Lecture 3: Lecture 3: Criminology on Film/Film NoirCriminology on Film/Film Noir

Vito Corleone arrives an orphan in New York

Professor Aaron Baker

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In the Last Lecture…In the Last Lecture…

• Prohibition Volstead Act 1920-33

• Economic Depression 1929-41

• Working class/Ethnic Gangster Critique

• Censorship

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In this Lecture…In this Lecture…

• How Films show causes of crime and violence

• Film Noir

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Motives/CausesMotives/Causes

• Film can show: – Motives (e.g. via

flashbacks)– Environments that

cause crime– Reflect/influence our

ideas about why crime happens A flashback in The Killers 1946

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Causes for Crime ChangeCauses for Crime Change

• 1930s Gangster films: environment, inequality

• Late 40s-early 60s: psychological reasons; Psycho (1960)

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ReasonsReasons

• 1960s return to 1960s return to environmental environmental causes of 30s; causes of 30s; Bonnie and Clyde Bonnie and Clyde ((1967)1967)

• 1980s drugs major 1980s drugs major factor; factor; Scarface Scarface ((1983)1983)

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Raftner: 3 General Causes for Raftner: 3 General Causes for Crime in MoviesCrime in Movies

• Environment

• Desire for better life

• Bad biology/mental illness

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Many films show criminals as good people driven to crime by conditions of their lives

Normal at StartNormal at Start

Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek in Badlands 1974

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Bad Environment Bad Environment

.• Filmmakers’ favorite

• Allows them to encourage our identification with characters

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Raftner:Raftner:“The bad-environment explanation takes the

blame off criminals, enabling scriptwriters to glorify them, or at least to portray them

as normal men and women, sinned against as well as sinning.” (p. 54)

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ClipClip

• In this clip Wilson (Terrence Stamp) talks about his poor background and experience in jail in a way that charms a DEA agent—and us!

Clip #1

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AspirationAspiration

Other films attribute crime to:– Desire for a better life– Thieves who take pride

in their criminal skills

Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek in After the Sunset, 2004

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What Crime ShownWhat Crime Shown• Ideological• Movies emphasize murder• Michael Welsh:

– 24,000 homicides– 56,000 workers died; injuries/diseases from job – Street crime $4 billion year– White Collar $200 billion year (Rafter, 62)

• Serial killers rare• Overemphasis on mental illness as cause

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BiologyBiology

• Paul Muni in Scarface: 32 is lustful, violent, apelike—a throwback to earlier evolutionary stage

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Texas Chainsaw MassacreTexas Chainsaw Massacre 1974: 1974:

Sawyer family insane killers

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Favorite DiagnosisFavorite Diagnosis

• Psychopathology• Photogenic• Intriguing, even

charming• But no

conscience/insane

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German ExpressionismGerman Expressionism

• Originated use of movie psychosis

• Tortured mind expressed in fictional world

• Mise-en-scene dark/distorted The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920

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Film NoirFilm Noir

• Adapts expressionism to American film• Crime stories in dangerous urban

locales, ruled by desire and violence

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Noir ElementsNoir Elements

• A nightmarish visual style A nightmarish visual style drawn from German drawn from German ExpressionismExpressionism

• Femmes fatales (deadly Femmes fatales (deadly women), who manipulate women), who manipulate the male investigatorthe male investigator

• A surreal narrative logic A surreal narrative logic more about intense more about intense desire than rational logicdesire than rational logic

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Critic Robert SklarCritic Robert Sklar

Noir films “seem contained, enclosed, Noir films “seem contained, enclosed, shadowy explorations of an interior shadowy explorations of an interior

landscape of mind and emotion quite novel landscape of mind and emotion quite novel in the extroverted American cinema.”in the extroverted American cinema.”

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Noir Films Present Noir Films Present • Pessimistic view

human nature• Control with sex

and violence• Crime can’t be

contained Basic Instinct 1992

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Double IndemnityDouble Indemnity

• In this clip Walter In this clip Walter Neff’s (Fred Neff’s (Fred MacMurray) desire for MacMurray) desire for Phyllis Dietrichson Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanyck) (Barbara Stanyck) leads him to commit leads him to commit murder for her.murder for her.

Clip #2

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Writer Raymond Chandler/ Writer Raymond Chandler/ Director Billy WilderDirector Billy Wilder

• Neff’s and Phyllis’s crime from environment

• Passion/violence response to:– Boring conformist job and

marriage– Insurance Company

money is all that matters

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Throughout Throughout Double IndemnityDouble Indemnity

• Disastrous fate in language of modern industrial life

• Walter and Phyllis together “straight down the line”

• Murder on train using car

• Walter: “the machinery had started to move and nothing could stop it”

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ConsumptionConsumption

• Consumption also– Conformist– Meaningless

Walter and Phyllis like robots in the supermarket

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Law and OrderLaw and Order

• Most American films present crime as– Explainable– Controlled by

authority figures (detectives, police)

Dirty Harry 1971

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Rational InvestigationRational Investigation

• Before noir, 1930s Before noir, 1930s detective films had detective films had featured smart, featured smart, upstanding upstanding detectives who detectives who solved crimes with solved crimes with “elaborate verbal “elaborate verbal logic”.logic”.

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But Noir and What Rafter But Noir and What Rafter Calls “Critical Films” . . . Calls “Critical Films” . . .

• Crime: – Pervasive– Out of control, or – Unexplained

“Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown” Jack Nicholson doesn’t get justice in Chinatown 1974

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Movies Cause Crime?Movies Cause Crime?

• Boyz N the Hood (1991)– Audience violence;

2 dead

• Taxi Driver (1975)– John Hinkley Jr.

shot President Reagan in 1980

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Evidence Evidence

• Media violence does increase aggressive behavior

• Short in duration• Not all viewers

influenced

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Seung-Hui Cho murders at Seung-Hui Cho murders at Virgina TechVirgina Tech

• Influence of violent films?• Similarities btw photos Cho sent

to NBC and scenes from 2003 South Korean film 'Oldboy' were spotted by Virginia Tech Prof. Paul Harris. There was no reference to the film in Cho's notes or messages.

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A.O. Scott/NY TimesA.O. Scott/NY Times

• “Like guns, it seems certain movies in the wrong hands can pose a threat to public safety”

• Millions entertained by spectacles of murder, but return to “peaceful, sane” lives

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Raftner:Raftner:

• Movie violence causes pleasure more than violence

• Viewers enjoy seeing violence controlled, Justice reestablished

• Don’t want to emulate movie violence

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SummarySummary• Film causes for crime:

– Environment– Biology or psychology– Better life

• Film Noir:– Desire; crime out of control

• Effect of film violence– Encourages those inclined to violence– Most viewers want violence controlled

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Next Lecture: Explicit ViolenceNext Lecture: Explicit ViolenceEnd of the Production CodeEnd of the Production Code

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End of Lecture 3End of Lecture 3

Jennifer Lopez as Federal Agent Karen Sisco in Out of Sight 1998