Gun Crazy essays

Gun Crazy essays Many directors use artistic noirish traits that create great film noirs. Gun Crazy, directed by Joseph H. Lewis displays noirish traits through his unique lighting, camera angles, setting, performance, musical scoring, and other formal aspects. Gun crazy is a key film noir but it is a romantic tale of a mad love that defies rationale explanation. The movie opens with the main character (Bart) at about age 12. He is standing in front of a gun shop marked gloomily by the rain and night. Lewis is foreshadowing the end of the boys demise through the gloomy setting. In the background, there is a blinking light which suggest there is going to be a problem. The boy throws a rock through the window to steal a gun, and to his surprise he turns around and the sheriff is staring him in the face. The boy is in court and he is off to the side next to a blank window, lonely and isolated. Different people are testifying that the boy is a good person. One particular scene that is key to the movie shows the boy and his friends hunting they tell Bart to shoot a Mountain Lion because he is the best shot. Bart tells them no so his friend shoots at the Mountain Lion. The camera angle goes to the boy, but Barts hand is in the foreground as well. When the boy shoots, Barts hand clenches displaying Barts sorrow for the animal. Lewis uses the whole frame to constantly give us information about the characters and the situations. This camera shot is important because later in the movie when Bart is a man the same camera shot is taken while his wife threatens to leave him because he wont shoot people. Lewis captures two things at once with one camera angle. Lewis isolates Bart while he is getting scolded by the judge. He has just his ear in the frame listening to words that send him to reform school. The sound goes to echoing and out of focus and the audience fells Barts isolation. Toward the end of the movie Bart and L...