Why I Love Crime Fiction in Films - Essay Example

Why I love Crime Fiction in Films I’m quite familiar with and a fan to a scene like this: A body lies on the floor, blood flowing from under it, the face is heavily abused; its eyes are blank and hollow, staring at the ceiling, but the dead stare covers the mystery behind its death; beside the body is a bread knife, the chairs and table are in total disarray. Not far from it, in the balcony, a man with a pistol tucked on his side, writes to his pad, questioning a witness, while a uniformed cop guards the scene. A crime scene investigation, a follow-up activity with adventures into the gangland, the rich and famous, drugs, money, alcohol, all these have been a part of my viewing experience that thrill me, even when I was growing up. It’s not the dead body, the violence, the physical abuse, and the blood, that thrill me; there is something more. When the camera is focused on a dead victim, I usually turn my face away from what I’m viewing. I hate blood and killing in films either. I’m not a sadist or a violence-prone individual. I’m just a growing up student of films and suspenseful stories of people, their psyche, temperament, and all the circumstances that lead to an individual’s urge to commit crimes. It’s the entire concept of investigation that thrills me; it’s the whole police/crime story. When the main character is able to solve the crime after the complex process of investigation, the climax, the problems are solved, and all the other flaws are resolved, that’s when I’m able to relax and say, “It’s a great movie. It’s been a fine day.” I like the movies. Before when there were not enough movies on crime and police stories, I would content myself with love stories, and such other childhood films, like musicals and teenage fantasy stories. But as I grew up, the influence of crime fiction in films made a mark on me. But I also love romance, adventure, and fantasy in my teenage life. These I would find in books and magazines, but more on films. What is so striking about police and crime stories is that they can be mixed with other genre, like love story, or a crime of passion, and adventure as the main protagonist goes on solving the crime. Why do I write for crime fiction films? Why do I love crime fiction? The answer to these questions maybe simple, but complex: first, I love the movies being shown in a movie theater, not movies shown or made for television; second crime fiction gives me thrilling and suspense feeling. It is a normal subject for suspense/thriller films. I usually watch it in the evening, alone, and give myself all the time to appreciate the story. This kind of genre tickles my imagination. There are some questions posed in the story and which I try to solve mentally. What allows or forces you to think when you see a movie like this? What are the steps the investigator is going to do? How may the main character, the detective, be able to uncover the mystery surrounding the crime? Crime plots in films is satisfying, to say the least. It means what and why you are there inside the movie theater; it fulfills your movie experience. Inside the theater, you are concentrated, alone in your seat, with no one, nothing to distract you. When I see a film, I am there to be thrilled, to be frightened, but after this thrilling and frightening experience, my fears and worries are healed and gone when I see that my favorite actor, the lead character of the movie, is able to complete the story by capturing the antagonist (a serial killer perhaps, or somebody who turns out to be the wife or husband of the victim). With crime as the main subject of the film, the story can revolve around the commission and the solution; but next to it is the adventure, with some love angles, and some other subplots to unfold as the story goes on, and then nears its climax. First, it has to be seen in the movie theater. That is my number one requirement for a crime fiction film. I hate seeing suspense/thriller films in the television, inside my home, because the thrill seems lost inside the comfort of your sofa, with people and relatives all around you, and with no popcorn. But I can consume several packs of popcorn if the movie I’m watching has no thrill at all. Crime fiction ought to be seen in the movie theater, not at home where the thrill and the real “spirit” of the film are lost. Besides, films shown at home are “shortened” version, with many cuts to suit the network’s standards. These days, with the popularity of adventure and fantasy movies, crime fiction is not lost, some of them have become classic, should I say, that repetitions and “remakes” are done once in a while. One of these is the movie “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcock, who is known as the master of thriller and suspense, and one of the forerunners of the film noir. In this film, Hitchcock introduced the “bathroom” scene where a woman meets her unexpected fate. As she unrobed, the supposed perpetrator comes from behind the curtain with a bread knife and thrust it several times on the naked woman. The criminal is at first insinuated to be a woman, but later on, it is revealed to be a man, the owner of the motel, who is the “Psycho”, or a mentally deranged who’d killed his own mother years before the incident. Hitchcock has been known as the master of suspense movies because of this film. From the initial showing of Psycho, which was just a low-budgeted film, it has been “reformatted” or “remade” because of the originality of the story and the suspense and thrilling scene in the bathroom. The new version is more thrilling and frightening, even though