The Big Heat, Fritz Lang, 1953

Résumé du document

The Big Heat is a film I had seen in one of my high school English classes and found it quite interesting. After analyzing the movie, I rediscovered it by paying more attention to details in the film, to its meaning and to the true connotation of the story. In the process, I discovered a new way of watching films: more intelligent, more attentive, and more interesting. I had initially felt that the film noir was a period movie genre and had not paid much attention to it. I present in this essay about this film that opened my eyes. The film starts with a giant close-up on a .38 gun lying on a desk. The camera stays still and we see a man's hand grabbing the weapon and disappearing with it from the screen. Then, a single sudden bang makes us understand that the man committed suicide and we get a shocking confirmation when the dead body bursts into the screen falling forward on the desk. This is rather a quite surprising introduction for the viewer who was just warming up on his seat.

Extraits

[...] I love this scene because it is one of those where we feel a subtle wink Fritz Lang makes to the viewer who notices it : I personally understood that Lagana was gay. Lagana makes a call that leads us to the next step of the presentation : a phone rings in a room where we see men smoking and playing cards in the background and a beautiful woman –Debby Marsh- answers. The whole atmosphere of that scene confirms our doubts about the fact that those characters with Lagana have a link with the Mafia, and that Debby is the kept-woman of Vince Stone: Lagana's right hand man. [...]

[...] His daughter is “angelic all her mother says, and even the choice of her name: Joyce illustrates that idea of the ideal daughter who brings joy to the family. But this little harmony is destroyed when his wife is killed by a car bomb: Dave's own car. Dave transforms from a random sergeant to The Avenger we see on the film's posters: “Somebody's going to And that metamorphose gives birth to one of the major themes of the film: the idea of justice vs. personal justice. Does the end justify the means? Fritz Lang uses the personality of its characters to make us think about it. [...]

[...] And although we can see Dave as a surrogate killer because he's the one who gave her the gun and indirectly suggested her act, she confirms that she was never too far away of her true materialistic nature by telling Bertha this memorable sentence (before killing her are sisters under the mink.” There is an infinite number of details to pay attention to in this film. I tried to focus on the ones that impressed me the most and the last thing I'd like to write about is the title: The Big Heat. What is it exactly referring to? Vengeance is a dish best served cold It is interesting to note that the French title of the film: “Règlements de Comptes”, refers less elegantly to this saying. That's an illustration of the Italian saying “traduttore tradittore”: translation is treacherous. [...]

[...] Debby's a kept woman but she's a femme fatale too. She's beautiful, feminine, and sensual and she seduces dangerous sadistic Vince Stone who is involved with the Mafia because she'd rather be with someone like that than not to have enough money. Debby - He can be a pretty good guy, and other times he can be but why kick? You gotta take the bad with the good. Dave - Is the good good enough? Debby - Clothes, travel, expensive excitement, what's wrong with that? [...]

[...] The idea here is to show that everybody has a good and a bad side. This is an idea that is exploited in the whole movie for many other characters, even for the ones that seemed to be the most perfect ones: Katie Bannion (about Joyce) “She's angelic all day, but at night she's a holy terror”. Dave Bannion “That's what I usually say about you”. And Dave Bannion doesn't escape that rule, even his name's initials bring him closer to the widow Bertha Duncan: B.D /D.B . [...]