The following post is written in response to prompt number 4: In your mind, are there any heroes in Double Indemnity? If so, who?
I'd like to start this post off the good ol' fashioned TOK way: with some definitions. For the purpose of this blog post we'll need to define the terms hero and superhero.
A hero, according to Merriam-Webster, is the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work, a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities, or one who shows great courage.
Wow, Merriam-Webster, how sexist can you be? Let's adjust that just a tad bit: A hero is the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work, a man or woman admired for his or her achievements and noble qualities, or one who shows great courage.
That's much better! Now a superhero, again defined by Merriam-Webster, is a fictional character who has amazing powers, or a very heroic person.
When discussing Double Indemnity, who can be considered a (super)hero? As Captain Hammer always says, "Everyone's a hero in their own way."
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| Captain Hammer. Corporate Tool. |
Now if you've ever seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, you'll understand that defining people as 100% hero or villain is a tricky task. Just as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde states, "even if [one] could rightly be said to be either, it [is] only because [one is] radically both."
The first Double Indemnity heroine I'd like to propose is Lola Dietrichson.
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| Her name was Lola. She was not a show girl. |
She fits the definition of a hero because she's courageous. She speaks the truth in the face of the tragic deaths of her mother and father and inspires Walter Neff to get in touch with his own inner hero, to get rid of the movie villain, Phyllis Dietrichson.
That brings us to our second hero: Walter Neff, a classic case of villain turned good.
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SHe's the main character of the movie and in the end, I did admire him. Sure, he was in on the evil scheme the whole time and commited a few murders. The first was out of nothing but evil. However, his second murder was made with good intentions. Sometimes you have to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.
It's all for Lola. He takes a bullet for the girl, literally and metaphorically. He kills her wicked step-mother and even wins her boyfriend back. In the end, he tells the truth in a mighty act of courage, taking the suspicion off of Lola's lover, Nino, so they can live happily ever after together. He even asks Keyes to watch out for her when the case gets crazy. He may have started off indulging his evil side, but redeems himself in the end by setting things right.
The last hero I'd like to point out is the Claims Manager and Walter's good friend, Barton Keyes.
Keyes isn't your average hero, though. He's a super hero. He's a heroic person, who utilizes his amazing power, in the name of all things righteous. Now, I know what you're thinking. How in the heck can this guy be considered a superhero? What power does he have? An amazing sense of intuition and an evil-detecting gut.
He's hardly the MOST useless superhero, and I consider him to be the most heroic character of the entire film. He can sense when clients are up to no good and with his super smarts, and a lot of cigars, always solves the mysteries.
He vouches for Walter's innocence and integrity, but doesn't let friendship get in the way of justice. In the final scene, when Walter rests, bloody in the doorway, Keyes calls him an ambulance, lights his cigarette, and, we can assume, remains with him until the police arrive. From there, Keyes most likely turned Walter and the cylinders of his testimony over to the police, let the truth spill out, and allowed justice to run its course. I bet he still took care of Lola, though, per Neff's final request.
Arguably, all the heroes named above could be spun and considered villainous. It really just depends in which light you look at them. An old Indian legend tells the tale of two wolves which live inside us all: one good, one evil. They're constantly battling for power. The one you feed is the one that wins.
Although there is a lot of gray area when discussing heroes and villains, I'd say Lola, Walter, and Keyes, all prevail as heroes in the end.
