Comparison - Movie Review Example

of the Journalism, Mass Media and Communication of the Concerned 7 March Movie Comparison It is a fact that crime movies by themselves do make an interesting movie genre and command immense viewer following and liking. However, things get even more intense and gripping if a crime movie revolves around a couple given to killing and looting. The crime movies based on criminal couples not only carry the intense stimulation and sense of apprehension signifying the crime genre, but they also tend to have a romantic aspect to them, which brings out the innate characters ascribed to an array of stimulations and motivations (Cohan & Hark 72). The typical American viewer does have an appetite for movies based on criminal couples. In that context the movies Badlands (1973), directed by Terrence Malick and Gun Crazy (1950) directed by Joseph H Lewis do constitute utterly interesting representatives of the criminal couple movie genre. Yet, the thing to be kept in mind is that irrespective of these two movies focusing on criminal couples, the do carry significant originality and diversity coefficient to avoid being dubbed as being similar or alike. If the two movies that are Gun Crazy and Badlands do tend to be similar in the sense that both feature a criminal couple and evince psychological reverberations, they do tend to differ in terms of pacing, manner of narration and ideational interpretation. The one obvious manner in which Gun Crazy directed by Joseph H Lewis and Badlands directed by Terrence Malick happen to be similar is that both the movies showcase criminal couples on the run. Gun Crazy stars an odd couple, in which both the partners do harbor an intense fascination for guns. If on the one side, Bart Tare is represented as the male lead, a small town boy who had an immense fascination for guns that almost end him up in a reform school, the lead woman Annie Laurie Starr is a sharp shooter in a visiting circus who get fascinated with Bart’s shooting skills and his sense of ease and comfort with guns. It is their love and fascination with guns that brings together these two people, until they meander into a life marked by crime and killing. Similarly, Badlands is a movie that also primarily revolves around two young people who love each other and are on a run after killing many people in cold blood. The one unifying aspect of both these movies is that the plot is based on two young people who love each other and who are on the run from law after committing killings and other crimes. The central focus on a criminal couple is the one big similarity between the two plots. The one manner that Gun Crazy differs from Badlands is the way the story is paced in this movie. The sequencing of action in Gun Crazy is real fast that keeps the audience riveted to their seats. The dominant partner Annie in Gun Crazy evinces a practical expression of one’s criminal tendencies and a macabre willingness to kill for money in a racy and fast paced manner. The main emotion that keeps the viewers enthralled and interested is the marked sense of expectation and an avid desire to know as to what she is going to do next. It would not be wrong to say that the pacing in Gun Crazy is almost perfect and the movie to a great extent benefits from the way it paces the criminal actions in the overall plot. The story moves at a fast pace and furnishes to the audience little time to digest one crime, when it benumbs them with some other crime scene. On the other hand if action is the unique aspect of Gun Crazy, the movie Badlands carries an element of mystery that is immaculately garnished with a slow moving and somewhat lethargic pacing. The movie instead of being a thriller rather moves about in a slow paced and intimidating manner, keeping the audience guessing as to what will happen next. The plots in the movies that are Gun Crazy and Badlands also do differ in the sense that one happens to be a crime drama while the other happens to be a narrative drama. What makes Badlands indeed unique is the fact that the plot is narrated in the movie as a voiceover from a teenage girl named Holly, who hesitantly and deliriously follows her lover Kit in a world marked by crime and senseless killing. Though Kit is the primary agent of drama in the movie, yet, it is Holly that presents the story from her unique feminine perspective. Thereby, essentially speaking the narrative in a visual context happens to focus on Kit, yet the thing to be kept in mind is that the story gets narrated from Holly’s perspective. Moreover, the viewers in the case of Badlands do fashion their vantage point around Holly’s perspective. In contrast, Gun Crazy is an action drama where the center of attention is the action, violence and emotional outbursts marking the crimes committed by the two lovers. In that context the story allows the viewers a greater ease of framing perspectives from the vantage point they habitually ascribe to or intend to favor. The other amazing thing that makes the two movies so similar is the psychological angle that signifies the two movies. In case of both the couples, the dominant partners who are more comfortable committing crimes and killing do evince having deep seated psychological reasons that nudge and rather sometimes push them to kill and commit crime. It is the psychological undertones stimulating the action in the two movies that make them so intense and gripping. In the movie Gun Crazy, the dominant partner Annie tends to kill and commit crime not merely because she is crazy about money, but also because the plot hints at some inner psychological mysteries that make her an avid sociopath and a person liable to kill and maim without consideration. Similarly in the movie Badlands, the driver of action, Kit tends to kill in a maverick like and shockingly cool manner because he does hint at having some deep seated psychological issues which make him so prone to crime and bloodshed. No wonder both these people are so criticized and conflicted by their saner counterparts in Gun Crazy and Badlands. It is indeed true that most movies do relate to an ideational content in the context of which they can be interpreted and understood. In a way the movie Gun Crazy showcases the contemporary society’s insensitivity towards life and the abject violence that ensues from a world given to material progress and carnal fulfillment (Rafter 56). The direct outcome of this craze for money is a society where people prefer to solve problems by using guns. In contrast the movie Badlands hovers around the urban realities of loneliness and social alienation that makes some young people lose a sense of meaning and context in life (Rafter 52). This gives way to senseless violence and a love severed from the constraints of rationality. Hence, it is indeed true that the movies Gun Crazy and Badlands do happen to be similar in the sense that they feature criminal couples and delve into the psychology of violence and crime. However, what makes them different is the way the action is paced in them, the way the plot gets narrated and the overall ideational interpretation they subscribe to. Both these movies do make up a nice and worthy addition to the criminal couple movie genre and happen to be classics in their own unique and peculiar way. Works Cited Cohan, Steven, & Ina Rae Hark. The Road Movie Book. New York: Routledge, 1997. Print. Rafter, Nicole. Shots in the Mirror. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print. Read More