Recently I read an article about You Only Live Once from Fritz Lang by Christopher Justice. I am really interested in this film and would like to watch it. This film is considered as a great work which marks Fritz Lang’s successfully transition from silent to sound film. But what is attractive to me is that the film noir and the sadness of protagonist in the story. According to Justice, the protagonist Taylor is victimized by the injustice of his community while trying to lead a normal life with his wife Joan. He and his wife can not avoid the violence that destroys them at last. In Justice’s article, he discusses that how Lang uses expressionistic style to present the protagonist’s fate and his relationship with the society in this film noir. Justice thinks that Lang is interested in and highly skilled at the depiction of implication of innocent soul.
Reading Justice’s description of the story, I think that he summarizes some very good points for this film. When Justice introduces Eddie (the protagonist)’s jail experience in the film, he says that Eddie is right and society is wrong. This situation can bring so many troubles to anyone who wants to be right. When the majority stand on the other side in our society and whatever they are right or wrong, the minority may have to succumb to its power. This is also the Eddie’s destiny in the film. It reminds me the infamous revolution which happened in my country at 1970s. At that period, many great writers, scholars and scientists were killed because they insisted on being right. The result is a disaster, which the majority not only killed those people, but also destroy the culture. We all know that there are political and historical reasons for certain events, but we will not be able to avoid its occurrence. People’s personality can be complicated in that period. Justice mentions Eddie’s words “It’s fun to see an innocent man die”. Although I have not seen the film, I feel that this sentence will be perfect to describe the majority in a society that in this film. And it is the same as the people in the revolution that I mention above. As the wrong power of the majority grows, it will triggers inappropriate activities of common people. Consequently, anyone who wants to be right and insists on being right usually has to struggle to live under this power.
As Justice states in his article, perhaps that director wants us to think about the justice according to the society, which is the actual shelter for us. A film which refers to violence and unfortunate fate of protagonists would always bring deeper thoughts for viewers. In fact, sometimes it can be suffering for watching and thinking about these kinds of film. However, we still need these films for the introspection of human society.
to Mars
17 years ago
1 comment:
Li -
Does Justice discuss how Lang's film works operationally, how Lang's camera and lighting work to convey Eddie's plight? While the story conforms to ideas of film noir, how else is "You Only Live Twice" a noirish? Does Justice just discuss plot and them? Does he ever discuss the formal aspects?
Again, I appreciate your time and thoughtfulness here - helpful and characteristic. Clearly the discussion of this film struck a chord. I guess I would have liked to hear more about how the film does what it does, how Justice presents the film, how he suggests how the film works. There may be an imbalance here - your understandings and discussion of the film's theme, however rich and compelling, may take us away from the article under review. The issue may be that Justice's article, his writing about the film, may not be of interest. Or you just be longing to see the film. Alas, our library does not have but Netflix does. I don't think it should be that elusive. I hope you get to see it.
All said, I once again appreciate the investment here.
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