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mad love: what about redemption? "gun crazy" (1949)'s place in the "lovers-on-the-run" sub-genre by tracy taylor According to Silver and Brookover in "What is this Thing Called Noir?" the "manner in which the wild passion of the fugitives is portrayed is more significant than the plot points which keep them on the run." (262) Silver and Brookover take this thesis and create not one but three "lovers on the run" sub-genre categories: the innocent, the guilty, and the ones who got away. They place Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy in the "guilty" category because of the manner in which the amour fou, or "mad love", is portrayed in the film. Does this positioning in the "lovers on the run" genre hold up under analysis?
No complete innocent could stand up to a woman like Annie Laurie Starr, much less best her as Bart does in their initial, sexually-tinged contest. Instead of rejecting him as she does the "two-bit" Packy, Annie is even more attracted to Bart when he outguns her. Her openly seductive manner and sexual swagger brand her as a woman who left innocence behind long ago. Indeed, we learn she is a killer without remorse, a sociopath who craves the sexual thrills of crime and danger over any semblance of "true" love for Bart. She is not redeemable. Bart, on the other hand, is wracked with moral anguish, but too weak to pull himself from the downward spiral of robbery and, ultimately, murder. By the time Annie blows away the old biddy at the meat-packing plant, his fate is inextricably entwined with hers. Fleeing the scene of the crime, they start to separate but find their "mad love" will not permit it. This is a swift but flawed turning point in the film. Would Annie really come back for Bart? Director Lewis has them return to each other, and this decision costs them their lives. At the climax, as a crazed Annie rises from the fog-bound tules snarling, "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" at Bart's childhood chums, Bart kills her. He, in turn, is gunned down for his good deed. Does he fit Silver and Brookover's definition of "the guilty"? If this category is defined by characters pursued for crimes they have committed, then, yes, Bart and Annie are guilty. The category dictates that the lovers must be punished for their misdeeds with death, then, yes, they fit this category. But what about a man who redeems himself in the end? His amour fou fever broken, Bart saves at least two lives by taking Annie's. Yet, in Silver and Brookover's rigid definition, he is as guilty as she is. I would suggest a fourth category, "the redeemable", to add to "the good", "the bad", and "the ones who got away." (Article referenced appears in Silver, Alain. Ed. Film Noir Reader.Limelight Editions, 1996.) Copyright © 2003 The Write Word, Inc. All rights reserved. |
