Blog 4: Zero Draft

   There seem to be a set of rules that come along with what classifies film noir as noir. Double Indemnity definitely shows these qualities, but in some ways the novel did not seem as dark as the film. The ending of the novel seemed awkward, like it just did not belong. It was as if the original writer was fired and a different writer took over and finished the book. In the novel, we do not see that Mr. Neff is dying, but since we have an idea of what noir is, we assume that he is dying or will die. The more classical style of noir would have illustrated someone dying or someone that has already died. In the film, we see immediately that Mr. Neff is dying, and I believe that this follows noir more. In the ending of the novel, we do not see Mr. Neff die but we see him very close to death and it is assumed that he does die. The end of the novel is very vague and confusing. It is assumed that he will die but that assumption is based entirely off of knowing what noir entails. The ending in the novel seemed much more peaceful and it is as if he is accepting his death, but in the film he at least tries to escape and does not want to accept that he is going to die. Since noir involves darkness, death, and despair I believe that the films ending was definitely more appropriate for noir.
   I think it was entirely appropriate for Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton to classify Double Indemnity as, "nightmarish". The entire storyline seems nightmarish. Everything starts out promising but soon turns to hopelessness and distress. Just like a dream, all of your inner most desires come out and start to tantalize your mind. All of a sudden, everything takes a turn and becomes very horrifying. Just like for Walter Neffs' story. He saw everything in front of him and he saw an advantage to take for his happiness even though he knew how dangerous it was. Walter felt that he had total control over the situation. He felt like he had everyone just melting in his hands. As soon as he found out that he was indeed not the person in charge, he immediately saw his world crash and become extremely frightening. As with every nightmare, he just wanted to wake up and see everything disappear. The worst part of Walters' nightmare however, was that he could not wake up.