The Last Seduction - Scene Analysis

Using the final scenes from The Last Seduction (1994) detail how through macro and micro elements how this is both typical and untypical of the genre. 

The film holds the typical character narrative with the 'Fall Guy' (Mike) and the femme fatale (Bridget) both being the main protagonists of the film. However, this film is slightly different in it's narrative as the main protagonist of The Last Seduction is Bridget, the Villain. As the Hays Production Code was abolished in 1967, this film has deliberately tried to make the audience appeal to the villain, despite the factor that there is no redeeming featuring about her - a character structure that would never of been shown in 1940's Film Noir. The empowered woman and the innocent man is very typical of Film Noir. In this particular scene, the dominance of Bridget is clear when she over-towers Clay and how every shot looks up at Bridget to make her appear more powerful. This is different to Double Indemnity as the dominance of the femme fatale, Phyllis, is far more subtle. Phyllis never kills her husband, she tricks Walter into doing it, and despite the control Phyllis has on him, Walter still devised the entire plan to kill Mr Dietrichson. In The Last Seduction, Mike has completely fallen into the spider woman's trap and is actually framed for the murder as Bridget is the one who kills Clay.

A big difference seen between The Last Seduction and Double Indemnity is the fact you actually see the killing in this scene and also in the final scene when you see the killer get away with it and the fall guy is left in prison. A narrative like that would never have passed the Hays Code when it was in use. The explicit nature of the dialogue is particular apparent in Last Seduction whereas in Double Indemnity, far more subtle and suggestive language had to of been used. Therefore, the nature of the writing and explicit nature of the film, it doesn't fit into the typical subtle writing of film noir, as there was no hays code to restrict what could and couldn't be shown.

Location is fairly typical of film noir as it's set in Beston and also New York. By using Beston it shows that even humble small town America can have a dark and twisted underbelly and by using New York, it follows the typical urban and mean-street idea of Film Noir. In Double Indemnity, the location is the sunny streets of LA, similarly to Beston, showing how even the happiest of places have a dark side.