It seems that everyone has just gotten too smart. If you follow current events or spend too much time online, you’ll staunchly disagree, but in movies, characters across all genres find a way to maneuver themselves out of every tricky situation and unlock a solution to the most convoluted schemes imaginable. We see this in the omnipresent superhero genre, or any tentpole blockbuster for that matter, but where this trend of uber-ingenious characters has the most consequences is in the crime genre. From the dawn of crime fiction, from pulp novels to films by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen and Quentin Tarantino, criminal acts emerged out of impulsive, selfish thinking or just sheer idiocy. Most importantly, these films, notably Fargo and Pulp Fiction, emphasized that these were bumbling buffoons and not criminal masterminds.
Classic Crime Movies Were Simple Stories With Grounded Characters
Mounting an argument stating that “everyone has gotten too smart in crime movies,” is a tough one to solidify from afar, but looking closely at recent films in the broad genre, you’ll sense a pattern. We have too few criminals played by Steve Buscemi who can barely hold on to a stash of cash. Instead, they’ve been replaced by glossy movie stars playing sterile characters who remain unflappable, no matter the circumstances. The title of Jason Statham‘s latest revenge saga indicates that its universe exists in a blue-collar milieu, but the film, A Working Man, includes a cast of criminals that are more or less super-computers of evil. Antagonists in crime thrillers like Carry-On and Drop, who are primarily off-screen, are so invincible throughout the runtime that when they are toppled, it becomes implausible. Furthermore, in a post-John Wick universe, every character was once a decorated super-soldier with specialties in espionage and combat, as seen with most Statham movies and Rebel Ridge.
Going back to film noir, our most fearsome criminals were portly middle-aged men smoking a pipe and looking to obtain a lump sum of cash, not hacking into confidential government secrets or kickstarting a global meltdown. In The Maltese Falcon, the book and subsequent film adaptation that implicitly influenced all future hard-boiled crime stories, the MacGuffin is a mini statue of a bird. The streamlined nature of the plot mechanics also underlines the general ineptitude of your average criminal or wannabe gangster. Many of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most iconic films feature high concepts with clearly defined tasks, but the anti-heroes in Rope and Strangers on a Train are just too in over their heads to get away cleanly.
The Ineptitude of the Average Criminal in Film Noir and ‘Pulp Fiction’
Even if they’re not categorically “dumb,” criminals of the past used to be explicitly driven by impulsive emotions. The plot of Double Indemnity revolves around a desperate attempt at insurance fraud, which ends with cataclysmic results. Murderous events transpire in Otto Preminger‘s noir, Laura, due to male obsession and paranoia over a presumed deceased woman. Perhaps it’s a sign of weaker writing, but too many modern crime-adjacent films sand off the rough edges of criminals by ignoring the warped emotional complexes of these characters, where their machinations become more important than their motivations. The interiority of the criminal underworld offers a wealth of fascinating insight into our most vulnerable insecurities.
The lowly thief/contract killer was a staple of the ’90s, popularized by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) are as cheap as they come, and they can’t even complete a simple assassination without leaving a bloody mess in the car after Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin (Phil LaMarr) because Jules drove into a bump in the road. As much as Tarantino’s aesthetic was celebrated as “cool” among a new generation of viewers, his characters lack any gracefulness to their profession. Vincent’s inopportune restroom breaks throughout the film emphasize the hapless nature of this gangland underworld.
Stupid elements in a Michael Bay movie are a given, but his film, Pain & Gain, is a Coens-esque crime comedy featuring steroid-induced bodybuilders whose strapping physiques fail to sharpen their chops as criminals. With so many modern films setting unreasonably high expectations for male body standards, the film has retroactively become a biting critique of fitness culture and “gym bros.”
The Coen Brothers Mastered the Art of Dumb Criminals in ‘Fargo’ and ‘Burn After Reading’
For a proper blueprint to the perfect bumbling criminal, look no further than the filmography of the Coen Brothers. Masters of the “crime gone wrong” subgenre, no scheme ever goes off without a hitch in one of their grim crime dramas that moonlight as absurdist black comedies. On the outside, Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Peter Storemare) in Fargo are the heavies to call when you have a high-risk job to pull off, but their imposing nature is subverted by their odd-couple dynamic, with Carl being garrulous and Gaear being as stiff as wood.
The brilliance behind the Coen Brothers as our seminal visionaries of the modern crime movie is through their civilian characters who look to solve their problems or score some quick cash by stepping into dangerous territory. Out of embarrassment, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) from Fargo can’t ask his father-in-law for a loan, so he tries to get funded through the ransom money. The Coens smartly never pretend that this plan has any hope, as even the execution of the initial step, the kidnapping, is anything but smooth sailing.
Burn After Reading, the Coens’ black comedy about leaked government secrets and adultery, features a stock company of world-class bozos, notably Brad Pitt‘s turn as a personal trainer, Chad Feldheimer, who, along with his co-worker Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) try to return a CD with confidential information to a CIA analyst for a reward. In most movies, Llewyn Moss (Josh Brolin) would be the strong neo-noir/Western protagonist, but in No Country For Old Men, he pays fatal consequences for stealing a case of drug money.
With their films being inspired by classic film noir and pulp novels, the Coen Brothers understand the innate idiocy and short-sightedness of crime, from the people who commit crimes to the motivations behind them. Movies have always faced criticism for glamorizing our most unscrupulous figures, both real and fictional, but films with certifiably dumb criminals reject any semblance of nobility. After all, who would want to fancy themselves as Vincent from Pulp Fiction or Jerry from Fargo? The overlying issue prevailing throughout modern crime movies is the surface-level approach to characterization, or lack thereof, as their skillfulness as outlaws makes them unrelatable, which is a problem when the story centers around them. You won’t like these characters, but you’ll understand their frustration upon making a bone-headed mistake.
- Release Date
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September 5, 2008
- Runtime
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96 minutes
- Director
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Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
- Writers
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Joel Coen, Ethan Coen