Crimes and Misdemeanors Essay

For the past fifty years, director and actor Woody Allen has evoked much laughter from his neurotic-style comedies. Less recognized, even, is his fascinating ability in utilizing both his stunning, humorous wit along with several philosophical concepts. Such a combination creates an engaged and well think approximatelyed audience, as well as a mentally-stimulated one. In his photographic film Crimes and Misdemeanors, the philosophical concepts Allen touches upon deal with ethical and moral issues. What does do the right thing rattling entail why not do the opposite if it leads to ones personal advantage?In the absence of a graven chassis, whos to say whether the choices we arrest are right or wrong? Answering these questions say much about the way one counts the world. This movie investigates such questions by intertwining two separate, jibe plots the tragic story of Judah, and the comedic story led by pearl Stern . There are two key moral positions that underlie the ent ire movie Those with faith in God perceive the world as morally structured, forgiving, and full of true meaning. Those who do not believe in a God sympathise the world as empty, pitiless, and devoid of meaning.After watching this movie for the third time, a consistent metaphor that integrates these positions revealed itself. Throughout the movie, nearly every opinion visually and verbally involves the engross of eyeball to symbolize our perceptions on how we see the world, and how people do not see themselves and events the way others may see it. Although in that location are several elements, characters, and events worthy of an individual analysis, this paper pass on concentrate on how Allens film represents look to unveil hidden truths. To illustrate the use of eyes in this film I will investigate its role in the embodys of Judah, drop curtain, and Rabbi Ben.Keep in mind that all four of these characters each exsert over-emphasized glasses. Within the first few minutes o f the film, Judah reveals he makes his living as an ophthalmologist. Judahs occupation certainly comes as no coincidence, for it stems from his religious past. During a voice communication at a charity dinner, Judah relates to the audience this past Im a man of science. Ive always been a skeptic, but I was brocaded quite religiously, and while I challenged it even as a child, some of that feeling mustiness have stuck with me. He continues to say that his father once told him, the eyes of God are on us always. Although he revokes his religious background, its apparent that this feeling that stuck with him manifested itself in his occupation in order to fill a void which religion would fill. With the removal of Gods eyes, Judah made the, perhaps unconscious, decision to take up a job that deals with seeing thus anticipate the role of God. He rhetorically asks the audience, What were Gods eyes like? Unimaginably penetrating, intense eyes I assumed. Judahs relationship with his fa ther leftfield him with a sense of awe and business of these intense eyes that could see past his deceitful acts.So, his concern with vision arises from his compulsion to hide the blemishes of his character. Its unmistakable that Judah sees himself as a moral man wealth, success, and a valuable role in the community are reinforced by images of him wearing a black tie as hes accompanied by his family. This family man portrayal describes Judahs out-of-door appearance. Wouldnt a man blessed with this amount of success persisted in doing the right thing all along? Judahs morality is put into question once his mistress s force outs a letter to his wife, exposing Judahs circuitous actions (Judah destroys the letter immediately before his wife sees it).Judah saw no troubles in fooling around, for his efforts made him happy and he was never caught (there is no God to see his immoral choices). The letter breaks Judahs illusions of this fantasy world hes been living. Judah says its as i f Ive awaken from a dream, to reinforce how he must now face reality. Interestingly enough, at this point Judah now wears a pair of glasses, when forced to look at his values and actions from a different perspective. So in Judahs case, these glasses represent his inability to see the true nature of the world, which has now directly confronted him.Judahs brother, Jack (who sets up for the mistress to be killed), accuses him of not living in the real world, due to his state of wealth and privilege. Judahs success composes this blindness he has of the real world. Jack, defined as hard-nosed and amoral, lives in this apparent real world for he represents honesty and a lack of illusions even though he exemplifies unjustness. Essentially Judah and Jack adhere to the kindred moral, or immoral, compass. However Jack acknowledges his lack of morality, while Judahs success leads him to falsely believe he embodies rightness. Jack represents the dark and immoral side of Judahs consciousness. With his mistress unable to listen to logic and reason Judah states, I manage to keep free of that real world, but