Custom «The Maltese Falcon» Essay Paper Sample

The Maltese Falcon (1931) is a film which talks about Sam Spade, a private detective from San Francisco who, as he was investigating three murders was drawn into the issue of searching for falcon statuette which is very valuable. The statuette was created during the crusades. The story begins with a lady by the name Miss Wonderly Ruth who hired the services of Spade together with his partner called Miles Archer so that they can trace her sister who had gone missing together with another man named Thursby Floyd. They realized that the two had been murdered as they were running after the Falcon Statuette. The third person to be murdered in the falcon Statuette was a ship captain and died immediately after delivering the statuette (Michel, 2008).

The entire case of the Falcon Statuette spiraled leading to a game which resembled the cat and mouse game between Spade, Miss Wonderly, Caspar Gutman who was a wealth English man and a European man called Dr. Joel Cairo. Spade was also concerned about the police who wanted to make responsible for the three deaths which had occurred in connection to the search for Maltese Falcon Statuette (Michel, 2008). The police were feeling that Spade was the one who ordered or who executed the death of the three people although he was drawn into the controversy by being hired by a person to investigate the deaths as a private detective (Michel, 2008).

This film is a very excellent film although it has some faults in it. At the end of the story, it became far much better than what I thought. It got a feeling that the movie was one of the best in history. The pacing of the movie is not good. The movie appears to be very slow (Michel, 2008). For such movie, it is expected that there will be swift actions. Movies of murder should be paced on a fast note to appear like it is real. This is more serious during the first hour of the movie. It is not until Joel Cairo was introduced into the movie that the movie began moving at the required pace. Before that, the audience can easily confuse the movie for murder with one for a wedding. However, towards the end, the actors pick the right pace of the movie and make it appear like a real situation.

There is no improvement with time for the dialogue which is created by Fulton and Homes who are screen writers and Hubbard, an unaccredited person. First, the dialogue was very slow because of the pace of the movie (Michel, 2008). In addition, it was not memorable to the actors. This made it appear like the dialogue was poor and thus making the movie somehow boring. It was not possible to recognize the verses which came from the novel. The dialogue is supposed to be very memorable so that it can make the movie very enjoyable. Most people will not want to watch such a move. Those who watch the movie are likely to find it somehow boring and thus not wish to watch it (Sadler, 1998).

Some scenes which featured in the movie were irrelevant. For example, the scene in which Spade featured as going to visit Ruth Wonderly in prison (Michel, 2008). It appeared like it was not important in the movie and it created unnecessary confusion in the movie. The movie is supposed to feature only those scenes which are relevant to the play. The scenes should match with each other. They should appear like they are complimenting each other in the play. There should be no some scenes which appear like they are not in line with the rest of the scenes. In the scene, Spade is seen as reluctant in giving her out to the police. This makes him appear like he has special interest in it.

Positive Attributes

The movie featured as a very sex movie. It is one of the best movies of Hollywood at that time. The characters portrayed Spade as a womanizing man who would flirt with anyone (Michel, 2008). The characters reveal the flirting nature of Spade especially with the wife of Archer called Iva. At some point, they indirectly hinted that they were spending nights together with her. There were signs of pre-code sexuality in the movie. These were the indenting of the pillow at a point which was next to the head of the client showing that he was with a lady at that time and they spent together. Other signs include the bidding of a goodbye to a female client by spade as the movie begins. The movie shows Miss. Wonderly why in the bathroom while she was naked. There was a striptease who was off the screen and was eventually revealed with Miss. Wonderly who was bare shouldered, which was an indication of an homosexuality between Gutman with another man, his young enforcer called William Cook.

When they were acting, they did a very good job of adopting almost all the novel contents into the movie. This made the movie appear like it is the real novel. A person watching the movie will have a feeling that the novel is becoming real and thus make him or her get more interested in the movie. They have maintained most of the story of the novel. Of particular emphasis are the actions of Holmes, Fulton and Hubbard. They tried to incorporate almost all the contents of the novel into the story. This made the story very nice and thus very interesting to watch (Sadler, 1998).

Historical Aspects

This movie was able to attract the people because of several reasons. First, the movie contained a lot of romantic scenes. As mentioned above, there were several connotations of sexual encounters in the movie (Michel, 2008). Most people who watch the movie tend to like those movies which have some sexual aspect in them. It is a movie which made the Hollywood producers very famous. There was some form of unconcealed love in the characters attracting the attention of the people. Compared to the rest of the movies, this particular movie was having more than the rest sexual aspects thus making it very popular (Carolyn, & Rita, 2005).

The movie also had issues of wars and murders. This creates some sense of war in it which is one of the best aspects in any movie. Wars are usually rare in real life and when they occur, people are usually not able to observe them for fear of being hurt. Thus, movies which contain some elements of war in them are very popular. People are eager to see what is happening in the war. Movies which have scenarios of violence bring the atmosphere in to real without endangering the lives of the people watching it because it is just a movie. People would want to see the scenarios of war although they do not want to get to the battle field because of the fact that it is very dangerous there. Thus, movie makers using this aspect win a lot of support since they can the situation near the viewer without any danger. This is what the movie maker used. There were incidences of violence in the movie making it appear like there is war. Viewers were very interested in viewing such scenes (Carolyn, & Rita, 2005).

