Maltese Falcon 10/12
In contrast to Piers Plowman, the Maltese Falcon seems like the classic mystery we all know and love. It has a private eye, dead bodies, an array of shady suspects, and a lot of money on the table. The Maltese Falcon is an exciting and riveting story with plenty of action to entice the viewer.
The most interesting character to me is definitely Sam Spade, private eye. Like most other detectives of this genre, he’s a very intelligent, witty, and smooth-talking individual. What separates him from the rest in my opinion is the profit motive. He seems to care about making money a bit more than Sherlock Holmes for example. Part of being a private detective is running a business, it is well within his character. He seems to care less about intellectual stimulation and more about getting the job done for the client. In this case, Spade not only wants to find out who murdered Archer and Thursby, but also wants to find and sell the Falcon for a profit. At the end of the day however, he does not get his massive payout. He still looks out for his fallen partner and nails O'Shaughnessy and Miller, partly out of respect for Archer and partly to save himself from being jailed.
Spade is like an extremely adept poker player during this film. He chooses when to play his cards at the right times, and deceives and misguides the other “players” of the film such as Gutman and Cairo. O’Shaughnessy is constantly lying throughout the film as well as other characters, and Spade carefully navigates through a metaphorical minefield of them. He nearly forges alliances with O’Shaughnessy, Cairo, and Gutman, but Spade is smart enough to know not to trust them. Even when someone is pointing a gun at him, it always feels like Spade is in control regardless, which is a unique character trait.
An interesting parallel between the Maltese Falcon, and mysteries such as Poe’s Dupin novels and Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels is the common theme of the Police not being effective in solving the mystery. In The Maltese Falcon, the police are getting in the way of Spade’s work by trying to implicate him in the murders of Archer and Thursby. Like the aforementioned works of Poe and Doyle, they aren’t successful in solving the mystery and are on the completely wrong track.
Overall, it was refreshing to view a classic mystery story. Despite the obvious age of the film and unrealistic action scenes, I enjoyed the film.
Very insightful, I agree with all of what you said. Definitely a return to the classic mystery story after Piers! It is especially important that Spade does in fact stay loyal to his partner and chooses to turn O'Shaughnessy in, considering the fact that he does appear to have feelings for her. Spade definitely has that suave, calm, and collected attitude, which he holds to throughout the movie. The most interesting character for me, though, was not Spade. I actually thought that O'Shaughnessy was more interesting, because she seems to be the one who we know less about than any of the other characters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments about Spade! It was very interesting that he seemed to be motivated by money, whereas Holmes ad Dupin are motivated purely by their desire to find the truth. I also noticed thought that it was interesting that incompetent policemen were a recurring theme in the mystery genre. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that profit seems to be the main motivation for Spade throughout the movie. Also, I believe that Spade also is motivated by the thrill of adventure, especially when his life is in peril. After storming out of the Fat Man's hotel room, Spade smirks (while dramatic music plays) as he notices his hand shaking. He almost seems to be enjoying the adrenaline rush that his cases present, which may help explain why Spade knowingly takes dangerous cases even though he is fully aware that every step he takes pulls him in deeper and deeper.
ReplyDelete