Now you know what to do the next time a bad guy is tailing you:
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/121125/Kiss-Me-Deadly-Movie-Clip-Popcorn.html
(take a gander at the trailer as well)
We'll talk about the tone and meaning of Kiss Me Deadly tomorrow after we finish watching the film. For now record your thoughts about the following:
1. What has Robert Aldritch done to our noir hero in this film? Is Mike Hammer a familiar private investigator, based on what we've watched thus far? If so, what is similar? If not, what distinguishes him?
2. Take this one step further and connect it to the reading. How does the world depicted in this film compare with that created by Raymond Chandler?
I think that in this film, Aldritch has turned the private detective into a gun slinger that uses his fists before his head, whereas Marlowe depicted as the opposite. A major difference I noticed between Hammer and Marlowe, is the difference in the techniques they use to obtain information. Marlowe obtains almost all of his information by outsmarting the person he's questioning and tricking them into telling him without them knowing. Hammer, on the other hand, uses force, violence, and intimidation to get people to cough up what he wants to know. This is evident in the scene in which Hammer repeatedly slaps the desk clerk at the country club in order to gain access to the locker room.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that the criminals in the film are portrayed as dumb in order to elevate the detective's macho reputation. In the book, the criminals, specifically the people who stole the necklace, are much more intelligent and competent.
Within Kiss Me Deadly the lead Mike conveys more of an aggressive form of being a detective. He has the same desire as all of the detectives to solve the mystery but the process of doing that differs. Compared to Keyes, who was the insurance company detective they both got to the bottoms of the but Keyes uses more of his intellect to solve his problem then Mike. All of the detectives used there brains more then Mike who uses his brawns most of the time which is what separates him from the others. But, his drive to solve the mystery more then the police or let just let the police do their job makes him similar to the other detectives.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Hammer is very different then all of the other detectives. Instead of just being bad because he pulls out guns, he is a more truly bad character because he is very close to being a pimp. In fact I do not think that it would be to much of a stretch to call him that, because he has his assistant sleep with other men in order to get information on them. Because of this he is not a guy who you can say isn’t truly a good or a bad guy, he is truly bad.
ReplyDeleteThis film compares very closely with the reading. Both of the worlds that the book and movie describe are one which are dark and full of people committing crimes. One difference is Marlowe from the reading seems to have a higher standard then Hammer.
Mike has different background experiences than most private detectives in literature and other noir films; instead of serious crimes, he worked previously on divorce cases, sometimes investigating both the wife and husband and using their evidence against each other. His tactics for getting information out of people involved with the case, even non-suspects, are also unusually brutal, including breaking a valuable record, slamming a man's hand in a drawer, and slapping the desk clerk. Personal gain also motivates him more than uncovering the truth, shown when he asks for a bribe in return for ending his meddling. He also declines working with or at all helping the police not because he thinks he can do a superior job but because he wants personal vengeance and wealth and the police offer "nothing in it for me."
ReplyDeleteIn Kiss Me Deadly, almost of the characters are focused on obtaining the mysterious substance in the box or avoiding trouble from the seekers of the box. Chandler's world contains characters with much more varied and complex motivations. Kiss Me Deadly also portrays law enforcement and the government as the sinister interrogators of Christina rather than merely incompetent.
Mike is simple in such a way that he's a bit difficult to decipher as a person - he's brutal and violent, but also cunning enough to figure that there would be a bomb in both cars. He's very throw-yourself-into-the-thick-of-things-and-find-out-what's-happening-as-you-go, which is different from how the other protagonists have approached it - Roberts is forced into the situation; Neff creates the situation himself; Marlowe is a bit more cautious and meticulous with how he works - he finds out what he needs to know, then uses the happenings to find the answers. Instead, Mike is allowing asylum fugitives to hitchhike with him, throwing himself back into the center of the mess right after his attempted murder, and consequently getting his friend killed - as well as nearly himself (again.) He is blunt and determined, like having a fistfight and a side game of chess. But most importantly, what connects him to the other private detectives we have seen is his curiosity - his unwavering drive to find out what's really going on here.
ReplyDeleteBoth the book and Kiss me Deadly had violent beginnings - a man had his neck snapped, and the runaway girl is nowhere to be found. Both Mike and Marlowe are private detectives, but they certainly go about it differently - Mike, with his fabricated divorces, and Marlowe with his odd jobs of finding missing persons, and guarding a panicked man in a white suit. Kiss me Deadly is fairly rough-and-tumble, launching your focus around, whereas the book is more detailed and lighter. They both have rather grim settings, but Farewell My Lovely is certainly more humorous, despite the grey morality and censored intentions so prevalent in the noir genre.
Mike Hammer is definitely very different compared to the other private investigator’s we’ve seen in previous films. One of the main components to him being to unalike the others is that he isn’t the brightest guy. Also with the gender roles presented in the film, Mike Hammer is a bit of a player with the women in the film. He seems to be surrounded by women most of the time. Hammer is also different to the other characters we’ve seen in previous films in that he uses violence quite a lot. Most of the other characters we’ve seen try to avoid violence, except for the occasional shooting of somebody. Nevertheless, Hammer seems to really only use violence to get what he’s looking for in his investigations.
