Crime, Murder, and The Moral Dilemma: Does The Unpunished Crime Really Go Unpunished.

Does a crime, like murder, which bears down so heavily on ones moral fiber, really ever go unpunished? Those of us with a strong sense of morality and ethics wouldn't like to think so, but is this always the case? Probably not.

Most everyone will do whatever it takes to succeed. With that desire, though, there is a line we draw. This is where our morals come into play. Unfortunately for some the line is either to far gone, or just simply does not exist. Fortunately for us we can turn to movies to analyze these two very different psychological reactions to a serious moral infraction.

For decades American Auteur Woody Allen has portrayed themes such as sex, relationships, religion, and the psychological response of a cold blooded murder in his films. Over his Large body of work he has explored this idea of murder and the psychological toll it takes many times. We'll look at two of his works that contrast characters in very different mental states after a murder, Cassandras Dream(2007) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

Cassandras Dream is the story of two brothers, Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell), living in London. When Ian decides to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, and Terry amasses a large gambling debt, they turn to their rich Uncle, Howard (Tom Wilkinson), for help. Uncle Howard has been the family fail safe for years but what they don't realize is his money may be dirty. When Ian and Terry turn to him, he asks for the ultimate favor.

Through years of lies and deceit Howard has become a millionaire. With the territory comes enemies. When Ian and Terry approach Howard to ask their favor he agrees with one stipulation. They kill the one man who can bring him down, Martin Burns (Philip Davis). Burns is a former business partner of Howard and has the knowledge to put Howard in jail for a long time.

Driven by love, greed, and addiction the two reluctantly agree, commit the murder, and get off seemingly unpunished. That is until the moral impact of the situation hits Terry. Terry is so stricken by the incident that he begins having nightmares, he quits his job, and becomes suicidal. The mental anguish of acting against his morals are literally going to kill him.

As an attempt to cool him down and talk to Terry, Ian takes him out on their boat, Cassandras Dream. While on Cassandras Dream it becomes evident that Terry is going to turn himself in, ruining their master plan. When this happens Ian is prepared to kill again to protect himself. The only problem is it is his own brother. He can't bring himself to do it and they get in a fight on the boat. In a freak accident Terry kills Ian. Already distraught about the murder of Burns, he then kills himself.

Terry is our ideal real life situation. What we would like to think happens to one who slips in their morals and takes an others life. They eventually get so worn down, even after not being caught, that they turn them self in or kill them self because they cannot live with what they have done.

The trailer gives us a good sense of the character conflict:



Crimes and Misdemeanors on the other hand paints us a very different picture. Judah (Martin Landau) is a prominent ophthalmologist, but he is not without his faults. Judah has been having a long time affair with his mistress Dolores (Anjelica Huston).

After years of broken promises and delusions that Judah will leave his wife, Dolores decides to take matters into her own hands. She is going to tell Judah's wife. When Judah intercepts a letter Dolores has sent he will do anything to make it stop, and prevent his wife from finding out.

Judah decides to turn to his brother Jack (Jerry Orbach) for advice on the situation. Jack is the brother with connections in crime and suggests Dolores be "gotten rid of." After a long moral debate Judah decides the only way to get rid of the problem is to get rid of Dolores and has his brother hire her murder.

At first it eats away at Judah, but he rationalizes that he had no other choice and after time the pain fades. Judah is prepared and determined to live his life without shame or anguish of what he has done.

Towards the end of the film he meets Cliff (Woody Allen) a filmmaker. Judah tells Cliff he has the ultimate tragedy to put onto film. He proceeds to tell him his story. The clip is below:



The most important line here is "People carry awful deeds with them." And it's true. All of us have done things that maybe we weren't proud of or wished we hadn't done. Where do we draw the line though. Most of us regret things maybe we've done to a sibling or friend, or maybe how we treated our parents when we were younger. Murder doesn't really fit this same mold. In reality though we have desires to succeed and to survive. Ultimately our experience and past will determine our moral structure which in turn helps determine our threshold for what we put behind us and forget about. It can be amazing what the human mind will rationalize to survive.

I feel the narration at the end of Crimes and Misdemeanors is the best closing for this piece. The clip is below:



"We are in fact the sum total of our choices."

Racism as a Comedic Device in American Cinema

Racism can be described as ugly, disgusting, ignorant, degrading, insulting, psychological, stereotypical, and even interesting. We don't often relate racism to comedy but yet we can find multiple examples in American cinema where this is the case. Ultimately this questions the ethics, intent, and perception of both the creators and the viewers. Lets take a look at a few films in American history where we can find racism as a comedic device and try to explore some of these questions.

1963's Shock Corridor, Written and Directed by Samuel Fuller is a great example. Shock Corridor is a B-list satire film from the acclaimed director starring Peter Breck. Breck plays a young journalist, named Johnny Barrett, determined to win the Pulitzer Prize by voluntarily admitting himself to a mental institution in an attempt to uncover evidence of murder in the mysterious death of an inmate. Through the course of Barrett's investigation he meets three inmate witnesses, uncovers the mysteries of the murder, and through a series of events is straitjacketed and subjected to shock treatment. He is left mentally inept.

