

Shadow Play: The Set-up (1949)

 

Our latest film took a break from the gumshoe and/or heist scheme with The Set-up.

The movie focuses on a boxer past his prime named Stoker. While Stoker is struggling

to become a champ, his girlfriend Julie wants to settle down. Stoker’s focus is on the

match, and the money he can make from it. Unbeknownst to him, his manager has a

deal with a Big shot named Little Boy. Little Boy has big money riding on Stoker’s fight,

and has paid his manager off to make sure Stoker loses. As the movie unfolds, it seems

like no one is in Stoker’s corner. The characters all seem to have their own agendas.

Like in other films seen this semester, one of the best parts of the film is the setting. The

bright lights of paradise city and Hotel cozy contrast well with the dark alleyways and

locker rooms of the center. Stoker’s match takes center stage from the moment it starts.

The fight is long and realistic, grabbing the audience’s attention. And there’s plenty of

little extras thrown in to the moment. Several members of Stoker’s audience become

memorable, from the betting couple to the man that seems to be eating nonstop. Stoker

goes through a change after seeing that Julie has not come to the match. Her empty

seat remains visible through the fight. While Stoker is fighting in the ring Julie is fighting

with her feelings. She wanders the city observing passerby. After seeing a rock’em

sock’em boxing toy, her mind goes back to Stoker. There’s s magnificent shot of Julie at

a overpass, as she rips up her ticket to the unfolding boxing match. The film is different

from others presented this term, but its those differences that make it memorable.

Out of the Past

In the film Out of the Past, the protagonist Jeff Bailey is a man that decided to start his life again at new beginnings, trying to run away from his past but there is only so much and so little that you can run away from. When a man comes to look for him in town Jeff is left with no choice but to go back to his past to face what he had run away from. The story of his past begins when he tells is girlfriend about how he was a private eye hired by a guy named Whit in in search of a woman who was Wilt’s mistress named Kathie, who not only shot Wilt but also ran away with his money. Jeff finds Kathie in Acapulco, Mexico to where she has fled to. While being there Kathie uses her Femme Fatal and falls in love with Jeff, in the other hand Jeff forgets about is mission from Wilt and decides that both should escape from Wilt. After they both escape the lived in a cabin only to be found by one of Jeff’s partner Fisher were Kathie kills him and runs away. Later Jeff finds Kathie’s bank book and sees a large deposit of the money that Wilt was missing, he then decides to run away from her for good. After he runs away Jeff goes on to meet Wilt, only to find Kathie there with Wilt, but Wilt had one last job for Jeff to do but after Jeff goes on to do the job he finds out that Wilt was trying to frame him. At this point Jeff ties to play a bit of the role of a hero and tries is best to get out of this mess but at the end he is left no choice to leave with Kathie after she had killed Wilt, but Jeff had plans of his own but as soon the cops came Kathie snapped and shot Jeff, leading the police to shot her and both died.

Out of the Past

In the film noir Out of the Past, we view another detective suspense
film. In the beginning of the film, two men go out looking for Jeff Bailey.
They pass through a gas station where they find a deaf boy who works for Jeff.
I believe Jeff does not want to go back to his past because he changes his
identity and does not do any more cases. At that time Jeff had a girlfriend and
had to tell her everything about his past. The two men knew they could find him
there. They are in search for a young lady who is Katie. Like in most film
noir, Katie is the femme fatal in out of the past. As Detective Jeff begins his
duty, he meets Katie somewhere in Mexico. When they both meet at the bar, they
take a drink and go for walk. Being the femme fatal, Katie seduced him and
convinced him to leave with her and leave everything behind. She told him that
everything they were doing and everything they said was not true. Katie does
not care about reputation or about anybody. After killing someone Jeff realizes
that she’s not who he thinks she is. Years later they see each other again but
Jeff knew it’s best to stay from her because she only brings trouble and
problems to him. Jeff realized how important his other girlfriend was to him
and decided to start a new life with her

Asphalt Jungle

The film noir, Asphalt Jungle is about a group of men deciding to complete a task that will bring them a lot of money. Dix recently came out of jail and needs to make some profit somehow. He gathers a group of friends and plans to rob diamonds off a jewelry store. This film noir is different because none of the characters were dragged the wrong path by a femme fatal. I enjoyed this clip because it was not like other films seen in class. This film had more action and I really enjoy action movies. Asphalt Jungle is different because the protagonist did not consist of a detective like in other movies seen in class. In this clip as well, actors were all men. This movie reminds me of a movie I watched before, Takers. Takers and Asphalt Jungle are very similar because a group of men as well get together to do a heist.

The Set-Up

The film noir The Set-Up viewed in class has different elements than those we have already watched.  We see how society views people alone and in crowds. The protagonists in this film noir do not commit murder. In the set-up we see that a boxer of a little more than a quartered age, Stoker Thompson fights with a young boxer, Little Boy. Many of the fans attending the fight that night believed that Little Boy would win, even Stoker’s manager, Tiny. This is when Tiny sets Stoker up. In The Set-Up we view different ways to analyze and observe the film. We can see crowed genders, male and female cheering and roaring for each opponent. The audience yelling out “beat him, close the other eye” and “kill him,” illustrate how vicious fans can be. In the film we viewed in class, Stoker and Julie his wife have an argument before the fight because she fears that Stoker will end up getting hurt. In the movie, Julie claims that Stoker is not as strong as he used to be when he was younger. He does not want to believe her is confident that he can fight. An element viewed in the film is the silence of scenes. An example is when Julie is undecided about showing up to the fight between Stoker and Little Boy. She walks around train tracks and thinks over and over. As the train dashes right beneath her, we observe wind blowing her hair while she thinks. When she decides to not to go, she rips her ticket. She cannot stand watching Stoker get punched to become unconscious. Another example seen on the clip is when Stoker is getting ready and he sits there thinking if Julie will show up tonight or not

