Expert Robber x Unexpected Betrayal: The Asphalt Jungle

In the 1940’s,

American movies were growing darker and gloomier,

both visually and also in terms of theme and content.

Hence, French film critics coined the term “noir”

which literally means ‘black’ in French.

 

right after Double Indemnity

I watched another classic which falls under film noir as well

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

 

The ensemble casts,

instead of one single protagonist

add multi-dimensional flavours of darkness

to the film.

 

An iconic characteristic of film noir is fatalism.

The ill-fated protagonist is sent

into a quicksand by a small minor mistake.

His futile attempts to escape

make it more difficult to get back on to the right track.

This is often described as a “spider web of deceit”.

 

In the movie, the web of deceit is

triggered by the burglar alarms going off

all over the place for no sensible reason.

Out of commotion,

a gun fires of its own accord,

shooting down a man.

The alarm put the cop on alerts and

they have to put up a tough fight

escaping the crime scene.

 

This is purely an accident which

dooms their meticulously planned heist.

As Dix put it,

“Blind accidents,

what can you do against blind accident?”

 

Transgression is one of the common themes

explored in film noir.

Personality who commits wrongs

with conscious of guilt

but there is no way out.

 

Emmerich is an epitome of transgression.

He is a well-to-do lawyer with established career.

However he ends up heavily in-debt and

commits more wrongdoings,

partly owning to his spoilt young mistress.

In his unfinished last note

before committing suicide,

he asks for forgiveness from the wife.

 

p/s the mistress looks familiar, isn’t she

the young and sweet Marilyn Monroe

before her fame

 

To Doc,

Emmerich’s act of ending his own life

is a foolish act because the jail term that

he will probably get is less than two years.

However for a lawyer of his status,

the cost of bearing the disgrace

out weights the jail term.

 

A key element of film noir is

the overshadowing desire and obsession of man.

It is a personal subjectivity,

unique to the protagonists.

It is usually being fulfilled in a very ominous way.

 

Dix has the long lost childhood dream of

returning to the ranch where he once belonged.

Heavily wounded,

he has hallucination of the simple life

he once experienced at the farm.

In the lyrical ending,

he falls down and on the meadow grass,

amidst some grazing horses he dreams of owning.

Finally Dix dies a quiet moment at the place where he belongs

and beside a girl who cries her heart for him.

 

The social setting of film noir is usually

based on a dark age of corruption and moral collapse.

The opening scene presents an urban environment of

bleak and decayed.

The focus is the police patrol,

being the one and only vehicle on street.

The scene sends ominous signals

as to the happenings of the city.

 

Even the title of the film is suggesting

the city of crime.

Asphalt, in a literal meaning, is

a black, and stick semi-solid found in crude oil.

It implies complication and entanglement.

 

Just like what Ciavelli, the family man describes,

“If you want fresh air, don't look for it in this town.”

In this seemingly placid “jungle”,

there are petty bookie & horse gambling activities,

corrupted cops, crooked lawyer and

big-time thieves.

 

Asphalt Jungle indeed falls into

the genre of film noir.

The elements of darkness are presented

within the individuals and

also the community as a whole.

The only form of escapism is death.

Sounds pessimistic?

This is what the infamous film noir is all about.

 

The Asphalt Jungle / 1950

 

Works Cited

Dirks, T. (n.d.). The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Retrieved June 10, 2011, from Film Site: http://www.filmsite.org/asph3.html

Horsley, L. (2002). The Development of Post-war Literary and Cinematic Noir. Retrieved June 10, 2011, from Crime Culture: http://www.crimeculture.com/Contents/Film%20Noir.html

Westcombe, R. (2003). What is this thing called film noir, anyway? Retrieved June 10, 2011, from Big House Film: http://www.bighousefilm.com/noir_intro.htm