Film Noir Double Indemnity and Brick, Double Indemnity

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Film Noir: Double Indemnity and Brick, Double Indemnity

Double indemnity is a cynical, witty, and sleazy thriller about adultery, corruption and murder directed by Billy Wilder in 1944 and was derived from ‘hard-boiled’ James M. Cain’s 1943 melodramatic novella ‘Three of a Kind’ that first appeared in 1935. A woman gets a man to commit her crimes on the promise of sex and big money making the film to exist in a placenta of secular astrology, where fate and chance are subject to the mathematics of an insurance company’s actuarial tables rather than to the divine Fortune. Phyllis Dietrichson seduces insurance agent Walter Neff into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy and Walter tricked Dietrichson into signing the accident insurance policy which insured Dietrichson’s life for $50,000. Walter accused her of trying to get him to kill her husband and refused but Phyllis convinced Walter how abusive her husband was thus making him agree to kill Dietrichson so that the amount could be doubled due to a fatal accident on a train (Wilder Film).

When Dietrichson took the train to attend a college reunion, Walter killed him and posed as him before jumping off the train and placing the body on the tracks making it look like he had fallen off the train to his death. Walter’s boss however, suspected that Dietrichson’s death was a murder committed by Phyllis and her lover, Nino Zachette. Dietrichson’s daughter also told Walter that she believes Phyllis murdered her mother in order to marry her father making him suspect that Phyllis has left him for her lover, Nino Zachette. The crime falls apart because of the two characters’ absolute mistrust of one another prompting Walter to shoot Phyllis dead and drive to the insurance office to record his confession (Wilder Film).

Brick

Brick film was produced in 2005 and was written and directed by Rian Johnson that embodies a lot of visual traits of classic film noir and has a very dark plot. Rian was inspired by the hardboiled detective novels written by Dashiell Hammett, and set out to create a unique detective film like the Film Noirs prompting him to choose a contemporary Neo Noir in High School. High school student Brendan Frye who lives a lonely existence after breaking up with his girlfriend receives a phone call from a terrified Emily (his ex-girlfriend) begging him to help her, mentioning a “brick”, “poor Frisco”, “tug”, and “the Pin”. Emily abruptly and fearfully hangs up due to a passing car, from which a distinctive-looking cigarette was thrown prompting Brendan to arrange a meeting through Dode but Emily recants what she had said on the phone and tells Brendan to let her go. Brendan steals her notepad during the encounter, finding a clue that leads him to her dead body and takes it upon him to solve her murder, enlisting the aid of an acquaintance named Brain after hiding the body to avoid police intrusion (Rian Film).

Brendan discovers that “The Pin” mentioned by Emily is a local drug dealer Brendan persuades Pin to consider him for a spot in his operation when Laura told Brendan that The Pin had rejected Emily’s attempt to join making her to steal the title’s brick. Although Laura offers to help Brendan, but he does not trust her especially after he sleeps with her and notices that she smokes the distinctive cigarettes he had seen after Emily’s first phone call. After Tug beats The Pin to death, Brendan flew, escaping from the police and passes the trunk of Tug’s car, where he had hidden the body to ensure that police pin Emily’s murder on Tug. Brendan later reveals to Laura that he knows she set Emily up to take the fall for Laura’s theft of the ninth brick and further manipulated her into meeting Tug to let him responsible for Emily’s pregnancy. Brendan further reports Laura to Vice Principal Trueman and the 10th brick is found in her locker (Rian Film).

Self-Deception

The two movies greatly show the aspect of self-deception in many ways living some one wonder whether there is anyone that can be trusted around us. In Double Indemnity, Phyllis pretends that she loves her husband Dietrichson yet what she wants is riches and wealth. She is driven into the relationship by herself interest and greed. Phyllis offered to do everything possible to get her husband as Dietrichson’s daughter also explains that she believes that Phyllis must have killed her mother so that she could be married by Dietrichson. Actually it is hard for a man sometimes to believe that a woman does not love him yet the woman is ready to do everything to him. It indeed challenges many people and there are various scandals that women have involved men in through this trick. After watching these two movies, people particularly men should beware of women characters and luring behavior towards them because when a deal too good, it is advisable to think twice.

How could Walter accept relationship with Phyllis at the first instance yet he was very much aware that this woman is married? Walter knew very well that whatever he was involving himself was very wrong but he went ahead with satisfying his lust. Of course it was not love. Accepting to murder someone in the name of love is a big deception and lie. Walter accepted to murder Dietrichson disregarding authenticity of Phyllis love for him and even trust. Because Phyllis could kill her husband for money, it was also possible for her to finish Walter too with similar reason. Walter having been trusted by his boss still goes ahead to secretly kill their client without considering the rules and regulations of the company and insurance policies. In fact, he even advises Phyllis that fatal accidents would double the premium amount. Walter must have been loved and trusted by his boss but he defied the trust by going overboard. Funny enough, although Walter’s boss suspected that Phyllis husband was killed, he did not know that the act was committed by Walter. It is interesting that Walter still suspects some kind of love from a woman who murdered her own husband. Mistrust between Walter and Phyllis was something existed even before the deal was done because Phyllis already had a young lover.

In the Brick, Brendan sleeps with the very lady who is behind her ex-girlfriend’s death unknowingly but Laura is very much aware of the incident. Brendan struggles to carry out investigation but Laura is aware of everything yet she could not tell him. Laura stole the two bricks and even fixed her best friend Emily into these incidents knowingly. Who can really be trusted? Tug who operates with the Pin kills Pin yet they have been doing business together for quite sometimes. Emily who had initially indicated that she was in trouble refused to explain to Brendan what was wrong but she finally died of perhaps the same problem. Laura having been a close friend to Tug still wanted to implicate Tug on Laura’s pregnancy. Laura could not tell the truth to Brendan yet she even slept with him as Brendan also lost mistrust on her and further reported her to Vice Principal Trueman who found the brick on her locker.

The only remedy to these criminal deals in the two movies was death. Death of Emily, the Pin, Phyllis and shooting of Walter were the only remedies to these cases perhaps to teach viewers lessons. In everyday life, people undergo numerous issues that are contributed by deception and lies. Many a times, women may influence men in doing things that are not morally upright by using sex as a tool. Culturally and historically, women are considered to be very responsible people who take good care of their families and in most cases are not regarded as unfaithful compared to men. It is not very normal for a woman to architect criminal activities as shown in the film. Most crimes are organized by men and this makes the film to reveal much about the other side of women which the society does not know much about. However, most incidences involving women sexually manipulating men to achieve their self-interest are very many. Men should therefore beware of nice deals offered by some women.

Works Cited

Wilder, Billy, dir. Double indemnity. Paramount Pictures, 1944. Film.

Rian,Johnson, dir. Brick. Sundance Film Festival, 2005. Film.