David AllsoppMemorable Movie MacGuffins: Kiss Me Deadly
June 30th 2011 03:55
MacGuffin = a plot device that catches the viewers attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction. The MacGuffin must be of vital importance to the major players in the story, but its exact nature may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise ultimately unimportant to the true meaning of the story.
The Film: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Director: Robert Aldrich
The Writer: Screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the book by Mickey Spillane.
The Plot: Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) is a tough LA private investigator mostly working divorce cases who one evening on a dark country road encounters Christina (Cloris Leachman), who has escaped from a nearby mental institution. After getting stopped by thugs, Christina is tortured to death and Hammer narrowly survives an attempt on his life. Hammer investigates the matter - driven both by vengeance and the feeling something big must be behind it all – and the trail leads to a mysterious box that everyone wants to get their hands on. But Hammer will soon discover that some secrets are too hot to handle.
The MacGuffin: Although it is never explicitly explained, we are given a few harmless words that when put together give us a pretty good idea: Manhattan Project, Los Alamos and Trinity. Basically it is a small box with some white-hot radioactive material inside that has the power to incinerate a person in next to no time.
What makes it memorable: Other than the fact that it’s some type of atomic weapon in a box? How about that fact that somebody decided it would be a good idea to hide it inside a locker at a fitness club? You could look at it as a metaphor for the fear and paranoia of the Cold War era and Atomic Age in which it was filmed, or a commentary on man’s (and woman’s) insatiable curiosity when it comes to a mystery – sometime a deadly curiosity. One thing I know for sure is that to me the MacGuffin is the most memorable part of this film – not the at-times wooden acting, bland dialogue and a number of aimless scenes.
The Film: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Director: Robert Aldrich
The Writer: Screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the book by Mickey Spillane.
The Plot: Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) is a tough LA private investigator mostly working divorce cases who one evening on a dark country road encounters Christina (Cloris Leachman), who has escaped from a nearby mental institution. After getting stopped by thugs, Christina is tortured to death and Hammer narrowly survives an attempt on his life. Hammer investigates the matter - driven both by vengeance and the feeling something big must be behind it all – and the trail leads to a mysterious box that everyone wants to get their hands on. But Hammer will soon discover that some secrets are too hot to handle.
The MacGuffin: Although it is never explicitly explained, we are given a few harmless words that when put together give us a pretty good idea: Manhattan Project, Los Alamos and Trinity. Basically it is a small box with some white-hot radioactive material inside that has the power to incinerate a person in next to no time.
This MacGuffin has some serious firepower.
What makes it memorable: Other than the fact that it’s some type of atomic weapon in a box? How about that fact that somebody decided it would be a good idea to hide it inside a locker at a fitness club? You could look at it as a metaphor for the fear and paranoia of the Cold War era and Atomic Age in which it was filmed, or a commentary on man’s (and woman’s) insatiable curiosity when it comes to a mystery – sometime a deadly curiosity. One thing I know for sure is that to me the MacGuffin is the most memorable part of this film – not the at-times wooden acting, bland dialogue and a number of aimless scenes.
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