suddenly its found me. duskiness over placeing Judahs conscious, results in the death of his mistress. Post-murder, guilt plagues Judah, leading him to consider confessing. The camera consistently focuses on his eyes, showing the audience Judahs shock and demoralize towards his own behavior. Afflicted with hallucinations of his religious past, he repeatedly hears the words from his father God sees all. Latent, unconscious beliefs in God awaken in Judahs mind. In reference to the murder he says, God have mercy on us, Jack and Without God, the world is a cesspool. Judahs guilt originates from his fear of break downting caught as well as this moral code which has now been violated. Fear of Gods eyes or perhaps even Judahs fathers constabulary dominate his mind as if they watch his every move, exposing his actions. The film shows Judah consistently looking left and ri ght implying that something watches him.A final blatantly philosophical talks takes place as Judah visits his childhood house and envisions a past debate his family members had over morality. According to his fathers religious view, he will be punished even if he is not caught since that which originates from a black deed will blossom in a foul manner. This crime that Judah committed will some way or another be punished. As an opposition, his Aunt Mae provides the model which the film follows I say if he can do it and get away with it, and he chooses not to be bothered by the ethics, then hes home free. Aunt Mae also encourages Judahs father to pass around his eyes, disclosing the concomitant that six million Jews were murdered and Hitler got away with it. We all want to believe that we live in a perfect, moral world where justice is served, however this does not exhibit how the world really is. In fact, Judah proves his Aunt operates as a sort of Oracle. After a period of fear a nd irritability, Judah proceeds to live his happy life. Guilt passes, and the momentary belief in God grows quiet once more. One morning Judah opens his eyes and sees his conscious is guilt-free and the crisis is lifted. Judah comes to see that God is not watching, and in a world devoid of divine presence, all acts are permissible including murder. In Judahs world, the eyes of God are attributed to himself. That determines his internal appearance. The snatch story line deals with a self-styled, passionate yet unsuccessful idealist filmmaker named driblet (played by Woody Allen). In the opening of this narrative strand, cliff delivers his beliefs on his world view to his niece after watching a movie Dont listen to what your teachers tell you, just see what they look like, thats how youll know what lifes really about. decrease asserts that observing and questioning anothers motives elicits their values and true nature. Just listening and accepting the superficial, external appeara nce leads to a false impression and ignorance. To shatter this external appearance, Cliff uses film as a tool for exposing these lesser known realities. In fact, eyes are symbolized again through filmmaking as a method for displaying new perspectives. Relating to Judahs world, by the films eye the audience maintains the ability to see past his artifice which other characters are blind to.Furthermore, in a movie that deals with God and seeing, the audience acquires those God-like eyes that see all that Judah feared. In Cliffs case, he uses film to exploit his foil, Lester. Cliff directs a documentary about television producer Lester (described as rich, famous, and successful), for a program entitled original Minds. reverse to others, Cliff perceives Lester as shallow, pompous, and sub-mental. Lester supports his egotism by referring to his closet full of Emmys as an item that symbolizes material success.Cliff only directs the movie to gain pecuniary support for his documentary a bout a philosopher named prof Levy. Cliff describes his philosophical film as more substantial See no limos, no bimbos, no awards. This guy is just a thinker, an intellect. The tension between Lester comes as a classic flash vs. substance debate. Cliff prefers to create films that mentally-stimulate, rather than mindlessly entertain his audience. He wants to film quality films that matter, and have potential to change the world.Lester sees such ambitions as grandiose fantasies, favoring frivolous material that will sell and further his fame, unremarkably synonymous with crass commercialism. In the real world, high aspirations do not pay off, youve got to deliver. All delivery, no essence. Flash and delivery mask our stigmas and flaws. Creativity sacrificed in return for power and money. Other characters in the film fail to see Lesters pomposity, because they have been seduced and falsely impressed by his charisma and wealth. Cliff receives a minor victory over Lester when they pre view a few scenes Cliff pulled together for the documentary.This short film reveals Lester seducing a mindless woman, compares him to Mussolini, and has his voice synced over an image of a donkey. The woman represents his shallowness, the