Gun Crazy analysis - a dominant femme fatale, an erotic love and obsession with guns.

Gun Crazy (1949) is film noir based on a fast-paced story, which is propelled along with numerous stick-ups, a dominant femme fatale, an erotic love and obsession with guns, and the deadly sexual attraction between two memorable trigger-happy sharp-shooters who substitute gunplay for sex.

Gun Crazy is considered to be a testament to the director Joseph H. Lewis's brilliant use of the camera. We sense that he was never satisfied with just filming two characters talking. His camera dips low in one take and soars high in the next, constantly searching for unexpected and enlightening prospective. In one scene, we see the young Bart as his boyhood friends are in the hills, when they spot a mountain lion. They urge Bart to shoot the cat so they can claim the bounty. But Bart isn't a killer and he won't fire. Another boy grabs the gun away from him. In the foreground, we see Bart's fist clench and tighten as the other boy, visible in the background, jerks the trigger and sends shots skittering across the rocks.

Lewis and Weldon Borland

[Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Cecil Pa...

Gun Crazy 2: Beyond the Law

Lewis uses the whole frame to constantly give us information about the characters and the situationsOne of the filmic characteristics that were emphasized on in the film is the camera movements, linking inside and outdoors. Gun Crazy opens in the night and rain, almost the archetypal image of film noir genre. The camera moves straight forward - and we see that we are now looking outward, from inside a shop window, into a city street. This combined exterior and interior, with a camera movement encompassing both, is visual style repeated in this film.

Another scene where inside and outdoors are both combined is the liquor store robbery scene, which shows the couple backing out of the store, the camera moving with them. Eventually...