In the Favorite Opening Shots discussion thread, my friend Jimmy, who runs the academic technology blog Bava Tuesdays, suggested a new topic of discussion:

Great choices, Jimmy.

Now, when I think of film thugs, my mind turns immediately to film noir, and to the hulking mercenaries who populate the long shadows of that genre. Typically, we first see thugs as they flank the villain of the film, contributing a general air of malice. Thugs are usually character actors, guys with rumpled faces who have been around the block once too many times. A good thug performance depends not, as one might assume, upon the thug’s ability to deliver a beating, but rather upon the thug’s ability to convey the threat of that violence long before it occurs. A thug should be able to strike fear into the heart through a narrowed eye or a clenched fist.

In the world of noir, there is often a very thin line between the good guys and the bad guys. Some film thugs, like those in Miller’s Crossing, convey a sense a sympathetic indentification with the protagonist moments before beating him. The hero won’t be spared — a job, after all, is a job — but perhaps the thug will make an effort not to leave permenant marks.

Here, anyway, are a few of my picks. I’m looking forward to seeing yours.

1. The Set-Up

When over-the-hill boxer Stoker Thompson decides to salvage what’s left of his dignity by refusing to throw his last fight, he knows what’s coming his way. And so does everyone else: after the fight, the communal dressing room, which had been filled with life throughout the film, is suddenly deserted. No one else wants any part of the trouble Thompson has coming to him. He slinks down the hallway, and peers out onto the street from the door; this is what he sees:

That’s “Little Boy” (Alan Baxter) in the center surrounded by his thugs. Little Boy leans against the post, relaxed and resting easy. He knows that with his thugs around him, Thompson has little chance of escape. The thugs themselves don’t look particularly dangerous, but their lackadaisical attitude is exactly what’s scary about them. They could be hitting you in the face or picking at their gums with a toothpick; it’s all the same to them.

And this is how Thompson reacts upon seeing this group:

If you happen to be a film thug, that’s exactly the look of fear you hope to inspire.

In a sense, this is a bad pick — I’m not even singling out a particular thug from the pack. But I would argue that this moment, in which Thompson sees the thugs who are about to attack him, is what film thuggery is all about.

2. Chinatown

When Jake Gittes starts asking too many questions, he runs into this pair of thugs:

The dandy on the right is, of course, Roman Polanski, the director of the film. Gittes, knowing that he’s going to get roughed up no matter what he does, gets in a dig: “Hello, Claude. Where’d you get the midget?”

What follows is one of the most famous acts of violence in film history. Claude delivers a punch to the gut as Polanski pulls out a switchblade and applies it to Gittes’ face:

Talk about a meta moment. In a movie that revisits and revises the noir canon thirty years after its heyday, the director of the film enters the picture and delivers a brutal blow to the hero — suggesting, in an instant, that the virtuous heroes of yesterday’s world are bound to be disfigured in the dirty universe of seventies cinema. After this moment, Gittes is no longer the dapper, sardonic private eye; the hulking bandage on his nose reminds us, through the rest of the film, of the stakes in the game he’s playing.

We think of private detectives as people who sniff out danger and deception. But the disfigurement of Gittes in the middle of the film not only makes palpable the danger he faces; it also renders him grotesque and implicates him in the dark world through which he moves. He’s damaged goods, but perhaps he has to be damaged to get where he wants to go. Cut down to size by the ostensible “author” of the film, Gittes suffers only the first of many wounds that are unlikely to heal.

I have other film thugs in mind, but I hope that’s enough to get the ball rolling. Thanks very much to Jim for suggesting this topic; I’m going to make these movie questions a regular part of the blog. If you have ideas for future threads, please let me know. And if you want to include a screenshot in your comments on this thread, please send it along, and I’ll add it for you.

And, by the way: Jim Emerson has posted a bunch of favorite opening shots on Scanners, including choices by Leonard Maltin and Kim Morgan. Check them out, and also take a look at this short lexicon.

Update: Thanks to Lance Mannion for linking to this post. Robert Farley of Lawyers, Guns and Money has posted a group of very strong picks. Take a look at them, and at the contributions from LGM’s astute commenters.

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