Home Viewing (Week of 7 January 2008)

DETOUR
(Home Viewing Week of 7 January 2008)

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Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) is a low-budget film noir made in six days. Despite its awkward narration, poor production values, stilted acting, and lack of star power it has a place among film noir cultists (a "cult film" is a film defended, or appreciated, by a select group of viewers).
    In any case, it's an ideal place to study elements of noir: the low-key lighting; the dangerous woman ('femme fatale") who controls the man; the passive noir hero or antihero; his foreclosed future, already known by the beginning of the film; the doomed voice-over narration; the sleazy or shabby settings (jazz joints, cheap motels, dirt roads).
    Unlike the semidocumentary police noir, He Walked By Night, where light and dark are in a dualistic duel, with dark finally contained in the sewer, in straight noir there is no duel between light and dark, since it's all dark. Hence the term, film noir. To see Detour, go here.

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