Film Analysis: The Maltese Falcon

If the Syrian refugee articles weren’t the wake up call then 9500 Liberty is. 9500 Liberty drives the point that immigration and accompanying prejudice are not ficticious. These are real people not numbers, or a simply feeling. One of the main ideas that drive this documentary is emotion. Both Hispanic citizens and supporters of the law are guilty of letting emotions be the driving factor in decision making. On the side of supporters, their choice to react ignored a critical factor: empirical data.

When discussing American culture, the influence and interplay of film cannot be understated. We are a nation consumed with the media. Today, the movie business is one of the highest grossing businesses there is. We hold movie stars up as though they are super human. We closely watch their style, their dating lives, their party habits, and even their favorite restaurants, among many other things. We rely on movies to lift us up, teach us about other cultures and time periods, and even to teach us about our own culture. Often, movies reflect the time period they are filmed in and directly reflect the social tensions of that time and the film noir genre is no different. One of the most famous film noir movies out there, The Maltese Falcon,

The 2016 film Lion, which was first a book called “A Long Way Home”, is a film where a boy named Saroo was separated from his brother in the train station, which leads to Saroo getting on a train taking him thousands of miles away from his family and his home. Saroo, who was only five-years-old when he got lost, had to learn to survive alone in Kolkata, West Bengal. Days after arriving to Kolkata, the city the train left him at, he got admitted into an orphanage, which later turned out to him getting adopted by an Australian couple. But twenty-five years later, he starts to wonder where his first home and family are at the moment. With only his memories, determination, and Google Earth he starts looking and searching where his small

     Many time in our lives, we have seen the transformation of novels into movies. Some of them are equal to the novel, few are superior, and most are inferior. Why is this? Why is it that a story that was surely to be one of the best written stories ever, could turn out to be Hollywood flops? One reason is that in many transformations, the main characters are changed, some the way they look, others the way they act. On top of this, scenes are cut out and plot is even changed. In this essay, I will discuss some of the changes made to the characters of the Maltese Falcon as they make their transformation to the ?big screen.?

According to Philippa Gates, “the rise of film noir coincided with a new need to Americanize the onscreen hero in a response to the changing international climate with America's entry into World War II” (Gates 16). Suddenly, the eloquence and wealth of the soft-boiled hero were taken from him and realigned with the villain. Much like the monster movies that were to be produced during the Cold War, The Maltese Falcon defined the threat to American society as something “other,” specifically European. That is not to say that elegance and charm were considered villainous in the 1940s, but that protagonists could no longer embody such traits that were associated with “otherness.” Because of the wartime atmosphere surrounding The Maltese Falcon’s production, the villains of the movie—chiefly Gutman, Wilmer, and Cairo—are designed to highlight Spade’s more heroic qualities.

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston 1941) based on Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name is a classic film known for its genre. As a first time viewer of the genre, film noir, I was not sure what to expect but was startled by the surprises entwined throughout the entire film. The femme fatale lures Miles Archer to his death and brings nothing but trouble for Sam Spade. But with any film there will always be monotonous scenes, Spade perpetrated that he knew everything from knowing a lie to knowing when someone was carrying a weapon even with a thick coat covering it. I did not believe that someone could know that much and had a hard time buying his character because of this. The film is in linear structure beginning with Brigid O’Shaughnessy

Film noir stemmed from American and English hard-boiled detective novels, originating in 1925 (Borde 15). These intriguing books captivated readers and remained popular for many years. A popular noir writer is Dashiell Hammet, whose work inspired the widely known film noir The Maltese Falcon (1941), which is a book originally written by Hammet in 1929 (15). Around 1940, film noir became wildly popular due to the Great Depression. Several films were released between 1940 and 1942, including The Maltese Falcon, that defined the genre's thematics, visual style, and moral ambiguity (Borde 29). Each film resonated with American audiences because the darkness within film noir provided catharsis. Due to their suffering during the Great Depression, they needed an outlet in which to place their feelings of frustration.

