Analysis of the Movie out of the Past
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The movie Out of the Past directed by Jacques Tourneur fits within the traditions of film noir because it has some similar themes associated with it, such as doomed love. Robert Mitchum plays the doomed, double-crossed , ex-private eye as Jeff Markham. The femme fatale is played by Jane Greer as Kathie Moffat, who is trying to escape her future. Kirk Douglas as Whit Sterling plays the ruthless gangster czar in the film. The formal cinematic elements in the movie are used to vividly describe the movie. You can see that the lighting is very shadowy and dark. The composition of the film leaves the audience feeling trapped within Jeffs problems. For example, when Jeff starts his journey from Mexico to San Francisco we the audience start to follow him too and seem to end up with thinking about his problems. Out of the Past does not only fit film noir, it shows us a unique story line of how the past meets present.
Character Analysis
Jeff Bailey, the protagonist of the movie, is like a typical noir charcter in that he is a sardonic private investigator. He is used by Kathie and is betrayed by her. He seems to be an almost tragic sort of character, a look of gloom always on his face. He seems at first to be an introverted sort of character but he puts his love for Ann ahead of himself which ultimately leads to his demise in that he sets up Kathie and pays for it with his life.
Kathie is very much so the typical femme fatale that youd find in film noir. She is a seductress. She relies on her sexuality to get what she wants. She is the possession
of an older extremely wealthy husband, who buys her in a way. She is a murderer and she is ruthless. She also seems to lack any sort of morality. Greedy and self indulgent, she always tries to make people feel bad for her when she gets herself into a tight or compromising situation. Her manipulative ways help her hide from Whit with Jeff for awhile, but soon enough Jeff sees what kind of person she really is, a lethal seductress who cares about no one but herself.
Ann is your typical film noir lady in that she is the dutiful and loving woman who Jeff is in love with. She puts her complete trust in Jeff when he tells her he has to leave to meet the girl he used to be in love with. In the end she is told a lie to leave Jeff in the past and to move on with her future.
Whit , the slick racketeer, doesn trust anybody. All he cares about is having Kathie back, as if she were property of some sort. A man, who although might seem to be pretty decent, what with not having hurt Kathie after she tried to kill him and took $40,000 from him, is actually rather manipulative, setting up Jeff as the fall guy for a murder he didn commit.
Theme Analysis
The themes in this film are betrayal, passion, double-crossing, greed, guilt, and doomed fate. Betrayal is experienced by Jeff when he realizes that Kathie was lying to him the whole time about not having taken the money, and also when she plays her part in trying to set up Jeff for Eels murder. Passion is shown throughout the film; Jeffs love for Kathie is shown during a rendezvous
at the beach, and Jeffs undying love for Ann is shown in the forest when they see eachother for the last time. Double-crossing is a major theme in the movie. Jeff double-crosses Whit when he runs away with Kathie, Whit double-crosses Jeff when he frames him for Eels murder, Jeff double-crosses Kathie at the end when he turns her over to the police, so on and so forth. Greed is shown through Whit when he has to have Kathie back, even after she tried to off him. Guilt is shown though Jeff, and how he feels bad about mixing up a good gal like Ann into his sordid affairs. Doomed fate is also a major theme, shown in the flashback, when it sounds like Jeffs narration is the voice of fate. It seems like he knew about his demise and his bad ending from the first moment he met Kathie. Tourneur shows the themes in cinematic elements as well. For example, when Jeff and Kathie have a sexual rendezvous
at her place in Acapulco, the incredible ranges of gray, the tunnel of light made by the small lamp, and the mysterious, sensual sweeping camera movements all relate to the theme of passion. Also, throughout the film shadows are splashed over Jeff like a deadly visual benediction, showing doomed fate.
Flashback Analysis
Throughout the movie Jeff tells us the story through the flashback. He is telling his flashback to Ann, a girl hes in love with. The time period is set three years back and is narrated by Jeff. The flashback is the backbone of the movie because it shows the audience how the whole situation started and ended. Over half the movie is told through the flashback which is important because it shows that the character chooses to focus on the past instead of the present. The flashback is told because Jeff is going to Lake Tahoe to handle some unfinished business and he decides to let Ann in on the truth. Jeff was working for Whit and was assigned to find the girl who stole Whits money. The flashback goes into great detail throughout the whole situation. The theme passion is shown when Jeff meets up with Kathie. Soon enough he forgets all about getting the forty grand and returning Kathie to Whit. Jeff fell for Kathie so they ran away to San Francisco. The characters in the flashback are shown to be a litte edgy. Fore example, when Kathie first meets Jeff, she plays hard to get, pretending she is uninterested in him. On the other hand, Jeff plays it smooth and doesn let it faze him. The whole flashback sets us up for the ending and how everything is resolved. We enter present time after the flashback and later on in the end figure out that Jeff and Kathie go off with eachother again, with a very unfortunate end for the both of them. The flashback is motivated when Stefanos comes to town asking about Jeff. When he finally meets up with him, he tells him that he is wanted by Whit to finish what he started. Without the flashback the film would be very different in the plot line and in the cinematic elements. The lighting is shadowy, even in the day time. The camera angles catch much of the scenery when outside, like when the audience looks out of Whits house out on the balcony. The flashback is shown to be the most important asset of the film for many reasons. The flashback sequence introduces the audience to Kathie, and reveals to us her true nature. The flashback sequence gives us information about the history of all the characters and how they are all involved with one another. It also helps to involve the audience in Jeffs past, so that they