Review of The Big Heat (1953) by Laura H — 15 Jul 2009

There is one thing I noticed after I saw the film, it about the issue or the idea which conveyed by the director and the plot. I donâ??t know if this movie is talking about the violence against women and the hot-blooded cop.

The four main female characters are all dead because of the leading male character, Bannion. Bannion directly or indirectly leads to the death of four women in the film. The first woman is Lucy who was dead because Bannion is so stupid to distrust her and told Bertha about her.

That can impute to Bannionâ??s mistake. The second woman was Mrs. Bannion whose death also leads to the revenge as the main plot in the film. Her death was directly cause by Mr. Bannion, he was the one who originally should die.

The third woman is the widow, Bertha. She was killed by the other woman, Debby, who has something between her and Bannion. That was, the last dead woman is Debby, the leading female character. She kind of fall in love with Bannion in the film, it was not Bannion that makes her disfigured by her husband and then also be killed by him.

If she didnâ??t have the relationship with Bannion, she wouldnâ??t die. Besides, I found out that Bertha and Debby wore the same fur in the scene they meet. I am a little curious about that, I wonder about what the message is in this scene.

Maybe it wanted to present that these two women are in the same boat or same poor situation. I saw the poster in the mail and that was the picture which Debby kneels down in front of Bannion. I consider it as that Debby was totally under Bannion sexual power in this symbolic picture.

Professor always told as the gun as the sexual symbol, and in this picture, Bannion also has a gun in his hand; furthermore the position of these two is really symbolic, I guess so.