Crimes and Misdemeanors

 Crimes and Misdemeanors, the 1989 film directed by Woody Allen, is a heartbreaking, chilling and cynical look at a group of intersecting individuals within New York City. The film follows Judah Rosenthal an ophthalmologist who is torn after murdering his mistress Dolores Paley, and Cliff Stern, a documentary film maker trapped in a loveless marriage. Stern pines after Halley Reed, a producer, while sabotaging a documentary based on the successful T.V producer Lester who also happens to be his brother-in-law. The film manages to pervert and contradict the messages within the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. These messages include the central existentialist point of bad faith and contextualizing it in a rapidly progressing capitalist and materialistic America lead by Ronald Reagan. This essay will look at bad faith exhibited through the characters of Judah Rosenthal, Dolores Paley, and Cliff Stern. The bad faith riddled throughout this film heavily pertains towards bad judgement and non-traditional moral ethics. Additionally, we will explore how bad faith is presented through Judah's persistent sense of guilt and his conversations with a Rabbi who is a patient that is going blind and fictional bantering with his deceased family . Cliff's bad faith musings comes through his younger niece, and the Professor Louis Levy a brilliant philosopher who is the subject of his documentary. Crimes and Misdemeanors subjects the audience to Woody Allen's view of bad faith, that God is a moral burden we put on ourselves. While Crime and Punishment echoes the central theme that moral salvation and redemption could be found within God, Crimes and Misdemeanors approaches the theme from the opposite direction. Moral integrity and faith no longer can come from the message of God but rather material wealth, social status, and brevity. The individuals who pursue their own selfish actions and dismiss a religious rhetoric or a traditional moral philosophical view of life prosper. But those who cling on fate and religious beliefs are blinded or left wearing glasses, unaware and unable to see this rapidly changing world.

Cliff Stern's bad faith is two separate actions that ultimately fold together in the final scene. While he acts in bad faith by actively pursuing a woman while not ending or discussing his crumbling marriage. He additionally acts out in bad faith by sabotaging and parodying Lester’s documentary by lampooning him, making Lester out to be arrogant, lecherous, and smug. While he could use the funds of this to finish his passion project on Professor Levy he rather continuously acts in Bad Faith ultimately baiting Lester to fire him. In the end not only has bad faith led him to a divorce, his nemesis getting the girl, and never getting to finish his documentary he is seemingly unaware of any lessons to be found of it. He appropriates blame on the individuals around him rather questioning and expanding his own character. “What is the guy so upset about? You think the guy was never compared to Mussolini before.” (1:25:00). By sabotaging the documentary and putting a subjective tint on Lester he has taken on the role of the "Eyes of God" mentioned in the film,  in his arrogant belief he has assumed himself to be infallible. He tries to make Lester in his own subjective image of what he perceives him to be. He acts in bad faith while doing this, he like every other character that is morally blinded behind spectacles he is also blinded by the camera lens. Cliff is the character most imbued with the idea of understanding man and their actions but he ultimately is the most clueless one. He is unaware of the transgressions of Halley and Lester, not believing it till finally sees it with his own eyes. The eyes of God which he arrogantly co-opted to mean himself finally reveal the truth behind this maddening and nihilistic scenario. Earlier in the film his sister recants a tale of a man defecating on her tied up against her own will. This is also an example of bad faith put upon her as it goes against her own moral comfort. Although not only is Woody Allen is as a humorous but morbid story but that life sometimes take defecates on you. In a larger scale Woody Allen is insinuating that assuming a role of helpless in fate and destiny is allowing ourselves to be guided and controlled by exterior forces; we are allowing ourselves to be shat upon. This to Woody Allen is the ultimate form of bad faith. Examples in Crimes and Misdemeanors include the rabbi going blind, to Cliff abiding to the philosophy extolled by the Professor, and believing that Halley will make the right choice. The individual must be the one who takes action and assume control to gain superiority. This ultimately is the path Halley, Lester, and Judah have followed and they ultimately prevail. Cliff’s romanticism is brought to a full understanding in the end when he tries to suggest a better ending for Judith’s confession which was pitched as a story. He asserts more of a cinematic ending with graver and melodramatic proportions. However, Judah warns him, “But that’s fiction that’s movies, I mean you have seen too many movies. I am talking about reality I mean if you want a happy ending you should go see a Hollywood movie.” (1:38:51). This is a clear jab at Cliff’s repeated instances of watching films, at times to get closer to Halley. Additionally, after specific dramatic scenes ends, the next scenes are from films that Cliff is watching, that tie together thematically and with the narrative. After the murder of Dolores a woman is singing in a film, the words “murder” is repeated many times. Woody Allen is asserting that thinking a Hollywood ending or moments is tangible or waiting in the brushes is acting in completely in bad faith. Cliff thinking his romantic pursuits in the style of Hollywood (love letters, romantic dates) would woo Halley, however this is an egregious error, and she chooses Lester and her career. A Crumbling marriage, dead-end career, and a woman who spurs him, ignoring all of this is acting in bad faith. Hence why he says “This is my worst fear realized” (1:32:40). The fear is not only the rejection by Halley but the philosophical and thematic lessons he learnt from Hollywood. So in the end when Judah the individual we think is the most morally corrupt gives the most ironically poignant advice, which comes in the form of a perverted Hollywood lesson.

