Out of the Past (1947)

In the 1940's, America was still getting used to the cinema. People were still getting used to the idea of connecting emotionally to people on a screen, being transported to another place and another life by means of the theater itself. The film industry didn't know what kind of taste the movie viewing public had in regards to the kind of stories they wanted to see. I consider the early film noir movement as more of an essential building block for American cinema rather than excellent cinema that stands on it's own; for the time period it was all there was, but we have cinematically evolved so much since then.

Out of the Past is a perfect example of the stereotypical nature of most early noir's, trying to stick to a very narrow formula to assure audience approval instead of encouraging artistic creativity. The definition for a film noir is this: "a movie that is marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, menace, and cynical characters; "film noir was applied by French critics to describe American thriller or detective films in the 1940s" (Dictionary.com). Directors in the 40's who made film noir pictures understood the themes this genre was about, but never understood character development or a fascinating story. They only knew to go by a very strict set of rules, caring more about making sure the label sticks rather than making a compelling film. Out of the Past tells the story of Jeff Bailey, a gas station worker who's past comes back to visit him. The film never takes time to get us to understand Bailey on a deeper level, why he does what he does, he just goes through the motions without much expression or depth. The audience doesn't have anything to latch onto through this convoluted and pointless story, all of the motivations in the film don't ring true because we don't know where they're coming from in the first place. When a film relies on the main character to carry it, he has to be someone the viewer gets to know; he needs to be a living, breathing person instead of a hollow avatar of pure stereotype. The story is driven by the lead, and if we don't care about the lead we don't care about the story. All the main character is is just a tool of the women he encounters, above all else. He lets his emotions get the better of him, which then lead him down a path of uncertainty and betrayal, his lack of foresight gets him killed in the end.


The plot revolves around information being discovered gradually throughout the film, and characters betraying each other revealing surprises and "twist turns". But anyone that knows anything about film will predict every step of this boring tale. Aside from the blatantly uninteresting plot, the character's simply aren't "there", making the entire film forfeit. As much as I disliked it, however, it must be stated that this is an important film in regards to film history. It's one of the first movies to play with chronology in the storytelling, as well as more complicated character arcs; it did set some kind of small precedents. These elements, however, didn't do anything for the film and thus were wasted. The director and creators of this film just wanted to pump out another copycat genre piece with some superficial changes, such as the lighting and scenery, but none of that means anything when the inner workings are nothing special.