Extreme Noir: Kiss Me Deadly

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Extreme Noir Kiss Me Deadly
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"Reading" Kiss Me Deadly

• Alain Silver's "Kiss Me Deadly Evidence of a
  Style" makes a number of interesting observations
  about KMD.
• But what is his "thesis statement"?
• KMD is a difficult film to "explain" lots of
  outrageous things in it hard to know how to
  "read" it.

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Noir to the Extreme

• My take on KMD represents film noir taken to
  its logical extreme pushes the idea of noir to
  the point of nuclear apocalypse.
• In a sense, KMD pushes noir to the point where it
  implodes/explodes where the classic noir begins
  to confront modern world, and the classic idea of
  noir can no longer function.
• Which is why, for me, KMD (along with Touch of
  Evil) represents both the end of the classical
  noir era and the beginning of "neo-noir."

4
Modern Noir

• KMD both exaggerates the elements of classic noir
  and modernizes noir.
• Dark urban world of classic noir now becomes
  stripped-down, "modern" LA compare Hammer's
  contemporary apartment with Spade's.
• Similarly, noir "aesthetic" now includes modern
  buildings and technology sports cars, answering
  machines, exercise studio, nuclear technology.
• Could argue that Mike Hammer is modernized,
  stripped-down (2-dimensional?) version of classic
  noir detectives such as Spade and Marlowe.
• What happens to noir detective in modern world?

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A Hammer By Any Other Name

• Exaggerated Tough or "Hard" (hard-hitting?)
  Masculinity no subtlety he "pounds" away.
• Violent, even sadistic (see frames).
• Treats women as objects.
• Does "divorce work" lures men women into
  compromising positions
• Out for personal gain cynical, "What's in it for
  me" attitude.

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A Hammer by Any Other Name

• In Spillane's books, Hammer is extreme version of
  in-control, tough guy. As title of first Mike
  Hammer book (I, the Jury) suggests, he not
  narrates his own story, but also judges (and
  executes) those he finds guilty.
• As Laura Mulvey argued of films, much of pleasure
  of Spillane books comes from readers'
  identification with this exaggerated, hyper-male
  persona, able to impose his will on women and
  world.
• In film version of KMD, however, not clear that
  Hammer's over-the-top tough-guy persona promotes
  identification.

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A Hammer by Any Other Name

• Silver notes how Christina pegs Hammer
  immediately "You're one of those self-indulgent
  males who thinks about nothing but his clothes,
  his car, himself. Bet you do push-ups every
  morning just to keep your belly hard."
• He isn't presented as particularly admirable.
  Spade may have been morally ambiguous, but Hammer
  verges on being distasteful.
• But even more although Hammer is clearly the
  driving force of the narrative, he really isn't
  "in control" of events doesn't really understand
  what he's involved in.

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Noir in an Atomic Age

• What does the ending of KMD suggest about the
  place of the Noir Detective in a modern, atomic
  age?
• Can no longer maintain control over world--or
  understand it.
• Implied that he cannot even survive.
• Modern problems, evils, corruption, cannot be
  "solved" by individual.
• Reference to Lot's wife (destruction of Sodom
  Gomorrah) suggests corruption of modern world
  (and Hammer seems part of that corruption) can
  only be purged by fire.

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Noir in an Atomic Age

• Here an exaggerated version of the noir idea of
  environment (or social forces) dominating or
  constraining individuals.
• Can be seen, as Silver notes, in the constraining
  mise-en-scene and framing of film, which
  constantly hems in the protagonist.
• But here, taken to such an extreme that it seems
  to mark the end of classic noir, for there no
  longer seems to be a role for the hard-boiled,
  tough-guy protagonist of noir in this
  out-of-control modern world.