Friday, August 27, 2010

And Still We Watched....and Watched.....and Watched

In most of the really great movies, the fate of the main characters is uncertain at first. I mean, that's kind of why we watch the movie, right? Amongst the most glaring exceptions, of course, is that of Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray's character in "Double Indemnity"). In the case of Mr. Neff, we know IMMEDIATELY his fate. This, folks, in that the very minute that Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) slinks out of her room wearing nothing but a towel, we know. Boy, do we ever know.......Not to mention, sympathize...................................................................................................P.S. This, of course, isn't to say that Barbara Stanwyck could have ever gotten me personally to kill. She couldn't have.....Stealing a battery, etc.? Hm, let me just plead the 5th, O.K.?

4 comments:

Oso said...

It's funny, it's always seemed to me the best way to enthrall viewership/readership is to keep 'em guessing as to who the bad guy is, or maybe what the protagonists fate will be.

Yet there are a lot of books and films that start out with all the cards on the table, and then show how the events unfolded.

I think that's the hard way, and maybe the way of those most talented.

Where the author/directors talent is on the level of Gail Devers butt !

Oso said...

Will,
Sorry this is off-topic but here's an interesting link I'm about to read, the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the effect of the Stimulus

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Hitchcock worked that way (cards on the table) sometime, right?

Rusty Shackleford said...

Oso,that CBO report is over a year old,its meaningless at this point.