Film Studies - The Maltese Falcon [W10 Review]
The theory found in this film is film noir. A brief description of film noir featured with a world of criminals, the central motives of character are usually greed, lust and ambition, drench in fear. The visual characteristics of film noir is dark with a lots of shadow, using high-contrast lighting with German Expressionism. The scenes are usually lit for night and always have location like alleyways and cramped corridors.
The Maltese Falcon starts with a femme fatale, Ruth Wonderly pays a good amount of price to Sam Spade, the protagonist and his partner, Miles Archer to follow Floyd Thursby. After the night, Spade receive the news that Miles is killed when following Thursby. Along the way to find the truth of his partner death and complete Wonderly's mission, Spade discovered Wonderly's real name is Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the information given before is fake and she is directed by Joel Cairo to locate a falcon figure. In the end of the film, Spade has found out O'Shaughnessy is the killer of his partner, O'Shaughnessy is jailed and nobody get the falcon figure.
In film noir, it must have two main character, The male protagonist and the femme fatale. Spade, as the male protagonist, is a smart, cunning and hard boiled detective. He will only be motivate if the person have something in exchange, this characteristic has showed that even a protagonists can also be a corrupted person. As an example, Cairo requested Spade to get the falcon figure for him, but in order to get the falcon figure, Cairo must use something to exchange as a price.
Spade discovered that O'Shaughnessy is a femme fatale even O'Shaughnessy does not admit it. As a femme fatale, they will usually appear as the weak person in the beginning to gain trust from others, but they will become the guilty person in the end of the film. O'Shaughnessy is showed as a dangerous woman with the camouflage of her delicate appeearance. She has well used her sexuality to persuade Sam to get what she need, this characteristic can be seen frequently when she is with Sam. An an example, Spade does not expect O'Shaughnessy has killed his partner, Miles.
The opposite role of femme fatale character is Effie, Spade assistant. She is also having a good looking appearance but the different is she does not take the advantages but cared for Spade. As an example, Effie doesn't tell Spade that his partner, Miles has died on the night but kept it from him. The characteristic of Effie has show the bright side of woman in that era.
In conclusion, I'm less attracted to the movie because it is in black and white. The speech of the character is hardly heard and understand as the speed is too fast, but after rewatch the film, I found that the storyline is very interesting and gain some moral values within it.
References
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/
http://www.returnofkings.com/59387/what-i-learned-from-the-maltese-falcon
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