Together Huston and cinematographer Author Edeson, an expert in visionary conception, robust camera angles, and low key lighting set the overall moodiness for the film as observed by Hirsch, “the quiet chiaroscuro and occasional oblique angles of The Maltese Falcon” (Hirsch, 11). Even though Edeson had to work under the strict confines of the studio’s “Hays Codes” of the 1930s, these constraints were enforced for nearly 40 years, had little influence on future film noir productions that would push the boundaries of the code. Huston’s The Maltese Falcon was the third version of film based on Hammett’s book, Huston’s style makes his version outstanding compared to the previous films, and Hirsch agrees, “directed by John Huston in a sedate manner, with only occasional low angles and theatrical lighting to call attention to the oddness of the characters (Hirsch, 11.)

Between the two books, Farewell, My Lovely and The Maltese Falcon, we find many similarities from the purpose of the plot to the characters within. Both books are a fan of the hardboiled detective and are set within the state of California. The main characters of both books share many different traits that define them as hardboiled detectives. To be a hardboiled detective one must have the utmost attention to detail, be independent of personal ties, must live within the hustle and bustle of city life, and must be a strong man always willing to be physical if needed. Within both of these novels we see Spade and Marlowe match up with many of these characteristics, while also being developed under different circumstances to result in different personalities and stories. I believe that both Spade and Marlowe, in their own unique ways, embody what it means to be a hardboiled detective.

Casablanca is a classic World War II movie set in December and in the year of 1941 in Casablanca, Morocco, which was the location for people seeking to find an exit port to depart to the United States in order to escape the terrible conditions of the war in Europe as well as the Nazi concentration camps. This movie was set before the involvement of the United States in World War II and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie depicted the urban society with people belonging to the different ranges from low, middle and upper classes. There were also government officials such as Major Strasser, Captain Louis and the Czech nationalist Victor Laszlo. The characters are fictional, but they symbolize the different factors of World War II

This film was extremely influential during a very crucial period in American history. It greatly influenced society’s impression of intervention during World War II, and it also impacted our standpoint on the interference in future foreign affairs as well. The movie led to a series of American intervention in several upcoming troublesome and demanding foreign conflicts and or struggles. America could no longer remain neutral and detached while other countries were crumbling at her feet. Justice and democracy had to be maintained and defended whether it was on our soil or our enemy’s. This film defends that objective and builds support for the United State’s new game plan for constructive meddling in foreign affairs. And as a result, our country would soon become the defender of justice for the entire world. For instance, this meddling came about during the Cold War.

     Charles leaves the room, and intentionally walks toward and past the two men as a challenge. They ignore him, but chase after their suspect (filmed from high above) in a desolate, abandoned lot, quickly losing his track and appearing astonished by his abrupt disappearance. The camera turns up and to the left, discovering the cigar-smoking character in profile on a rooftop. From a cinematography point of view this is the most Film Noir portion of the film. In a dark and dirty setting it introduces us to the good guys and the bad guy, culminating in a chase scene.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett with Gladys George, Peter Lorre, Barton MacLane, Lee Patrick and Sydney Greenstreet. Directed by John Huston with screenplay by John Huston a Warner Bros.-first nation picture (The Maltese Falcon). My first thought to this film was one of curiosity and nostalgia. Filmed and acted in 1941, this movie beautifully, in black and white, captures the unnamed city with perfection. The cinematography before CGI was always impressive and the acting was phenomenal.

When the audiences were reading The Maltese Falcon, they could not only identify themselves to the specific characters they choose but the background of the novel made the audiences back to 1930s felt much more easier to connect themselves to the plots. The novel became a way for them to escape from the reality as both middle age male identify themselves as the main character Sam Spade to become a bad guy but also a hero, as to the female audiences would project themselves to either O’Shaughnessy or Effie.

The film is about a group of 5 people fighting to find and keep the