donkey as a literal jackass, and the comparison to Mussolini represents Lesters narcissism and hunger for power. The fact that Lesters superficiality rewards him with power ticks Cliff off most, perhaps with a dose of jealousy. As he watches himself from this new perspective, a faint glimmer and widening of Lesters eye acknowledges the fact that he may not be perfect as Lester likes to put it.However he abandons the thought that he deadens the sensibilities of a great democracy as Cliff loves to point out. In other words, this documentary was supposed to create a profile of a creative mind, however Cliff calico a picture of what he saw instead. Lester refuses to in full accept these notions, affirming this view does not represent the real me. Cli ff questioned Lesters values, and this contradiction of perceptions lead to Cliffs removal from the film. As a sub-plot, both Cliff and Lester compete over an associate woman producer, Halley. In Cliffs world, he believes he will truly win the girl over due to his values.The film hints at this it shows Halley shrugging off Lester, making sarcastic comments towards him, and taking interest in Cliffs side projects. At first, both Cliff and Halley see Lester through the same lens that the preview portrayed him as. During a wedding reception towards the end of the movie, the camera does an excellent job in illustrating how the opposite happens. A slight glimpse reveals Lester and Halley embracing each other, implying they are together. Without any words spoken, the camera depicts what Cliff thinks by focusing intensely on his eyes.A couple of things can be taken from this Halley up until this point appears with glasses on. With Lester, she removes her glasses. Halley abandons her glass es, only after she abandons her values. With righteousness thrown out the window, she nows sees the once pompous and arrogant Lester as endearing. Camera focusing on Cliffs eyes suggests he is in utter disbelief. In his eyes, Cliff deserved the girl, for he promoted grander values. In his world, such atrocities do not occur. He utters a small phrase, This is my worst fear realized. The fear that the world does not operate in accordance with his inner-values.In the end, Cliffs espoused idealism led to his ultimate downfall. Clinging to beliefs creates an illusion, an illusion that may betray us. A rabbi named Ben links together both plots. Morality, faith, and forgiveness make up Bens character (even Judah and Cliff refer to Ben as a saint). Ben embodies all the qualities that Judahs father possessed, they both adhere to religious beliefs. At his core, Ben conceives Without moral structure, theres no basis to know how to live Ben relies upon objective lens, absolute rules to guid e his behavior.Contrary to Jack, Ben represents the latent religious beliefs of Judahs unconscious. However, Bens vision appears to deteriorate as the movie progresses. Ben literally goes blind in the movie. Figuratively Bens blindness foreshadows the feeler sins that occur, and signifies the immoral atmosphere that underlies this movie. Also, Bens blindness generalizes the fact that all religions are blind to the cruelty and corruption of the world. When Ben asks Judah if his issues with the mistress were resolved, he bluffs saying the woman in the end gave up and moved away.Ben responds You got lucky Completely oblivious and blind to the actual murder, Ben trusts Judahs word. As Judahs success led to his blindness, Bens religion does as well. Judah points out Ben resides in the kingdom of heaven. In order to have faith one must disregard the negative, reinforce the positive, and believe we live in a just world. Through the lens of this kingdom of heaven justice is served. By d imming the lights on sinful acts, one can happily live about their life in sheltered ignorance. As the film comes to an end, a scene presents Ben sporting a pair of black glasses.These glasses indicate Ben has gone fully blind, and so has all moralities in this movie. By the end of the film, God abandoned all of society. The universe is indifferent to our actions an apparent depiction of how the real world truly exists. Crimes and Misdemeanors illustrates an existential truth. We all have fantasies, stories we tell ourselves about our expectations of the world. These expectations usually fail to correlate with the way the world really is. We live in an imperfect and godless world. The murderer prospers, the virtuous man fails, and the superficial succeed.The good guy does not always get the girl. Open your eyes, realize that all meaning is man-made. Realize that without an objective law mankind is free. Free to choose how we develop ourselves in this world, and where we look to for meaning. The individual is the arbiter on how to live. Our actions define us, not our dogmas. In the words of Professor Levy We define ourselves by the choices we make. We are, in fact, the sum total of our choices. Events unfold so unpredictably, so unfairly. It is only we, with your capacity to love that gives meaning to the indifferent universe.