Analysis of a classic film noir


Detour starts a man who is hitchhiking his way to California to be with his fiancé. Along the way he gets picked up buy a kind man and while in the car Al discovers that the man has died in his sleep. Fearing police will think it was him that killed him Al dumps the body and drives off with his car later on he meets a femme fetale who knew the man and she blackmails him in to impersonating the man to collect a large amount of money or she will tell the police what he has done as the film goes on things go from bad to worse especially towards the end where they both get drunk and Vera grabs the phone runs in to the next room locks the door and threatens to call the police while she lays on the bed the phone cable wraps around her neck, Al starts pulling on the chord trying to break the phone and ends up strangling her. After this the camera pans around the room it is mostly blurry but focuses on a couple of items in between this is quite effective and makes us see things from how he is now seeing it. Al’s life is now completely ruined he did not mean to do any of this but that’s what fate does. He then starts hitchhiking again until eventually the police catch him.
So Al was a happy man with a normal life until suddenly fate kicked in and turned things upside down with a big help from the femme fetale, a characteristic of a film noir.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tMM0Nrg4pkk&feature=related