Touch of Evil: A Classic Film Noir

When we first started watching Touch of Evil in class, I had a hard time comprehending the plot. But as the movie began to progress, I started to become more and more interested. Despite my confusion in the beginning, I was always impressed by the cinematography. The long tracking shot at the beginning of the movie as Susie and Vargas are crossing the border into the United States was simply awesome. Viewing this movie also helped me better understand the genre of film noir, in which the plot concerns "a morally ambiguous" character.  

In Touch of Evil, the American detective Quinlan  is the morally ambiguous character. The plot revolved around a bomb being placed in a couple's car on their way to the U.S-Mexican border. Mexican drug enforcement official, Michael "Vargas" teams up with Quinlan and his group of American detectives to solve the crime. But as the events begin to unfold, Vargas realizes that Quinlan may be framing people for crimes he supposedly "solved". Knowing that he is under Vargas' skeptical eye, Quinlan makes a deal with Grandi, the leader of a major narcotics ring, to kidnap Susie and inject her with drugs. Deviating from the plan, Quinlan, strangles Grandi and leaves him there, in an attempt to frame Susie for murder. Susie is accused of Grandi's murder, but the tides change when Menzies reveals that he found Quinlan's cane at the crime scene.

At the end of the movie, there is a major confrontation between Menzies, Quinlan, and Vargas. Quinlan admits to Menzies that he planted all of the evidence, but shoots Menzies after he realizes he is recording their conversation. Quinlan gets ready to shoot Vargas, but is suddenly shot by Menzies.

It ironic how Sanchez was indeed guilty of planting the bomb in the couple's car, making it unnecessary for Quinlan to have framed him in the first place.

 I thought the ending scene of the movie was particularly powerful as Tanya was speaking with District Attorney Adair near Quinlan's dead body and said, "He was some kind of  a man. What does it matter what you say about people?" It was interesting to me how Tanya had the last word in the movie even though she didn't have a significant role in the movie. It was almost as if she was summarizing the main message of this story, like a narrator would. Tanya neither condemned or praised Quinlan's character. I think Tanya's last words allude to this idea of Quinlan as an ambiguous character, someone who maybe had good intentions, but who acted nefariously. 

What defines us as human beings more: our intentions or our actions?