Murder My Sweet

In the film noir Murder My Sweet, the plot starts off when a man is looking for his wife so he goes into Detective Phillip’s office and hires him because he needs help finding his wife. Phillip Marlowe starts his job by collecting information about the missing person and writes down all details needed to find this young lady. In this film, Detective Marlowe is drugged to prevent any further investigation. Velma is the femme fatal because she wants to prevent any further investigations.  The femme fatal in this film seduces him and making him do whatever she pleased with. I liked this movie because the characters took their role seriously. I also enjoyed this movie because in the scene when Phillip was drugged you can see that he was not feeling himself. Through this scene, we observe blurry parts of the film that show how he felt while he drugged. We see him dreaming that he is running away from some one who wants to choke him.

The Set Up

When i was introduced to the film The Set up i expected this basic Noir film with some mystery and wonder, but The Set Up did something beyond your basic Noir. It was able to portray this feeling of Action pack Mystery and deliver an all around effective film. The character Stoker Thompson is a middle aged boxer who from the film states been on a losing streak and was way pasted his limit already. The director used camera aiming to a great advantage and dialog between the characters to give off that dark feeling of Noir. For Example when Stoker first enters the area the crowd is roaring and yelling for the current fighter to destroy one another, switch from groups of people to a close up on individuals. The noise in that scene allow creates this feeling, that seems to make Stoker see everything in a different perspective, and overall gave us a feeling of what it would be like in that scene, sitting in the stand with those people.

Not only does the camera play an important role, but the characters the movie seems to circle around in the fight scene between stoker and Little Boy. There’s the silent couple, the fat guy who eats everything, the family of little boy, managers, the blind man, the women who loves fights and the guy multitasking with the radio. I find a lot of these characters very interesting and there role in the movie is even more interesting. The gentlemen with the radio, i feel if you listen to the radio while the fight is going on its almost describing the fight, but in different terms and the women who loves fighting, is on any ones side as long as they keep the fight going. But more importantly what each of these characters say give off the sense of Noir, for example, “Make him fight” the women who loves fighting, “Close his eye” from the blind man. Just very powerful lines that increases tension in the moment of fighting.

Lastly is the actually only true scene of the film when stoker is about to get beaten. The cornering of him when he was at that gate the shadows approaching him and once he started getting beaten the camera turns to the shadow of the drumming banging the drums. The beating starts to pick up and gets louder almost resembling the beating and yelling he would be doing. Overall a get scene and Noir film.

Double Indemnity/ The Maltese Falcon

The film noir Double Indemnity involves protagonists that plan out a crime to kill some one in exchange of money. In this film we view Mr. Walter Neff as a weak character. His weakness is shown in the clip by being influenced by the femme fatal of the film. As discussed in class, a femme fatal in a film is shown to be a seductive woman who tries to persuade her victim by flirting with them to obtain her ambition. In Double Indemnity the femme fatal is more like a snake trying to move her way in different methods to achieve her goal. Phyllis is the femme fatal in Double Indemnity. She tries to convince Mr. Neff that they should both get rid of Phyllis’ husband, Mr. Dietrechson. Phyllis makes Mr. Neff believe that if he helps her accomplish this sinful task they will stay together. She convinces him that he benefits because he will also enjoy the money after the old man is dead. In this text, Phyllis is not worried at all after they do the sin and Mr. Neff is going insane just thinking what horrifying thing he had done foe money and a woman he was not going to be able to have. Towards the ending of the film, Phyllis and Mr. Neff both secretly chose that they should get rid of each other for their own good. Phyllis did not want Mr. Neff to be part of her plans anymore. Mr. Neff felt that he was danger by being accused of the crime. The movie ends how they both shoot at each other.

In contrast of the previous movie watched in class, The Maltese Falcon, Double indemnity grabbed my attention more because I felt that in the Maltese Falcon the protagonist went around and around the problem. I also felt that the movie did not grab my attention after a while dragging us through the movie, the film itself became dull. It started from the murder of a detective to the missing piece of something else. Both films are similar and different in a few aspects. They are similar because a femme fatal induces them by dragging them into the wrong directions.

Out of the Past

A privet detective running from his past hoping it will stay buried it’s funny how a movie full us of the noir fundamentals as in character, cinematography and story you captivated by how simple the story starts but you see how much such simplicity caries so much weight as you see Jeff happiness turn to a bitter sorrow as he haves no idea how to get out without making the ultimate sacrifice.

It works as a noir with a simple but powerful cinematography that can carry much emotion with light and shadow playing a character its self giving an immersible ambiance to the scene that give you an extra kick of emotion it’s a movie that hits every point when it comes to noir story telling with a surprising ending that you do see coming with good acting flawed character relatable character I would say Out of the Past is one of the best noir films out there a classic in its own right

Asphalt Jungle

Asphalt Jungle is a film about a crew of robbers robing a jewelry store that was going to land in the green but bad luck is always around and betrayal is always around the corner. We can see the compere and contras who are the low criminals and who are the high and movers and shakers show how no matter where you are from a criminal is a criminal a hard movie to watch heavy on the atmosphere. The main characters are gritty dirty people but still have a sense of humanity something I saw in the film was the sound how the use of the sirens    was a call of the dead that fallow them all over the movie no escaping what was going to come they were going down and there was nothing you could do about it.