If there was one thing I watched growing up almost as much as sci-fi and horror films, it was film noir. Films noir? Gritty, cynical detective shit.
The Maltese Falcon has one of the best final lines in cinematic history. Chef’s kiss. No notes.
Bogart was part of my Unofficial Mood Board of Cool when I was a teenager. He mastered playing the type who looks like they give zero fucks, but actually cares about one thing so damned much that they’ll get in way over their head because of it.
It’s a story about chasing a Macguffin, and the pointlessness of greed. All the players are angling to get ahold of some little statue, and they’re willing to cross any line in order to get it. But the statue is mostly worthless. The only one who gets what they want out of it is Bogart’s Sam Spade, who finally understands why his partner was killed and gets some small measure of justice.
Noticing a theme in these early films in this series about the dangers of greed and ambition, and how the people who tend to suffer most are pawns in conflicts orchestrated from behind the scenes:
- The Taylor Political Machine
- Covering up a murder to keep up appearances
- Tricking a non-magical girl from Kansas to kill a witch
- World domination
- Playing God with power over life and death
Is it a product of the era, an evergreen theme that’s in a lot of films, or something that particularly resonates with me because I was the one who wound up picking these films? All of the above?
I’m figuring this out as I go, and that’s part of the fun for me.
This Builds Character 
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