Our scene starts with our detective and protagonist Mike Hammer knocking on Lilly’s carvers door. The camera pans and we see she is holding a gun, before shortly telling mike to come in. He does so and introduces himself when asked. His demeanor is cool, calm, and collected, but not without meaning. The world of Mike Hammer and the noir is one “devoid of any meaning but the one man creates for himself” (Porfirio 81).
As our story unfolds the truths that our protagonist Mike Hammer holds true quickly fade away in a world dissolve of black-and-white moral contingency. The world of noir is one of murky moral conviction that holds little value. At this point in the film, Mike has already been stripped of his investigator and handgun license placing him “in a world where there are no transcendental values or moral absolutes” (Porfirio 81). In many ways, this puts Mike in a position where he can no longer be the good guy even if he wanted to be, and this is a theme we frequently see in noir protagonists. Mike Hammer already knows he is somewhere he shouldn’t be at 34:20 when he sits down on the bed, his calm nature is because he knows her having the gun is justified. In many ways, Mike shouldn’t be there at all no longer having a license to investigate crimes. In this same way, we see his calm nature aid in providing the theme of existentialism because he simply is not afraid. Mike’s not being afraid shows he puts little value on his life, already almost dying, and being so aloof in a dangerous situation portrays him as a character who thinks he has infinite chances with each mattering little. In a positive context as Porfirio would say this gives him a sort of freedom and in contrast, provides a sense of meaningless to his life (p 81).
As the scene continues Mike asks Lilly a few questions all of her answers being more nauseating than the next, first quickly mentioning the death of the bird then onto the mysterious disappearance of her friend and roommate. at 35:25 lily mentions the police starting to come around. Normally this would incline one to feel safer, but not in the world of the noir. She looks down in despair shortly. One of the major themes we’ve seen thus far is mikes operation in a morally gray world, and lily’s description of her friends falling to society’s clutches which are normally deemed morally good reinforces this.
Overall our Kiss Me Deadly does an amazing job of portraying the themes of existentialism and the scene discussed shows it even better, with mikes aloof attitude in the face of danger and his operation in a morally grey area combined with lily’s description of how her friend was taken away from her wrongfully in a perfectly legal way. All of these things combine to paint a beautiful picture of the existential world this noir takes place in.
