In film noir you tend to come across a couple of characters
with specific tendencies. In double
indemnity you really get who’s who in that way but there is a character
that was hard for me to tell and it was the hard-boiled detective that is
searching for the truth. Maybe I’m not as thoughtful as I should be or I just wasn’t
looking for it, but no matter there it was right in front of me. Critics often
depict the anti-hero, the protagonist, as the detective and I guess I found that,
but I also found two other characters that also held the traits of the hard-boiled
detective. In order to figure out who the real detective is we have to know
what the characteristics of the detective are; hardboiled, determined, almost
reckless, earnest, seeking, and merciless.
First of all the main character in Double Indemnity, Walter Huff, plays a form of detective in how he
seeks Mrs. Nirdlinger’s motives then finds them out. Now Walter doesn’t
continue this characteristic, he turns more towards the scheming criminal side.
For a brief time we see him for what he should have stayed but no longer. This confused
me because I thought that the main character had to be the detective or there wasn’t
one.
Secondly in a small way we see keyes’ boss as a form of
dectiveness. When the claim of mr. nirdlingers accident was reported he went to
work checking data. Although he is not as driven and lacks experience he comes
up with some ideas that are not too far from the truth. Keyes boss digs super
hard at the beginning to come up with any excuse as to why they shouldn’t pay
Mrs. Nirdlinger. He searched as far as
he wanted to find his version of the truth. Unfortunately this is not our
detective.
Finally and most importantly Barton Keyes is our true blue through
and through detective of the movie. As soon as that claim was made Keyes
searched every possible option for this death as you all know. Keyes character
was harsh and untrusting. Huff tells us that he would go to great lengths to
double check the validity of even his calendar before believe it. Keyes is the
very definition of the detective, he searches and searches for the truth until
he finds it. His curiosity brought him to a place he never thought he would be.
So here he is our detective a hardboiled searching machine.
Although keyes was the major detective you have to remember
the others that also dabbled in that field. Huff and Keyes’ boss were also detectives,
but to an extent. I guess it’s hard sometimes to depict who’s who in film noir
if you aren’t looking for the special characteristics. Usually in film noir the
anti-hero is the detective but in Double
indemnity that is not the case. I guess a good question to ask you is where
you expecting the detective to be someone other than the anti-hero?
I hadn't thought of Huff being a detective. I do see your point, but i'm not sure i completely agree. I would call Huff the main protagonist, but i wouldn't call him "hard-boiled". I personally think Mr. Keyes fits hard-boiled detective role better, even though he isn't as much of a protagonist as Huff. But i do agree with you that there seems to be multiple characters playing the detective role.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think of this myself, but it was pointed out to me that Sachetti also played the "hard-boiled" detective.
For your question, i only looked at the "anti-hero" as a common trait, not so much the defining attribute of the detective. I think in the noir style, most the characters diplay an anti-hero role at times. So with that said, expecting no, but I am open to the possibility.
I like how you were describing walter as a potential detective but ultimately brought it to keyes. I think exactly the same about him being somewhat of the hero in the novel and how the detective types are usually the anti hero, but the novel makes Keyes pretty likable so it makes it easy for the readers to take a liking to him. Also, I agree that there were many potential characters that could have been the detective and there are probably more than one. I enjoy reading your posts! great blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement! Funny you mention it I found Keyes kinda the hero as well and I was surprised because there aren't suppose to be any good guys or heros in this kind of "genre" but then I found that he is working at an angle and he had an informate. His angle was that he wanted to keep his company from paying phylis and his informate showed a sneaky and mysterious side to him also the fact that he was taking credit for it seems under handing. I will admit that I liked Keyes he was very like able I think because of his work ethic and determination but he had these flaws which is good because otherwise the book would conflict with its purpose/genre
Delete@jacob I agree with you that Keyes was the ultimate detective in this book and I'm not saying that Walter and Keyes' boss were the detectives as well I was just saying that I found it interesting that they also to a certain existent held detective like characteristics. I found it interesting that you don't identify the anti - hero with the detective when the most common definition of film noir's main character is "an anti- hero usually a detective that has caught himself into trouble" I'm not saying that you should identify them together I'm just saying that that is why I asked the question. Because the book is different from the usual I was intrigued. Thanks for your comment I liked that you had a different view and it encouraged me to try to sepperate those characteristics and try to I'd characters based off of their traits not what box I fit them into all slumped together.
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