The bad guys are not completely bad guys, Uncle Grandi for instance, we feel bad for him when he is murdered. We start off being made to dislike him but throughout the film we see him show concern for the people under his care. When Susan Vargas is drugged at the hotel he makes sure his females have not done any drugs...he's all paternal.
The tension builds throughout the whole movie...is someone going to be unfairly convicted? Is someone going to be raped? The tension builds so slowly I'm surprised the movie wasn't longer. The idea of the movie was good but the over all effect kind of left me wanting something more. I'm not sure if that is because I've seen movies like Crash where the problem of prejudice is so very open.
The border town reminded me of the town in Stagecoach with hookers and lawlessness.
Too bad this is so short. You ask good questions that I'd like to see you try and answer.
ReplyDeleteBringing in the reading would have helped, I think.
As far as the characters being all over the place in their roles and portrayals, that’s what I like about the film. No character is completely who they appear to be and I think that if you look deeper you can see a lot of the small things that Welles does to comment on this theme.
ReplyDeleteI guess I can’t really relate too much because I thought that the film, as a whole, was very good. I was wondering what you were referring to when you said that the film left you “wanting something more”. What exactly did it leave you wanting? Did you not like the pace of the film? I personally think that the crafting of the film, as far as pace and plot, is genius. But it is very different than contemporary films like Crash.
I never would’ve made the connection between Touch of Evil and Crash, but I do think that there are some strong parallels. Overall I don’t think that it’s very relevant because the movies are so different but there are some interesting similarities concerning race, gender, and police corruption.
I guess my something more would have been seeing the end wrapped up into a neat bow... but at the same time that probably would have ruined the film for me because neat bows don't exist in real life.
ReplyDeleteThe pace of the film was not a problem for me because it built suspense masterfully I just meant that because of the pace I felt the movie seemed longer than it really was.