3. Double Indemnity has been called “a film without a single trace of pity or love.” Do you agree with this statement? Think about the motivations that lie behind the actions of Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson when you consider your response.
Double Indemnity has many intriguing elements; murder, drama, and deceit. But I agree that it does lack both love and pity. The plot of Double Indemnity is formed off of lust and greed. Instead of the main characters falling madly in love with each other and committing a criminal act out of love, the main characters use each other for their own personal gain. Phyllis is portrayed as the ultimate femme fatal and it is blatantly obvious that she only cares about herself from the moment she first interacts with who we believe to be a clueless love stricken pawn. It is easy for us to see Walter in this light because his motives aren't so obvious from the beginning, but as the story progresses he turns into a much darker character. They were each able to hide their motives under the ruse of love and pity until we see them as they are in the very end.
At first Walter Neff is seen as one of the only lovable characters in the film, he appears to be an unlucky man who just got caught up in trouble with a woman he loved, but we see this facade crumble as the story goes on. Ultimately, Walter is in it for the money, he finds himself more attracted to it than Phyllis. If he did truly love her or even pity her a little he wouldn't have ended up killing her. As we see this happen we find out his true motives greed and the small amount of lust he felt towards Phyllis. The same is true for Phyllis. She never loved Walter, despite her saying so moments before she is killed. She is introduced as a trophy wife and we see almost immediately that she is a stereotypical gold-digger. She uses her sexual appeal to draw Walter into her evil scheme and acts as if she loves him in order to get him to stay involved. If she had truly loved him she would have never insisted that he commit such a terrible act, but she couldn't do otherwise, she was indifferent and incapable of feeling emotions. She was in it truly for herself and saw her incapability to feel as a means to exploit and manipulate the feelings of others.
Your blog is so stylish and cool. I love that you added the music... nice touch (; I disagree that it is blatantly obvious that Phyllis only cares about herself from the very beginning, but I may just be clueless. I fell for her whole act of love and desire for Walter and was more shocked when it was revealed that she had deceitful intentions. I think to improve this blog post you could go into more detail about the how and why and maybe use specific dialogue examples from the characters. Overall, great job icky you're the best!
ReplyDeleteTo start, the music adds straight fire to this blog post and I greatly appreciate it. I do not completely agree though with your argument that the intentions of Phyllis were made clear right away. I would argue that while her shady character was still revealed earlier than Walter's her original act seemed a genuine interest in him. I definitely agree with your assessment of Walter; he seems clueless but is revealed to be scheming too. Overall, I would agree with the argument that neither of the main characters was motivated by love nor pity. Fabulous job, I learned not to aspire to be a gold digger, p.s. I hope you are loving the snow!!!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that this music is amazing and so is your blog post. However, I do also agree with your wording that Phyllis was being obvious she didn't care. I don't know if I'm just not observant, but I didn't think that Phyllis was obvious in her deceit. Or else it would take away from the climax of the story, when her unfaithfulness and lies are revealed.
ReplyDeleteAside from that, your argument was very solid. You did a fantastic job stating and defending your point!