Before the shocking end Breck meets Trent (Hari Rhodes) a witness to the murder and inmate at the institution. Trent is introduced as "The only negro student from a southern university." Our first visual of Trent is of him holding a sign in front of his face which reads, "Integration and democracy don't mix. Go home, nigger." Trent lowers the sign and continues to preach racist slander. Here we see racism used in a satirical manner. The scene creates a sort of visual Irony. A black man holding anti black propaganda. What we hear and see does not fit with what is initially revealed to us. This blunt shock and the numerous riduculous actions of a 'black' white supremacist ultimately makes us laugh. See for yourself below:



Fuller does a great job of creating a comedic satire by using over the top inappropriate content in what is supposed to be a very serious setting. But does he go over the top with this character? The answer is no. His intent here is not to be creating a racist message or character but rather an individual that is so shockingly deranged it insights laughter. If he doesn't go this far with all of his characters he fails to accomplish the satire that makes this film a staple.

Our next example is the 2004 Academy Awards winner for Best Picture Crash. Written and Directed by Paul Haggis Crash is a web of lies, greed, and racism. The film follows the lives of many Los Angeles area residents. They all come from different backgrounds, ethnicity, status, and class. Among them are a couple of black car thieves, a racist LAPD officer, an Asian slave trafficker, and a hispnic locksmith.

Crash is not intended to be a comedic representation of racism, rather a more blunt look at how ugly it can be in the face of fear. More often than not in this film we are seeing normal characters interacting in their normal everyday lives, but when get in a position where they feel threatened or fearful they begin to take it out on those around them. When those around them are of a different race it comes out in some form of racist action.

But Haggis does use instances of racism in a comedic manner. In the following dialogue Graham (Don Cheadle) uses racist statements towards Ria (Jennifer Esposito) which elicit laughter:

Graham: [on the phone] Mom, I can't talk to you right now, okay? I'm having sex with a white woman.
[hangs up, and Ria gets out of bed]
Graham: OK, where were we?
Ria: I was white, and you were about to jerk off in the shower.
Graham: Oh, shit. Come on. I would have said you were Mexican, but I don't think it would have pissed her off as much.
Ria: Why do you keep everybody a certain distance, huh? What, you start to feel something and panic?
Graham: Come on, Maria. You're just pissed 'cause I answered the phone.
Ria: That's just where I begin to get pissed. I mean, really, what kind of man speaks to his mother that way, huh?
Graham: Oh, this is about my mother. What do you know about my mother?
Ria: If I was your father, I'd kick your fucking ass.
Graham: OK, I was raised badly. Why don't you take your clothes off, get back into bed, and teach me a lesson?
Ria: You want a lesson? I'll give you a lesson. How 'bout a geography lesson? My father's from Puerto Rico. My mother's from El Salvador. Neither one of those is Mexico.
Graham: Ah. Well then I guess the big mystery is, who gathered all those remarkably different cultures together and taught them all how to park their cars on their lawns?

We have to ask if it is OK to use this here? And the answer is yes. Again we see a situation where our author is not exploiting or promoting racism. We have an interaction between Graham and Ria where Graham uses a stereotypical racist comment as a defense mechanism. We're left as viewers with a pretty funny comment when he says, "Well then I guess the big mystery is, who gathered all those remarkably different cultures together and taught them all how to park their cars on their lawns?" Even though he makes this statement we know Graham is not a racist. He is just using it here as a little comic relief to a tense situation.

Gran Torino(2008), Directed by and Starring Clint Eastwood, is our last example. Eastwood plays Walt, a bad-tempered Korean War veteran who befriends Thao (Bee Vang), his Hmong next door neighbor. After Thao attempts to steal Walts prized Gran Torino, Walt realizes Thao is really a good kid being influenced by his gang banger cousin. He befriends Thao after a period of time and tries to guide him in the right direction.

Walt is not the typical role model type though. Living life as a war vet, having ungrateful children, and losing the wife he loved have left him bitter and cold. Throughout the film Walt defines the stereotype of a racist old man. It seems he has a problem with everyone, and certainly has something to say about it. The approach is very comedic though. He uses his racist remarks in most instances to either establish dominance and intimidate or rag on his new friend Thao. The first is much like Cheadle in Crash.

We see a very social aspect to his comments. Walt prevents a very real portrayal of racism as a comedic device, much like one normally would in a social setting with their friends. Because of his experience he may be a bit more harsh than most. A good example is this bar scene:




We eventually are able to see that Walt is not necessarily a racist but a critic of those who are viruses in our society. He disrespects gang bangers, low life's, and those who cannot maintain their properties. He shows he can overlook race for the benefit of a genuinely good person like he does with Thao.

In all three of these films we see racism used in different ways to get laughs. Regardless of the application one must be careful and ultimately bold to work with such a controversial concept in an attempt at humor. In all three cases we see characters who, like regular people, possess flaws. These flaws help us to develop and give the character an identity and when used this way racism can actually strengthen a film.

As long as we are careful not to glorify or promote racism we can use it to create a humorous situation without a direct or deliberate offense against anyone. As viewers we cannot just take what we see and hear as what it is. To get the full effect of the experience we have to look deeper into the intent of the writers and directors to decipher if a message really does portray racism or if there's a greater message that racism helps us portray.

Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions, or other examples to prove or disprove the topics and theories I've discussed above.

If your interested more about race in film check out The 25 Most Important Films on Race

Opening statement

I've been wanting to test the realm of creative writing for a while now so what better time to start than while being unemployed. I decided to start a blog to do this because it can be a motivating factor, especially if people actually read it.

I've been thinking about it for a while and decided I want to write movie reviews...not your typical cookie cutter this happened and this was good this was bad type reviews but more so a deeper exploration of media criticism and maybe some deeper philosophical ideas that get sparked from recent films I've watched. I also hope to touch upon foreign film, film history, and explore some theories of media criticism.

For example in my first post, which will hopefully be soon, I wish to explore racism used as a comedic device in American Cinema. Hopefully I can raise and answer some ethical questions associated with the topic.