Double Indemnity and Brick - Essay Example

Film Noir: Double Indemnity and Brick Double Indemnity Double Indemnity is a skeptical, entertaining, and immoral thriller exposing infidelity, dishonesty and manslaughter, and directed by Billy Wilder in 1944 after deriving it from a hard-boiled novel story taken from Three of a Kind by James Cain in 1943. A woman lures a man into killing her husband because of sex and wealth. This film shows how much people believe in achieving their target not by seeking divine intervention but by manipulating other people and further trusting that they can only get what they want through their effort. Phyllis Dietrichson seduced Walter into killing her husband so that she could benefit from his insurance policy and this made him trick the husband into signing the policy that insured his life for $50,000. Walter accused her of trying to get him to kill her husband and refused but Phyllis convinced Walter how abusive her husband was thus making him agree to kill Dietrichson so that the amount could be doubled due to a fatal accident on a train (Wilder Film). When Dietrichson took the train to attend a college reunion, Walter killed him and posed as him before jumping off the train and placing the body on the tracks making it look like he had fallen off the train to his death. Walter's supervisor was suspicious of Dietrichson's death and further suspected that the wife must have organized the killing. Dietrichson's daughter also told Walter that she believes Phyllis murdered her mother in order to marry her father making him suspect that Phyllis has left him for her lover, Nino Zachette. The crime falls apart because of the two characters’ absolute mistrust of one another prompting Walter to shoot Phyllis dead and drive to the insurance office to record his confession (Wilder Film). Brick Brick film was produced in 2005 and was written and directed by Rian Johnson that embodies a lot of visual traits of classic film noir and has a very dark plot. Rian was inspired by the hardboiled detective novels written by Dashiell Hammett, and set out to create a unique detective film like the Film Noirs prompting him to choose a contemporary Neo Noir in High School. Brendan Frye who broke up with his girlfriend Emily received a phone call from Emily asking him to assist her since she was in trouble. Emily mentioned some names such as "brick", "poor Frisco", "tug", and "the Pin" that Brendan did not know much about particularly after Emily abruptly and fearfully hanged up the phone conversation. As part of investigation, Brendan arranged to meet Emily at Dode’s place but Emily refused to talk about the matter thus leaving Brendan in much suspense. Nevertheless, Brendan managed to secretly acquire a hint from Emily’s notepad when he was embracing her and this became very useful in his investigation particularly after she found Emily’s dead body (Rian Film). Brendan discovered that the names mentioned by Emily over the phone conversation were drug barons whom Emily was associated with and even asked the Pin to consider him for a spot in his operation when Laura told Brendan that The Pin had rejected Emily's attempt to join the group. According to Laura, refusal to admit Emily in the drug dealers’ group prompted her to steal the title's brick. As much as Laura offered to help Brendan in carrying out the investigation, he does not trust her especially after he sleeps with her and notices that she must be part of the group which he suspects to have murdered Emily. The fight between r Tug and The Pin, which caused the Pin’s death made Brendan to run away from the police and passes the trunk of Tug's car, where he had hidden the body to ensure that police pin Emily’s murder on Tug. Interestingly, Brendan was very much aware that Laura was a culprit he was looking for and he later went ahead to set Laura to the school administration and accused her of Emily’s murder (Rian Film). Self-Deception The two movies greatly show the aspect of self-deception in many ways living some one wonder whether there is anyone that can be trusted around us. In Double Indemnity, Phyllis pretends that she loves her husband Dietrichson yet what she wants is riches and wealth. Phyllis offered to do everything possible to get her husband as Dietrichson’s daughter also explains that she believes that Phyllis must have killed her mother so that she could be married by Dietrichson. Actually it is hard for a man sometimes to believe that a woman does not love him yet the woman is ready to do everything to him. A number of men have been tricked using this style due to the emotional challenges it imposes on men. After watching these two movies, people particularly men should beware of women characters and luring behavior towards them because when a deal is too good, it is advisable to think twice (Carrasqueira 46-52). How could Walter accept relationship with Phyllis at the first instance yet he was very much aware that this woman is married? Walter knew very well that whatever he was involving himself was very wrong but he went ahead with satisfying his lust. Walter having been trusted by his boss still goes ahead to secretly kill their client without considering the rules and regulations of the company and insurance policies such as advising Phyllis that deadly calamity makes the premium amount doubled. Walter must have been loved and trusted by his boss but he defied the trust by going overboard. Funny enough, although Walter’s boss suspected that Phyllis husband was killed, he did not know that the act was committed by Walter. It is interesting that Walter still suspects some kind of love from a woman who murdered her own husband. Mistrust between Walter and Phyllis was something existed even before the deal was done because Phyllis already had a young love (Ghanim 99-103). In the Brick, Brendan sleeps with the very lady who is behind her ex-girlfriend’s death unknowingly but Laura is very much aware of the incident. Brendan struggles to carry out investigation but Laura is aware of everything yet she could not tell him (Ghanim 99-103). Laura stole the two bricks and even fixed her best friend Emily into these incidents knowingly. Who can really be trusted? Tug who operates with the Pin kills Pin yet they have been doing business together for quite sometimes. Emily who had initially indicated that she was in trouble refused to explain to Brendan what was wrong but she finally died of perhaps the same problem. Laura having been a close friend to Tug still wanted to implicate Tug on Laura’s pregnancy. Laura could not tell the truth to Brendan yet she even slept with him as Brendan also lost mistrust on her and further reported her to Vice Principal Trueman who found the brick on her locker (Carrasqueira 46-52). Death of Emily, the Pin, Phyllis and shooting of Walter were the only remedies to these cases perhaps to teach viewers lessons. In everyday life, people undergo numerous issues that are contributed by deception and lies. Many a times, women may influence men in doing things that are not morally upright by using sex as a tool. Culturally and historically, women are considered to be very responsible people who take good care of their families and in most cases are not regarded as unfaithful compared to men. Most crimes are organized by men and this makes the film to reveal much about the other side of women which the society does not know much about. Men should therefore beware of nice deals offered by some women because such kind of occurrences is on the rise (Carrasqueira 46-52). Works Cited Carrasqueira , Miguel. Learning to Be a Proper Man: The Role of Male Bonding in American Modernist Fiction, 2006. Print. Ghanim, David. Gender and Violence in the Middle East. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2009. Web. Rian,Johnson. Dir. Brick. Sundance Film Festival, 2005. Film. Wilder, Billy. Dir. Double Indemnity. Paramount Pictures, 1944. Film. Read More