There's something about Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich 1955) that i really love. Something about it that just really exemplifies film noir (with a tough of science fiction) for me. Before viewing it, and after watching Out of the Past I wasnt too sure about the whole film noir genre. It just didnt seem like enough, I felt like there was something missing from the movie. After watching Kiss Me Deadly I realized that there were three simple things missing: An outrageous and complex plotline, stylistic and unique cinematography, and of course Mike Hammer. All of which were present in Kiss Me Deadly.
Out of the Past had a relatively simple and monotonous plot; guy falls in love with a girl, girl turns out to be affiliated with a bad guy, and after a series of double and triple crossings they both end up dead. Something along the lines of that. It just seems too dull and uninventive to me. Well of course that is in comparison to Kiss Me Deadly. One of the things that i loved about Kiss Me Deadly was the outrageous plot. I mean it's about a detective who finds a girl who escaped from a mental institution who is later tortured to death by pliers and both of them are thrown off a cliff. Thats just the beginning and it already sounds more interesting than the former. So then the detective, Mike Hammer, tries to use his detective skills and the people he cares about to find out what had happened. Through a lot of supernatural and unpredictable events Hammer solves the mystery but by doing so he basically dooms the earth to an untimely destruction. There is just sometihng so much more interesting in the plotline of Kiss Me Deadly that is so unpredictable and unique compared to that of Out of the Past
I found the cinematography of Kiss Me Deadly to be very stylistic and unique and it just screamed film noir for me. The dark scenes with the characters bathed in shadow and the oblique, unique camara angles add to the hopelessness and paranoia that is theoretically present in all film noirs. In contrast to Kiss Me Deadly's dark, nighttime city shots, Out of the Past shows a different kind of style. In Out of the Past there are very few nighttime scenes, most of the shots are taken in midday with beautiful scenery or in a nice little town, babbling brook in the mountains, or a friendly mexican town. Kiss Me Deadly no doubt represents the feeling of film noir much better that Out of the Past does. Also many of the shots are very unique in Kiss Me Deadly, there are strange shots that one would not thing of doing, yet all of them seem to work. For example, there is one shot when Hammer tells Christina Bailey to wait in the building until he honks his horn, and as he runs down the stairs, there is a really cool birds eye view shot of him doing so. It is amung the cooler shots in the film, another one being when Hammer is approaching someones appartment room, and as he walk up to knock on it, the shot changes to a strange shot from upstairs with a clear view of Hammer doing so that really works out well. Overall, i just think that Kiss Me Deadly has much more interesting cinematography and represents film noir very well.
Finally there is the part that i love the most, Mike Hammer. I dont know what it is about the character that i like so much, i mean he is certainly not a good person. Hammer is clearly a self centered person that cares very little about anyone else. this attitute is shown quite early in the film when Hammer says to Christina, "I should have thrown you off the cliff back there. I might still do it. Where are ya headed?" What i like about his character might just be his general douchebag attitude, he doesnt take any crap from anyone, he'll slap you before even asking for answers, and he can kick some serious ass. His character is just so extreme and out there that you should hate his guts but you really dont, your just waiting for him to do his next completely jerky thing, or at least thats how i feel. Mike Hammer just has such a bad attitude and is such an asshole that it is actually funny. Like when he is trying to take the key from the mortitian and he slams his fingers in the drawer, and of course he seems to enjoy it, he has this evil little smirk while the mortitian is screaming in anguish as his fingers are being crushed. Mike Hammer is just a jerk, but he's a jerk that you tend to like cause he is such a bad person that it's entertaining and even funny.
Despite being a part of an overwhelming minority in the classroom, i really enjoyed Kiss Me Deadly. Not just because it is a fun movie to watch, i actually think it is a genuenly good and well done movie. It's unique and sometimes rediculous plot, stylistic cinematography and... well... Mike Hammer all made me enjoy Kiss Me Deadly much more than it's film noir counterpart, Out of the Past
3 comments:
Kiss Me Deadly= Best Film EVER!!? More like Chinatown= Best Film Ever!! JJ Gittes was way cooler than Mike Hammer. He got his nose cut, he ended up better off than most everyone else, and he got to bang that lady. He was way more of a baller than Mike Hammer. Slamming peoples hands around... oooh so cool.
....NOT
While I can respect your opinion regarding Kiss Me Deadly, I find myself disagreeing with one of your points, thusly that Kiss Me Deadly and Out of the Past are dissimilar to each other.
"guy falls in love with a girl"
Although one can contest that this is not "love" per se, couldn't one argue that Mike Hammer has, at the very least, more then a "just friends" relationship with his secretary?
"girl turns out to be affiliated with a bad guy"
The girl who was pretending to be Chritina's roomate may or may not have been associated with the gangsters. At the very least, she was evil, although she may have been working on her own.
"and after a series of double and triple crossings"
Their were double crossings all over Kiss Me Deadly, specifically in regards to Christina's "roomate"
and the gangsters themselves.
they both end up dead.
It is highly implied that Mike and Velda both end up dead in a nuclear holocaust. In the alternate ending, it's not even left up to the imagination, as they remain in the house and it bursts into flame.
Of course, all of this is just opinion, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
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