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Maltese Falcon Themes And Techniques

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The Maltese Falcon. It follows the story of the private detective Sam Spade, who gets involved with three criminals in search of a priceless statue. Similar to film noir, neo-noir takes these key themes and repackages them to fit the current views of society. An example of a neo-noir film is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The movie tells the story of Harry Lockhart, who goes from being a criminal in New York City to a private detective in Los Angeles. The neo-noir narrative in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written as an homage to the noir genre through its usage of key themes such as character archetypes and setting; however, redefines the genre through satire and tone shift. The classic noir genre always had recurring themes of setting and character archetypes such as the private detective and the femme fatale. The private detective is considered an …show more content…

Neo-noir borrowed elements from classic noir films such as the Maltese Falcon and transformed them into films appealing to the modern day audience. As both films, the Maltese Falcon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, are set in Los Angeles, this creates the perspective that Los Angeles is characterized by its unreality. It was a lavish and glamorous city where the criminals lurked in the dark of the night and only private detectives could be trusted to bring justice. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang added the noir genre by making the movie more realistic and relatable to the audience. Harry represented how the audience would react if they were placed in the same situation. Perry teaches Harry how to be a private detective, but also does not fit the traditional private detective stereotype due to his sexuality. On the other hand, Harmony was sexualized to appeal to the modern day audience's perspective on how women should be. By shifting from a serious tone to a more comedic tone, this allows the audience to believe the film, and the noir genre itself is more light-hearted and

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The Maltese Falcon has inspired several novels and writers, like Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, and Jonathan Lethem, and it all started with Sam Spade.

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Hatchet, the book, did a better job at telling the story than “A Cry in the Wild”. In my opinion, Hatchet did a better job at telling the story because it gives you more details. In Hatchet they use a lot of imagery. You can actually imagine what they are talking about without actually seeing it. In both, Hatchet and “A Cry in the Wild” they use foreshadowing.

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Athanasourelis’s article depicts Sam Spade’s individuality through his actions leading up to Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s conviction. Sam’s initial intentions are to help Brigid avoid the police. Upon coming to the conclusion that Brigid is the only suspect in the murder of Archer, Sam knows he has to turn her into the authorities. The article discusses that although it may seem as if Sam is acting justly, he is truly just turning Brigid in to avoid his own persecution for the crimes others committed. Hammett establishes Sam’s morals frequently throughout the novel by further describing his character as a “hard-boiled detective”.

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After reading the critical essay “Neon Gothic: Lost in Translation” by Wendy Haslem, her central argument was found to be that of how Lost in Translation (Coppola,2003) presents a nontraditional approach to a romance in comparison to the expected. Haslem goes on to support her claim of an unconventional romance by using examples of scenes from the film, such as the scene where Bob and Charlotte share a goodbye kiss. In traditional romantic films, there is no mistake in understanding the intent of a kiss. However, in Lost in Translation, the intent of the kiss shared between Bob and Charlotte is not very direct and arises a lot of questions to its meaning. Another piece of textual evidence found to support the claim is the connection made between the two main characters throughout the film.

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637 Words | 3 Pages

Goodfellas versus Casino The gangster genre of films was made popular early on in American film history with the development of sound (White 35). Some of them stick out in cinema history such as Goodfellas and Casino, both directed by Martin Scorsese. The audience discovers how greed for the ultimate American dream can tear apart the things that truly matter in life. In terms of quality, there is a lot of debate of which movie is the better view.

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1199 Words | 5 Pages

The movie "On the Waterfront" is an example of Film Noir which literally means black or dark film. Movies like this were more serious and explored more realistic and depressing subject matters. The movie was mainly about the struggle of the working longshoremen in Hoboken, New Jersey against the gangsters who bullied and extorted money from them. The protagonist of the movie is Terry Malloy.

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In the short story “The Catbird Seat,” the author James Thurber develops verbal, dramatic, and situational irony by his plot structure. In the beginning of the story Mrs. Barrows says phrases like “Are you tearing up the pea patch?” Right after that an employee explains to Mr. Martin what is means. He says, “‘Tearing up the pea patch’ meant going on a rampage.” That section of the story is verbal irony because Mrs. Burrows is saying phrases she doesn't really mean.

