Pjtaylor-96-138044
The set-up of 'Out Of The Past (1947)' draws many a parallel to 'A History Of Violence (2005)', a movie which I have very fond feelings for. Though this film-noir was obviously an inspiration for Cronenberg's flick, it thankfully diverges from that familiar story fairly quickly (I didn't want to simply see a neutered version of that picture after all, no matter which came first). Despite the picture's great writing and acting, the convoluted and long-winded plot gets in its own way on more than one occasion and slows this feature down. There's plenty of interesting ideas and sequences, though, and the ending is fairly ballsy. 6/10
HotToastyRag
If I liked the film better, I'd be curious to read the original novel entitled Build My Gallows High, written by Daniel Mainwaring. Mainwaring used a pseudonym and adapted his work for the screen, resulting in one of the most famous film noirs in screen history. The main problem I had with the film Out of the Past was the odd storyline and construction. I imagined a 4 hour running time, including every plot point and character development from an original 800-paged novel-the studios insisted that the film be shortened and the end result was a lack of character development for anyone and a haphazard story cut to bits. I've since learned the original book is only 160 pages, and I can't understand why the film's story was choppy scenes were so confusing.The "good guys" are the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are the "bad guys", with no explanation for anyone's behavior. The plot moves so quickly with such swift deviation that I kept pressing pause trying to figure out what was going on; by the end, I'd given up. I got the characters confused and had no idea what was happening.Here's what I was able to get out of the plot: Robert Mitchum runs a garage in a small town. His assistant is a deaf and dumb teenage boy, and his sweetheart is the innocent Virginia Huston. Then, Paul Valentine finds him, and he confesses his secret past to Virginia. His secret past includes being indebted to Kirk Douglas, a gangster who wanted Bob to find and retrieve his runaway girlfriend Jane Greer. If there was a reason why Bob and Kirk were thrown together in the first place, it went over my head. And I couldn't count how many times I got Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming mixed up! And what was the reason why Dickie Moore was deaf and dumb and inexplicably loyal to Bob Mitchum?I watched the movie because I knew it was famous and I love to drool over Robert Mitchum. If you absolutely love film noir films, you might want to rent this one, but be forewarned. And be on the lookout for the very famous line, "Baby, I don't care," that inspired the title of Lee Server's famous biography of Robert Mitchum!
justinmethe
A very stylish and well scripted film OUT OF THE PAST was my second Film Noir that I experienced and I truly really enjoyed it. I loved the whole you can run but you can't hide from your past theme behind it and I felt like that was very relatable to many people. I mean the idea behind the movie was probably expected with a title like that! I honestly cannot believe this movie was considered a B movie back when it was released. It is such an easy movie to follow but it really does a great job of hiding a more in depth or intricate meaning underneath. I feel most of the credit with this movie should be given to the director Jacques Tourneur. He did a really great job with this movie and just showed how much carefulness and thought was put into this movie especially with the magnificent shots of San Francisco at night or the trees and the forest it was just a well put together movie and beautifully shot one as well.
Lee Eisenberg
A common theme in cinema is a person whose past comes back to haunt him/her. Even if you've seen a number of these, you can't afford to miss Jacques Tourneur's "Out of the Past". When you start it, you might be confused to see the setting in northern California. However, there's a lot in store. Robert Mitchum's gas station owner gets forced to confront gangsters, femme fatales, and corruption when it gets revealed that he's not who he says he is. There's a lot in store here.I don't know if I would call "Out of the Past" the best film noir ever - I haven't seen that many - but it's got everything that makes a movie great. I found Jane Greer's amoral lover of Kirk Douglas's slimy businessman to be the most interesting character. We pretty much assume that the men are going to be hard-boiled, but the women also have their own tough sides.The photography isn't as stylized as we're used to in this genre, but the plot and characters more than make up for that. The ending is a shock, but it's understood that this was the only possible outcome.An undeniable classic.
AD
