Force of Evil
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Abraham Polonsky came to prominence with the box-office success of Body and Soul in 1947, and made his directorial debut a year later with Force of Evil. Acclaimed as a masterpiece of postwar American noir, the film critiques the capitalist ethos turned hard-boiled. Polonsky's unflinching portrait of two brothers caught in a downward spiral of corruption suggests comparison to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Its eloquent prose, that some have likened to blank verse, drips with cynicism. John Garfield adds a virile edge as Joe Morse, the mob lawyer who tries to save his small-time bookie brother from financial ruin in a numbers racket takeover. As the film plunges deeper into an amoral abyss, the congested New York City of its opening frames gives way to a bleak landscape reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting. Finally, the abyss swallows Garfield "down, down, down... to the bottom of the world."
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Joe Morse: Wouldn't you like to celebrate on a really large scale, Miss Lowry? |
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Force of Evil was added to the National Film Registry in 1994.
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