The film "Sharp Blade Out of the Sheath" tells the story of the rich mystery novelist Harlan who mysteriously committed suicide after the 85th birthday party, and with the intervention of a well-known detective, he broke through the fog to explore the final truth. As a suspense film, the film adds the Sherlock Holmes detective character setting, but it is interesting that the truth in the film is not revealed by detective Blank one by one, but in the first half of the film, the original appearance of the event is presented through the character's retrospective memory, it can be said that the film gives the audience "God's eye", so that the audience has the illusion that the truth is within reach, which greatly weakens the traditional detective function of the role of the detective.
The displacement of the detective function provides more possibilities for the narrative direction of the film, in the movie "Sharp Blade Out of the Sheath", the seemingly clear truth around the protagonist Marta seems to be more able to attract the attention of the audience, her multiple identities determine her complexity, she is both the "real murderer" who killed Harlan and the partner who helped Blank's detective, quite the irony of "thief shouting to catch the thief", and as most people think, there is a simple logic behind all complex events, Marta's motivation for her actions was based on Harlan's trust and love for her, and this intimacy with her employer and servant above the average employer stemmed from her many good qualities.
1. The role of the detective
Different from the traditional mystery suspense film and television works of the supernatural detective, in this film, the charm of the detective has been faded layer by layer, and the rigorous and wise screen detective has disappeared, replaced by a new type of detective with comedic talent. When Blank was commissioned to the scene of the crime, he listened to the detectives interrogate the members of the Harlan family one by one, and Blank sat on the couch in the room, rang the bell from time to time to interrupt the normal dialogue procedure while the detective communicated with the suspect, and raised questions that seemed to be of little relevance to the normal cross-examination to exclude suspects, and even said funny remarks such as "I don't know why I am here".
Blank's debut is still portrayed according to the traditional detective's mysterious, alert and other personality characteristics of the shaping path, the room blank is located in a relatively dark edge position, in the same picture, the black detective despite the black skin but can still be clearly separated from the background, while Blank is almost integrated with the extreme saturation of the background, if you do not make a sound it is difficult to notice his presence.
In this picture, the uneven distribution of light is also using the medium characteristics of film art to subtly express some content that is difficult to express directly, and the spooky light of Kubrick's style casts a mysterious veil on Blank's presence, on the one hand, it is in line with Blank's character setting as a detective; on the other hand, Blank, who is in the dark, also implies that this ritualistic suicide action is not as simple as it seems, and there are more powerful forces behind it to secretly "manipulate" all this. Blank was also among them, a bystander and, inadvertently, a participant.
Especially in the second half of the film, through the memories of marta, the trajectory of Harlan's suicide night was outlined, and the blank part of the donut center was filled, but it was not Detective Blank who completed the donut, it can be said that the first half of the film weakened Blank's identity attributes as a detective, and took into account the overall perspective to care for the entire Harlan family members in the mansion, through Blank to expose the internal contradictions of the family, trying to explore the hidden dark corners of the real family members' humanity.
2. Simple logic of complex events
In the film "Sharp Blade Out of the Sheath", the members of the Harlan family, under the protection of the patriarch Harlan, even if they have no strengths, are still active in the elite class in the United States, and the strength of the family has cleared all obstacles for the younger generations, so that they can wear the mask of affection and grandly carry out interpersonal social activities to express goodwill to the people at the bottom. At the birthday party, Harlan's family members sincerely expressed their affection for Herta, who took care of Harlan, but ironically, the four men said the names of four countries, but none of them were Marta's hometown, and their hypocrisy was revealed.
And what is completely different from them is that Harlan was touched by Marta's kindness and sincerity in his long-term relationship with Marta, Marta made up for the lack of family, the two got along is not a simple master-servant relationship, but more like a year-old friend, the reason why Harlan really decided to leave all his inheritance to Marta is Marta's wisdom, Harlan's keen insight into Marta is a person full of wisdom, it is rare that she also has a kind heart, so Harlan made the final decision.
It is this decision that hastens Harlan's death, and as the detective says in the film, the donut in the center of the donut is still vacant, and the missing part is the real truth, until now, the truth that Marta believes in is only a link in the truth, and the real murder has begun before Harlan committed suicide. In fact, Marta did not cause Harlan's death, and the reason why Harlan insisted on committing suicide was more like that Marta could get out of the inheritance smoothly and completely break the endless dependence of the family members on him.
The film originally characterized Harlan's death as suicide, and at the end, the truth of Harlan's death is indeed death by suicide, from this point of view, the biggest suspense of the film is that there is no suspense, perhaps the really wonderful part is not the reversal of the narrative but the deep reversal of human nature, the human nature under the abundance of money and material is fragile and cannot withstand any test, before the ownership of the inheritance is clear, the family expresses that the result of Harlan's suicide is acceptable, but when the inheritance will belong to Marta, However, they demand a re-investigation into the truth of Harlan's death, pointing out that Marta was the murderer, and all kinds of insults and suspicions flocked to him, without any regard for the elegant image of the lady and gentleman before.
Perhaps, as Marta said, Harlan left her legacy to Marta, not because of her, but because of you. Since then, an exciting battle for inheritance has come to an end, and at the end of the film, Marta stands on the balcony with the water cup that appears at the beginning of the film, and the crowd looks back at Marta with a sigh, revealing reluctance and helplessness in her eyes, just like the cup in Marta's hand, "My house, my rules, my coffee." ”
Although the movie "Sharp Blade Out of the Sheath" is a suspenseful reasoning film, but the core of its story is still out of the deep concern of the humanitarian stance, the film tells a simple story that is most simple and unpretentious through the shell of suspense, no matter what situation you are in, do not forget to maintain the kindness and sincerity of the heart, if you are smart, it is better.