The dialogue contained almost all the parts of the story in the novel. For people who had read the novel, they were finding it very interesting. While reading the novel, it will not appear as real is it appears in the film. In addition, those who had read the novel will have a feeling that the contents of the novel are becoming real. When a person writes a novel and after that it is acted, most people will tend to get interested as they want to see how it would appear in the real life. Most of readers of novels wish that they are played in the real life. Playing a novel makes it more attracting than playing an original movie (Sadler, 1998).

The actors made it appear more memorable. The dialogue is an important part of the movie. Movies which have dialogues which are not memorable are likely to be boring. The audience wants to watch a movie which is memorable and they are able to master with ease the contents of the movie. The audience is more likely to be encouraged tom watch the movie if it is not crowded with words which make memorization easier. In addition to the screen actors being good in acting in the film, the film is an action of a novel. Most of the people who saw it had read about the story in the novel. This made it easier for audience to master it (Sadler, 1998).

The actors were acting in harmony with one another. There was no sign of confusion in the whole story. The actors displayed a lot of skill in the acting making them appear in harmony. This made it appear like it is real life. Movies which show a lot of professionalism in the acting are perceived to be very good while those movies in which the actors appear like they are confused are not liked by most of people. People want to watch a movie with a very good organization and thus make them feel that it is a very special movie, containing very important information. Organization of the actors in the time of acting is thus a very important aspect. As mentioned in this particular movie, all the actors are well organized with no indication of confusion. The actors play their role effectively giving the movie a good flow which the audience finds very nice (Carolyn, & Rita, 2005).

Although in the beginning the movie appears like it is slow, it gets to a point where the movie starts moving at the right pace. Movies with violence are better performed as a fast pace since they depict the real situation. In real, violence is associated with speed. In action, violence scenes should be accompanied by high speed which makes it appear like it is real. When it is slow moving, people will have a feeling that it is in real life and thus not accurate. In this movie, the last part of it has the right pace and thus makes it appear real. The speed has been taken care of well thus increasing the possibility of viewers feeling that it is a real movie. This is part of what has made the movie appear very attractive and many people liked it.

The controversial nature of the main actor is also seen here. The actor who is supposed to be a private investigator is drawn into the issues of the statuette. Although he was supposed to get to the issues of security, at some point he appears like he has forgotten his functions and started chasing after other things which are part of the causes of insecurity. Spade, a private investigator fails to carry out his duties and gets into the deals of the chase of the statuette which results in him being wanted by the police. This kind of arrangement of the film creates an element of controversy. Controversy is an important part of any play. Most viewers get interested in those movies which contain a lot of controversy in them. For example, people would be more interested in seeing a pastor commit a crime while hiding than seeing a thieve steal. It is therefore in human nature that they would like to be controversial (Carolyn, & Rita, 2005). In acting this movie, the actors had this in mind and they exploited the issue of controversy full. Movies which appear controversial are very pleasing and people tend to watch them more than they would have watched another movie. They do not lose concentration and they do not get bored by the movie (Carolyn, & Rita, 2005).

Clear sound indicates that the process of making the film was very good. A movie should have proper audio system. In this movie, the movie is very audible and thus makes the audience be able to hear clearly the words (Kenneth, 1998). The clarity of the dialogue is important in making the audience follow through the movie. If no clarity, the people watching it will be lost on the way and make it boring. Clarity makes the viewers follow what is happening making them maintain interest in the movie. The sound is very clear and the audience can follow the events very well. The audience is able to follow al what is happening in the movie ensuring that they get every part of the movie. In addition, they are able to make the connection between the images and the words (Kenneth, 1998).

The actors show the same mood as the words. During the time when the scene is on a festive mood, the actors are very happy while the times when the movie is in times of sorrow, the actors also appear gloomy. It creates a sense of reality making the audience also move with the movie. Movies in which the characters appear to be in the same mood as the story appear interesting. However, when the message contained in the movie is of doom and the characters are enjoying, then it will appear like it is not a real event and thus the audience will get bored. Characters need to display facial expressions which are similar to the story (Winnie, 2009). In the story, such characteristic has been achieved. None of the character seems to be moving in his or her own way. They are carried by the emotions of the action making it appear very real. This is one of the reasons why the movie is very popular (Kenneth, 1998).

This moves talks about Mr. Spade, a private investigator who had been hired to investigate the disappearance of some people. He however gets involved in the circles which led to the death of those people. He also starts chasing the statuette which had result in the death of those people. Later, police start seeking him in connection with the murders believing that he might have some information on the deaths or even he played a role in the murders. He is said to be a womanizer, an aspect which makes the audience more likely to like the movie.

The movie has some positive attributes such as the following. First, the speed towards the end is good. The movie appears to be moving at a fast speed depicting the real situation in the war where the pace is fast. The actors also appear to be in the same mood as the story. This makes the movies as normal as real life which makes it very attractive and interesting. It thus attracts the concentration of the viewers. The movie has some sexual encounters which makes it very interesting to the public. Most viewers want to watch a movie with some sexual connotations which make it livelier.

On the other hand, there are some aspects which need to be improved. First, the movie should not have the irrelevant scenes. They make the audience lose their interest in the movie and thus make it boring. Again, the movie appears to be very crowded thus making it hard for a person to follow through it. It is another factor which makes it boring. Lastly, the movie seems to be moving at a slower pace in the beginning. This may discourage people who are viewing it for the first time from viewing it not aware that it gains the required speed towards the end thus making it more interesting. The movie should have had a faster pace which is usually associated with violent scenes (Kenneth, 1998).