Two Shot Of Hammer And Yeager example essay topic

The opening shot of Robert Aldrich's, Kiss Me, Deadly is of an empty country road during a dark night. There's a woman frantically running down the road; we see flashes of her feet and hear the staccato sound of her sobbing and gasping for breath. She attempts to flag down a car. The first simply passes, as does the second. A third car approaches and she stands directly in its path, forcing the impressive Jag to swerve off the road. There's a close up shot of the driver, Mike Hammer, who angrily presents the opening line of the script.

"You almost wrecked my car... well?" The girl gets in, and as they pull back onto the road, the sound of her continued sobbing is joined by the melancholy voice of Nat King Cole, which slowly floats from the car's radio. Directed and produced in 1953, Aldrich's Kiss Me, Deadly was released into theaters as the classic film noir period was coming to an end. Yet, many critics and fans of film noir consider Kiss Me, Deadly to be a classic of the noir cycle (Palmer, 101). Aldrich utilizes many stylization's and camera techniques associated with classic noir, and utilizes them quite masterfully. In the opening sequence alone, Aldrich presents the viewer with extreme darkness, a moody song, striking visual style, and a girl in trouble, all classic elements of film noir. Indeed, Kiss Me, Deadly showcases Aldrich's talent for creating the dark and moody shots associated with film noir.

For example, the opening sequence of shots consists of pitch black sporadically broken by flashes of light, during which the viewer is able to snatch brief glimpses of a terrorized female face. Immediately, a frantic and ominous tone is established. Also, in the high angle shot of Hammer outside Lily Carver's room, "the dark foreground of the stairway and balustrades are arrayed concentrically about Hammer's figure and seem to enclose him" (Silver, 157). Scenes, such as these, contribute to the lurking menace of Kiss Me, Deadly.

Aldrich also makes great use of mise en scene in order to further set the mood, as well as define Hammer's relationship to his environment and fellow characters. For one, Hammer has a tendency to look off the shot when speaking. When being interrogated by the FBI, Aldrich uses a series of close up shots in which Hammer is staring away from the investigators. This inability to create eye contact suggests isolation. The choice of setting and the use of real locations reinforce this sense of alienation. "The general decay of the city, coupled with specific usages, such as the flashing street lights and the isolated gas station create an overtone of lingering menace" (Cameron, 242).

Aldrich displays his command of mise en scene in a scene where Hammer and Velda, his secretary / lover, are discussing the case in Hammer's office. The right and left sides of the office are associated with Hammer and Velda. All of the imagery of business and power, the fancy desk, the file cabinets, are on the right side of the room, occupied by Hammer. On the left, Velda is stretching, going through her ballet routine. She stands in a space which has the form of a lounge, or domesticity. His space is filled with phallic symbols, such as the pens on the desk.

He wears a business suit, while she wears clothes for her ballet. Throughout the scene, the mise en scene strongly suggests that Hammer is interested mainly in the case, while his secretary keeps trying to get the romance going. As in most film noir, a great deal of attention is also paid to lighting, particularly low-key. "Low key lighting is both de glamorizing and mystifying, for it constructs areas of significant darkness that often seem threatening" (Krutnik, 67).

For example, in the scene when Hammer discovers the body of his slain friend, Nick, the camera is placed at a low angle. Thus, when Hammer looks down at his friend, he fills the shot, looming over the corpse. Framed against the night sky, half his face is in shadow, emblematic of both his thoughts of revenge, as well as the realization that it was he who caused Nick's death. Perhaps one of the best scenes with which to examine Aldrich's mastery of noir stylization is when Hammer visits the boxing gym.

The sequence begins with an eye-level shot of a man punching a bag, then switches subjects as another man crosses the shot and walks to a stairway. From the top of the stairs, the camera tilts down to a high angle medium shot of Hammer climbing the stairs. Once Hammer reaches the top, the shot returns to eye-level. The changes in angle serve to disorient the viewer, which "subtly connotes, even in broad daylight and in a large room full of other people, the instability and menace all around" (Silver, 158). The framing, which initially adjusts to follow Hammer, settles into a two shot of Hammer and Yeager, the proprietor of the gym. While Hammer remains the narrative eye, it is Yeager whom Aldrich uses to impart the mise en scene.

At first, Yeager seems happy to see Hammer, smiling and smoking a cigar which points upwards. At the mention of a local mobster, Yeager's expression sours and the cigar drops down. Also, "the presence of numerous others in the background raises the noise level and distracts visually from the principals who are static in the foreground" (Palmer, 96). Full light is used during the scene with Yeager, but many dark areas are visible throughout the gym. Spots of darkness are also conspicuously apparent as Hammer climbs the stairs. Of course, a great noir film can not rely solely on the talents of its director; it must start with a solid script.

Based off a novel of similar title, Kiss Me, Deadly was the third of the Mike Hammer Detective series to be made into a movie. Originally authored by Mickey Spillane, a significant writer of serie noir, Mike Hammer was the typical hard boiled detective. However, Hammer is much changed in the script by Aldrich and his screen writer, A.I. Bezzerides. The screenplay version greatly down plays the principle of poetic justice that makes Mike a destructive angel who rightfully punishes the wicked. Despite the sadistic pleasure he derives from inflicting pain, Spillane's detective is capable of love and friendship. If he distrusts the law, it is only because the system is corrupt and works to protect the evildoers.

Aldrich's Hammer cares about nothing but himself, and is convinced into taking action only at the prospect of monetary rewards. No longer an avenger, Hammer is instead a fellow plotter. However, in changing the character of Hammer, Aldrich succeeded in highlighting the cynical and skeptical aspects of Hammer, thus strengthening the tone of despair. Of course, Hammer does retain some of the characteristics normally associated with the hard boiled detective. He certainly is the man's man, casually beating up no less than six different people. He also seems to attract the attentions of various femme fatale's; indeed, throughout the movie, Hammer must again and again refuse the come-ons of his attractive female co stars.

Hammer is also a knight in the sense that he proves vulnerable to the desperation of ladies in distress. It seems that in some respects, Hammer is the "homme fatal - a quality expressed by his name with its twin connotations of phallic power and destructive force" (Palmer, 95). Hammer is the outsider of the film. Every person who meets him, other than Nick and his secretary, treat him with contempt.

His determination to solve the crime is solely motivated by money. Yet Hammer remains the hero, albeit not a very sympathetic one. Through his use of camera tricks, lighting, and mise on scene, Aldrich is able to show the viewer exactly what type of a man Hammer is. Through this process, Hammer is made to be a believable hard-boiled detective, and Kiss Me, Deadly rightfully becomes a classic of film noir.

Bibliography

CAMERON, Ian. The Book of Film Noir. 1993.
The Continuum Publishing Company. New York, New York. KRUTNIK, Frank. In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. 1991.
Routledge. London, England. PALMER, R. Barton. Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir. 1994.
T wayne Publishers. New York, New York. SILVER, Alain, WARD, Elizabeth. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, 3rd Edition. 1992.