Supernatural trouble

[tartysuz]

Last night, I went to a screening of the Robert Siodmak film, Criss Cross, part of a film noir series hosted by the Metro Cinema Society.

Each film is given a live introduction by film scholar William (Bill) Beard. In describing the nature of the film noir narrative, he said something that applies to Supernatural. Here's a part-paraphrase, part-quote of Beard's remark:

Usually in a Hollywood film, the hero overcomes obstacles to achieve his goal, "but film noir troubles that. Sometimes the hero is not admirable, or he has a weakness and is unable to dominate the narrative to put things in order."

Both Sam and Dean are flawed, even deeply flawed. Neither of them are the authors of their own fates: in fact, the angels confirmed that their very existences were created to fulfill divine prophecy: they were puppets and were never equipped to put things in order. Every battle they win is another step in losing the bigger-picture war.

Yes, this does mean I will be resuming my series, Supernatural Noir. I started with Part 1: Notes on Noir and left off at Part 3a: Deconstructing Morality (the Femme Fatale).

By the way, Criss Cross isn't nearly as good as The Killers, which I discussed in relation to Supernatural in Part 2: Deconstructing Identity.

Comments

[chibifrieza.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I am excite. :D