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1012 Words | 5 Pages

N00145563 The Maltese Falcon is a film noir directed by John Huston. The film is based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett of the same name. The film was made and distributed by Warner Bros. and was released in October 1941. In this film, detective Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart, takes on a case from the beautiful but deceptive Miss Wonderly, played by Mary Astor.

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1299 Words | 6 Pages

Film noir movies often have stylistic characteristics such as exaggerated lighting and shadows. Scarlet Street contained many subjective camera shots while also using exaggerated shadows, for example during the first scene in the movie, there is an emphasis on the mans shadow as he walks into the room. Which brings me to a crucial point, Black and white filmmaking. Black and white style is considered to be an essential attribute for a film noir movie, black and white allows the director to emphasize on distorting images, for example use of the venetian blind shot. Another continuous pattern of film noir is to include main stock characters, this film contains: an anti-hero and a femme fatale, these stock characters are always seen in noir films.

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1058 Words | 5 Pages

What Scorsese did differently was that he made male protagonists vulnerable again, just like they were in the old mobster movie days, but in a bit more realistic way Scorsese produces movies in a way that, according to Kolker, he „Determines our point of view and our emotional and intellectual attachment to the film. We are therefore, scarcely allowed any separation from what the central character is seeing. “ (218). He even does this directly by breaking the fourth wall twice in Goodfellas, and therefore making us feel as though we are the acomplices in all the things that were happening in the film. And we all know that it is very hard to judge ourselves effectively.

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2526 Words | 11 Pages

The word genre comes from the French word for 'class ', (Chandler, 1997). Film genre refers to a specific style or subject matter. A movie may have several different components that may make up a specific genre. Genres makes it easier for the audience, as the categorization of genres lets the audience pick what sort of movie they would like to watch. Film genres give the audience information into the type movie it may be, this in turn helps them to decide whether the movie is suitable for them or not.

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810 Words | 4 Pages

There are many distinct elements of a film noir. Strong lighting features, tough female characters, a twisted love story, and crowded yet simple sets. These are just a few of those elements and they all make Blade Runner a film noir. One of the more noticeable elements of a film noir is lighting. Throughout the film, lighting is used to set the mood and atmosphere of each scene.

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The Kiss v. Gnaw “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see” (Edgar Degas). There are hundreds of artworks in progress right now, all around the world, and every single one of these pieces have a common goal, as all art does, which is to communicate. An artist aspires to express themselves and their ideas to others through their work, therefore every piece they make tends to have some underlying, or obvious, meaning for their viewer to interpret. The Kiss and Gnaw share the same goal as well.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

The critically acclaimed film, Goodfellas, is a gangster crime drama that features an incredible amount of talent. Household names such as: Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway), Joe Pesci (Tommy DeVito), Paul Sorvino (Paul Cicero), and promising stars like Ray Liotta (Henry Hill) and Lorraine Bracco (Karen Hill), attracted numerous Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. That type of cast power, linked with the signature talent of Martin Scorsese as a director, made for cinematic gold. Unquestionably, the actors and actresses did an excellent job augmenting the verisimilitude of this film and compelling audiences to empathize with their characters. But the cinematography in this film plays just as large a role in having audiences feel what the characters

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727 Words | 3 Pages

Today I will be analyzing all three versions of The Maltese Falcon film’s the scene I’ve chosen to review the scene where Spade is visited and questioned by police detectives Lt. Dundy and Sergeant Tom Polhaus. Although the films are based on the same novel The Maltese Falcon (1930), they differ in many ways I’ll use the scene I mentioned above to show the differences in mood, setting, the behavior and attitude of the main characters in this scene. The second thing I’ll do is show how breaking down a particular scene before you’ve watched the entire film could lead a first time viewer of the films could create a different conclusion in their minds than the one the films already has. If you have viewed all three films the first thing you may notice is that the place where the detectives visit Spade for questioning varies between the three films.

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