Symbolism In The Movie The Letter

The film The Letter (1940) directed by William Wyler is a very classic black and white film noir about duplicity. The setting of the story is in the East, at first British Malaya, then move to Singapore. At that time, Malaya was under British’s rule, and in order to consolidation of power, the British government separated themselves and the colonized very clearly by setting up a high hierarchy system. For example, all the workers showed in the movie are natives, and these “slaves” are the ones who do all the dirty and manual works, in contrast, the “white” are the ones who wear suits and get serviced. In the film, there are many shots that have strong contrast as well as its dark double. At the same time, this film has a lot of hidden symbolic

The movie opens in a tropical Malayan rubber plantation. As the white rubber liquid dripping and oriental music playing, the Malayan workers were playing mah-jongg, and having sleeps. At that moment, everything seems so peaceful, but suddenly the night is ripped apart by multiple gunshots which then found out was fired by the plantation wife Leslie Crosbie. As a white man staggers down the stairs injured with a scare face on, whereas, the plantation wife Leslie calmly keep firing her gun into the white man with a cold executioner’s mask even after the man has fallen. At the same time, the moon covered by clouds and the sky went darker and darker, as it wants to cover what just happened. It also like saying Let the evil be in the darkness. Moreover, the moon in this film represent some kind of unknown and mysterious for the audience to find out about what is coming next. As the “head boy” arrive to the scene of the crime, the darkness has gone, Leslie

Moreover, Leslie’s superiority from her race has gone completely due to such matter. Though she thought she can solve all the problems with her money and the race factor. However, that wasn’t the case. At the end of the film, although she is found not guilty, however, she lost her whole life due to such incident. During the party, she left her villa that blazed with lights and walked outside to find her dagger. In this scene, with a suspicious tone background music playing and as her shadow is fading out while she walks, also the clouded moon just like the opening of the film, everything comes to one conclusion that she is going to be punish by her death for what she did. And she did die by the dagger that she was looking for in the hands of Mrs. Hammond. The black and white format in this film gives a very strong contrast about the evil (darkness) and the Justice (bright),as well as how “much” of differences there are as being white and not white. The justice will prevail is definitely one of the core value this film wants to bring