The Maltese Falcon

Filming styles are categorised based on their genres in terms of possessing the same approach to the themes and visuals of film making. The structure and outlook of films evolve to suit the creativity of film makers but mainly to entertain the audience. Films are categorised based on Rick Altman’s semantic and syntactic approach. The film report aims to analyse the semantics and syntactic of film noir through the first famous debut film of warner brothers’ studio which is “The Maltese Falcon”. By studying similar semantics and syntactic of the film to other film noirs develops a deeper understanding towards the concepts of film noir. The report also aims to show how the film has tailored the structures and outlook of traditional film noirs to create its own unique identity in terms of message and visual content.

Rick Altman’s semantic and syntactic approach is used to categorised films as it stresses both the themes and visuals of film. Semantic defines as the visuals of a film such as settings, lighting, props, costumes etc. In contrast, Syntactic defines as the theme of the film which stresses on the story content in terms of emphasizing main topics of a particular time (Altman, 1984). The semantics and syntactic of film must be complementary in order to successfully convey the intended message to audience. Altman’s method of categorising genre is constantly evolving with times to reflect the current situation of society. Film noir’s styles of filming were common during a time of global insecurity which was during the time period of 1941 to 1958. This was during World War 2 and Cold War which was when Americans were questioning their national. Insecurity was especially prevalent in terms of normative structure as there were conflicting beliefs and values among the Americans themselves (Hayward, 2013).

Historical context of film noir started from the blurred lines of gender equality due to unforgiving events that led to women into joining the workforce while men fought in the war. Women foregone their domestic duties and were included into the working sphere. Women were given the same tasks as men and exposed to the experiences of working world. Upon enjoying the similar experiences of a working men in terms of being treated equally with respect, women started to crave power and equal rights which made men worried about the mixing and confusion of gender roles. Due to the overlapping of gender specific duties, it led to the cross-examine of gender and national identity (Hayward, 2013).

Film noirs tend to surround a world of crime, darkness and brutality with the main villain character motivated by greed, lust and ambition as well as being doused in fear (Hayward, 2013). Film noirs emerged during a time where gangsterism were heavily showcased in movies due to the lack of law enforcement after the war. Syntactic of film noir include conveying a message of cynical, pessimism and darkness of all aspects of life (Hayward, 2013). Furthermore, the films usually contained the practice of corruption, fatalistic themes such as the disregard towards the importance of life, hopeless tones of people’s rights for justice, blurred morals and intellect (Hayward, 2013). Due to the lack of integration and regulation, people do not follow norms which meant there was no differentiation between right and wrong. and There were also hard-boiled antihero which femme fatale being in conflict with each other; however, still portraying subtle hints of attraction between them (Hayward, 2013). It is also stated that the seductive female lead will usually encounter sadistic closers death, outcast, mental and physical torture or reintegration and immersion into their domestic spheres as a way of concealing their determination and sexual independence. Film noirs storyline also involves tales of criminal motives as to reflect the domination of businesses by the gangsters. Lastly, film noirs also feature a form of narration whether through audio, visuals or non-diegetic words (Hayward, 2013).

The Maltese Falcon’s main character is Samuel Spade who owns a private investigation company. A woman, Miss Wonderly who was later revealed to be Miss O’Shaughnessy, went to him regarding a case about a violent brother-in-law. What appeared to be an ordinary case, actually revolves around a chain of deceit just to obtain a stolen statuette also known as the Maltese Falcon. Apparently, Miss O’Shaughnessy stole the statuette and was trying to sell it to Gutman. However, along the way, Archer and Thursby were killed. Through all the hassle, they found out that the statuette was a fake. Gutman and Cairo fled the scene but Spade quickly informed the police about them making a break. The movie ends with Spade turning Miss O’Shaughnessy in to the authorities since she killed Archer.  

The general outlook of the film was dark and dim with relatively realistic settings and costumes as to portray the darkness of reality. High contrast lighting was used to show texture of the background with the actors such as the scene where Gutman, Cairo and Spade met to discuss the exchange of the Maltese Falcon. The background was dark which focused more the facial expression of the actors. 

Low key lighting was used to create suspicion such as when Spade was being followed by Wilmer, whereas high key lighting was used to establish the settings such as the scene where Spade and Archer were in their office.  

The theme of this film revolves around deceit and greed such as Gutman willing to betray his protégé, Wilmer, just to obtain the falcon. The other common concept of film noir was blurred morals as Spade was having an affair with Iva, his partner, Archer’s wife. Lastly, the film also showcases the concept of femme fatale which in this case was Miss O’Shaughnessy. She manipulated Archer to follow her to tail Thursby, instead she killed Archer to incriminate Thursby.

In conclusion, film noir including films such as The Maltese Falcon is an approach to film with a genre that is based around the effects of war. It aims to highlight the distress and chaos after the war. The lack of political, economic and social justice led to people having misconstrued ideas of moral conscience.

References :

Altman,R. (1984) . A Semantic/ Syntactic Approach to Film Genre. Cinema Journal,

Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 6-18.

Hayward, S. (2013). Cinema Studies The Key Concepts (4^th ed.). USA : Routledge, pp. 149-154.