The film Hitch Hiker starts off by showing a man that is
the hitchhiker killer. He has been killing people who pick him up off the road.
He is on a journey to escape the country. It shows all the newspaper headlines
and all of them are about the killer. It asks if anyone has information about
him. Then the movie switches to two friends, Collins and Bowen. They are headed
to California for a weekend with just them two. They told their families that
they are going fishing and that they weren’t sure what they were going to get
themselves into. One of the things that they hadn’t planned on their trip was
picking up a hitchhiker. As soon as the hitchhiker gets in the car, he pulls a
gun on them and forces them to drive across the border.
The hitchhiker
controls Collins and Bowen’s every move and watches them night and day. They
start messing around with their car because they realize it’s not going to be
easy to escape this guy, so they’re trying to slow down the whole process. The
car officially breaks down and then the hitchhiker forces them to walk across
the desert with him. Luckily for Collins and Bowen, the hitchhiker is caught
while trying to escape the boat. He is arrested in Mexico and Collins and Bowen
are free from him. The movie fades out on the two walking away from the
situation.
Film Noir is
dark and shadowy and usually there isn’t a happy ending, but luckily in this
film there was. Collins and Bowen leave alive and the hitchhiker gets caught. I’m
glad that this movie had a good ending because usually we are left with someone
dead. I was happy to see the hitchhiker caught and that Collins and Bowen made
it out alive, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen while watching the
film. The happy ending makes this film
noir different from the others because usually there isn’t a happy ending in the
films.
I think its good that you pointed out this film has a happy ending. Most film noir movies are dark and gloomy throughout and in Double Indemnity, Walter dies which is pretty depressing. The Hitch Hiker is different because justice comes at the end and gives the movie a happy ending!
ReplyDeleteI really like your comment about the movie and you mentioned something, I completely forgot: The happy ending! It is true, normally a film noir ends in a tragedy, but fortunately "The Hitch Hiker" ends with two rescued men and the killer going to jail. I think this "untypical" ending refers to the fact that the film is based on a true story.
ReplyDeleteI think the ending of the movie was perfect! It was what some would consider a happy ending, but it also left some things up to the viewer's imagination. After all, the men were heading South, defying their wives, so what happens to them after they survive I suppose is up to us.
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