ReplyDeleteThis Movie and the reading are similar. In the book, Marlowe seems a bit more intelligent in solving his cases than Hammer.
Mike is a more violence driven investigator. In the movie there is much more action because of this. He isn't that sneaky and leaves a trail behind him. With jobs and women. Marlowe's investigating technequies are more based on thinking things through to solve an issue without as much intense violence.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing about Mike is that compared to the other private detectives, his background appears to be much softer. They mentioned in the movie that he used to work on divorce cases and would get information on the husband and on the wife. He seems to have a super upfront attitude and appears to be very confident with the way that he approaches people and fights and just seems to go for it, always making it out on the top. He seems to be especially aggressive to the point where it is almost evil, like when he slams that man's hand in the drawer to get the key that he wanted. He comes off as definitely more of a macho man compared to the other private detectives we have seen, and the movie was made to show action nicely
ReplyDeleteI think that Mike is more similar to Marlowe than any other character we have seen so far in the movies we have watched. He is very similar to Marlowe in ways that his personality is very over confident and intelligent. He seems to be a chick magnet as well as, but he seems way more violent than Marlowe was and meaner. Marlowe seemed to try and avoid action head on and liked to crack jokes. Mike seems like he always wants to fight and likes to get his information through violence. He also seems very hard-walled and always talking about business and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteThe world in the movie seems a little bit unrealistic. For example, the girls always falls for Mike. Where as in Marlowe's world, it seems a little more realistic and gloomy. In seems like everything goes right for Mike in his world and everyone his someone happy, but in Marlowe's world, one can see the racism and brutality that was going on during that time period.
Certainly not: Hammer is, as Theodore mentioned (quoting the movie jacket), “sleazy, stupid, and brutal.” The other protagonists we’ve seen, while not shy about using guns and brute force, were a little more sly; Hammer is brash, and obviously prefers violence to other methods of investigation. Most striking to me, though, is that I can’t determine his motivation: a guy threatens you over the phone and plants bombs in your car and you still go after him? That’s more than curiosity, especially considering Hammer’s personality: while detectives in previous movies may have been motivated by sheer interest, Hammer, a physically-minded character, can’t be driven by curiosity (a motivation of the mind) alone. While normally my favorite characters are the indecipherable ones, I don’t love this hero, because I get the sense that (and maybe the ending will prove me wrong) Hammer’s complexity is the result of poor writing and directing. I don’t think he was intended to be enigmatic, I think he was supposed to be James-Bond-esque.
ReplyDeleteIn both the book and the film, we are thrown into the action from the very first scene--forced to catch up, instead of spoon-fed the facts with a building introduction. I like this style of creating a fictional world because it makes it harder to distance yourself from the world on the pages or the screen: by laying out the facts in the introduction, most films and novels allow an objective perspective; but because these two begin with scenes of intense emotion during which character is revealed, and not facts, it’s more difficult to separate yourself from the action, because you’ve connected with the people portrayed.
Hammer is a lot more violent than any detectives we've seen so far. It's almost as if the nuance of the other films had disappeared in favor of full blown violence. I don't really have and deep insights or thoughtful comments about Hammer because at this point I don't really see any depth to his character. He's a shoot first and ask questions shortly after detective. I think this film lacks some of the artful tact that the other films had. This film is like the director kind off threw a bucket of pant on the film compared to the other films. I like the action but at this point it's almost like watching a Michael Bay noir film If that makes any kind of sense.
ReplyDeleteDetective Hammer is more or less the antithesis of other Noir detectives, like Marlowe. He lacks the subtlety and actual detective skills of Marlowe, instead preferring to rely on his fists or secretary,Velma, to find information. Almost all of the steps he took in the film were somehow prompted by a name or place Velma gave him. The bright, peaceful setting of the film also drew attention to Hammer's violent antics. They were quite different from the detail-heavy, eternally-raining settings used by Raymond Chandler, the more prototypical noir type of setting.
ReplyDeleteMike Hammer was different from the average PI. He was more direct and straightforward in getting information. He was also very aggressive and his uncooperation led to deaths of his allies and friends. Marlowe did a lot of defensive fighting and shooting , but Hammer was more malicious. Marlowe was also sneakier when getting information.
ReplyDeleteIn Raymond Chandlers world there is not as much strange activity. There is more realistic gang activity. In Marlowe's world the danger increases or decreases based on what side of town someone is in.
Mike Hammer is very different than the other Noir private eyes we have seen. He does before he thinks, not a very reliable or redeeming quality to have as a detective. Also he isn't a true detective. He was a divorce lawyer, not exactly qualified to solve a murder.
ReplyDeleteCompared to the world that Raymond Chandler creates for us, there are are still some things that are very noir in this strange world of Mike Hammer. For one, he is very much the ladies man as all the other PI's have been. Also, the police in everyone of the films we've watched have been in the shadows, not very involved or acting corrupt. But Chandler probably would've never given the movie such a cliff-hanger ending. By the end of the movie, I was very confused on the plot and had more questions than The Big Sleep.