Proposal

Harrison Elkins

Professor Vander Zee

ENGL 299

30 October 2016

Kaboom!: Violence, Sadism, and Paranoia in Kiss Me Deadly

The atomic box opens. Screams and flames emerge, roaring through the soundwaves as the Mike and Velda scramble wounded toward the beachline, treacherous, apocalyptic fire behind them. This is the sequence in Robert Aldrich’s seminal noir film, Kiss Me Deadly (1955). This essay discusses Aldrich’s masterwork in the context of the Cold War, and the paranoia that permeated the social and political atmosphere of the era. While much has been said about the blatant connection between the film’s apocalyptic plot line and its relationship to the political paranoia of the time, there is still much to be said regarding the odd, troubling aesthetic choices made by Aldrich. This essay attempts to expand the conversation beyond basic plot into a more specific realm peculiar aesthetics. A closer look like at the ways in which Aldrich handles violence, sound and artifice will enrich critical understanding of Kiss Me Deadly. Through a close reading of these elements I intend to demonstrate that the film’s aesthetic atmosphere is just as—and perhaps more, even—important to a critical discussion of Kiss Me Deadly in the context of the Cold War.

Critical discussion of Kiss Me Deadly has for the most part been centered primarily within its historical context. The film at once mirrors the political and historical context of its time, as well as serves as a sort kind of symbolic marker for the end of the first of wave film noir. In a sense, this is a satisfying critical conclusion—end of discussion, you might say. A film whose plot literally ends in explosion—the perfect symbol, at once a materialized image of the great kaboom, the the root of universal paranoia, but also a definitive message from Aldrich to the the noir crime drama as we knew it: this is the end. And while the discussion may seem some to a certain extent expired, I will argue that Aldrich in Kiss Me Deadly is up to something a bit subtler, more subversive. Through a close reading of certain scenes and a re-occurring string off unusual depictions of violence, I hope to demonstrate that Aldrich is not only playing with the genre and commenting on the American socio-political landscape, but subverting images of traditional masculinity as well.

The purpose of this essay is to tether the critical conversation from a focus which has been predominately historical to a discussion of the filmic elements and stylistic choices made my Aldrich in the work itself. The intended result of this synthesis of perspectives would open the critical discussion to a variety of fields of study—in this case gender studies—as well as reveal something about the nature of paranoia in the time of the Cold War.