at first you have second thoughts because what’s on your mind is that you know what’s going to happen. But good directors and film makers know how to handle this kind of film introduction. What happened when I went out of the movie theater? Or what was the effect of the film Psycho on me? I really wanted to be with somebody. Not that I felt lonely, but it was my first frightening experience, as if somebody was following me in an alley, a mentally-deranged criminal ready to “stab” me. The bathroom scene of Psycho is effective. And this is repeated - meaning my experience – when I went home and took my shower. I had to switch all the lights on and remove the curtain, and I quickly took my shower. But the experience did not change my admiration for crime fiction films. Instead, it enhanced my knowledge, and now the skill to write about it. There is that creativity in films like these that also arouses my own creativity. The killer instinct in each and everyone of us seems awakened by the stabbing scenes, the physical abuse, the abusive part of the killing; but it must not be misunderstood that I have this criminal instinct. All of us have peculiar experiences that tend to become a part of our growing up. It’s how you are able to handle these kinds of experiences and apply them to your personal life that’s important. For me, it’s part of my relieving the pressures of work in student life that when I see some crime fiction films, I am recharged and can start all over again. When I feel this kind of movie experience, I would like to turn back to the time when I was a child. My “thrilling” experience was when I heard one of those true stories from an aunt as she was narrating a sort of “serial killing” at the time. I heard it clearly that one of our neighbors was then apprehended by the police. It was a year of follow-up investigation, and the subject matter was the talk of the town for many weeks and months. This started my interest in police stories. As I grew older, my inner longing for the sort of stories turned into films. It was also something like an awakening that I learned to love reading crime fiction stories. And with the surge of new technology and effects in filmmaking, good stories and plots of really the best writers and filmmakers in Hollywood, it has become not only my sort of leisure time, but to “clear” the day, after a hard day’s study, or weekend recreation. I would go to my favorite theater for a feel of the next “victim” and follow-up investigation / adventure of my favorite actor; but when there’s none, I really have to go to other places, and scout for new “crime” stories. Going back to Hitchcock’s Psycho, it’s not the film that is really significant here, but the story and its popularity. For a Hitchcock movie is a Hitchcock movie, something original in its contents. The reason why a movie has a remake is because it can’t be forgotten in the minds of the moviegoers. The scenes, the plot, the characters, are still intact in the moviegoers’ memory that they want to see it again in a new version, with new technology, new techniques and a new director. Film noir movies in the sixties feature street crimes, drugs, and detective films. Crime fiction films of today feature some sophistication in the commission of the crime using high technology and the internet, big amount of money involved in drugs and more scenes exposing violence, action and a lot of blood spilled. During Hitchcock’s time, this was not so. A woman wearing bra being focused by the camera was a no-no during that time. The stabbing scene in the bathroom was also a first in Hitchcock’s time. So this could be the reason why it is an unforgettable experience for moviegoers that it has remained in their minds, and has become a classic. First impression lasts; first experience really lasts. It was a first, which means that Hitchcock broke rules and traditional norms of the time. He was known as a genius in his time when it came to thriller/suspense. He had the instinct for such kinds of films that would penetrate into the moviegoers’ psyche. And no matter how or what norms he was breaking, he had to do it and show it. He was proven correct by his own instincts when Psycho came out a box office hit, breaking records, making Hitchcock a hit maker and a controversial one at that. There might be more Hitchcocks today or in the future. But there are also other filmmakers like Steven Spielberg who are making unforgettable films and box-office successes in diverse genres. I’m not really closing myself to crime fiction in films. Modern filmmakers who use new media and new technology in their art can even make more suspenseful films. There are more than enough resources that can be used now in filmmaking. Crime stories, fantasy and adventure films are told and portrayed more realistically and fascinating. This is the magic of films from stories old and new. Now, I’m not just entertained, I am more informed and learned with the use of high technology and skillful storytelling. References Frith, S., 1996. The Problem of Value. The Value Problem in Cultural Studies’ Performing Rites. Oxford UP, London, pp. 3 – 20. The Problem of Value, S. Frith 2007, ‘The Best Disco Record: Sharon Redd “Never Give You UP” in A. McKee (ed). Beautiful Things in Popular Culture, Blackwell, London, pp. 193-202. Bourdieu, P. D. Clarke et al., (eds). Classes and Classifications. The Consumption Reader, Routledge, London, 2003. Centean, M. ( 1984). The Practice of Everyday Life, University of California Press: Berkeley Hawkins, G, 2003. Taste. Bennett, T. M. Morris & Grossberg, L. (eds) New Keywords Blackwell, London, pp. 340.342 Read More