Judah’s introduction in Crimes and Misdemeanors is an integral thematic and character point that is expanded upon further in the film. By showing him first talking on a podium, we have foreshadowed the role he has assumed in life. His development throughout the film makes him realize that he can play God standing above others, for he can be his own God and so he murders to maintain personal success and prosperity. A character before him on the same podium recants to the audience the many humanitarian efforts and achievements Judah has reached in his life. The film makes this a justifying reason later in the film for his murder of Dolores Paley. Later we see Judah standing at the podium quoting his father “The eyes of God are on us always” (0:05:03). This not only is an introduction to his theological and moral dilemma but rather a statement on the bad faith he engages in by murdering Dolores. This adulterous relationship is the first instance of bad faith for him, not only is he jeopardizing his family and current lifestyle but his professional career. As Dolores states she is aware of an embezzling scheme that Judah is a part of, so after much internal deliberation he decides to murder her. Although this murder ties in with his personal philosophical mantra as Ben the rabbi stipulates, “This is a fundamental difference in how we view the world you see it as harsh and empty of values...” (0:17:21). Even though Judah is skeptical, a man of reason who views the world as harsh the murder starts devour him. He becomes tense and hostile towards his family an outburst at dinner, he contemplates giving himself up, visiting the crime scene; a man dedicated to giving sight to others is starting to lose his. Judah much like his counterpart Raskolnikov finds their nihilist and valueless society being upended, both realizing ethics and morality is not firmly situated in religious reason but in all man as well. Ultimately Judah’s guilt becomes too much and so he decides visits his childhood home for some moral understanding and guidance. He reminisces about a family dinner where his aunt May extols atheistic creed. While Professor Levy finds an optimistic message and the positive spirit of man after world war two, Aunt Mays philosophy takes the opposite direction. In her words “For those want morality there’s morality, nothings handed down in stone”, (1:11:06). Judah’s father counteracts with, “If necessary I will always pick God over truth.” (1:13:28). Judah is armed with two options from two radically different points of view. His decision at the end is not reached in an onscreen climatic realization of himself like Raskilnikov but a moment of clarity that captures him off screen. “And then one morning he awakens and the sun are shining and his family is around him and mysteriously the crisis is lifted. Take his family to a vacation to Europe and as the months pass he finds he is not punished and he in facts prosper.” (1:36:57). this specific quote asserts the notion that there is an absence of a deity in Woody Allen’s eye, those in who fact confront their own moral dilemma without a religious eye face it with the most truth. Additionally that a Hollywood climatic realization isn’t the most truthful element of humanity but rather a determent, the only thing closest to a creator within the universe of Crimes and Misdemeanors is Woody Allen and he has let his judgment cast out.

Dolores Paley's bad faith becomes a cautionary tale within the film. Her death encompasses the crime labeled in the title. Against her better judgment and acting in bad faith she allowed her free will to be squashed and denied as she pursued the passionate relationship with Judah. Unlike the successful characters within the film she allowed herself not to be self-actualized and denied living a full life, “I gave up things for you, business opportunities! And there were other men who wanted me” (0:05:17). She found meaning, purpose, and understanding through a secondary source like other hapless individuals in the film. Unlike the religious who relied on God, Professor Levy whose foundation lay on the individuals around him, her life encompassed Judah. By letting him consume her life in its entirety, (both literally and metaphorically) she acts completely in bad faith. Woody Allen stresses to the audience the individual should not rely on others, or a religious moral compass but rather your own entity. The only supportive and understanding character is Cliff's niece who’s still too young to be malleable and turned by the temptations of God, consumerism, love, and selfish pursuit which become the downfall of some of the individuals within this film.

The Bad Faith found within Crimes and Misdemeanors uses the visual motif of eyeglasses to represent the blind and the seers. The individuals preaching and following the custom of an omnipotent deity in God are always wearing spectacles from the Rabbi who is slowly going blind, Judah’s father, and his Rabbi when he was younger. The extension of bifocals is not only burden by a religious capacity but rather expanded to the moral philosophy found in Cliff's subplot, as Professor Levy don's them. These individuals are shrouded behind a view they assume sharpens and clears their moral outlook on life and assume superiority as long as they do the right thing curtailing to God. In contrast the individuals who eschew a Godless identity, put claim in individual achievements, success, materialism, and monetary gain are sans spectacles. Individuals like Judah's brother Jack, Lester, the Aunt and the Uncle at the table who see the Godless nihilist society that we encompass. These individuals act in the proper faith both finding meaning and success in particular Lester and Jack without the support of God. This bad faith is transplanted, while the religious literally go blind (Ben the Rabbi), under the guise of what they believe is right, the glass-less see the world for what is, a harsh truth that is inescapable and are better to cope with it. The people divided in the film co-opt this visual metaphor as they duel their own conscious as they grapple with what is morally right. For example depending on the scene Judah wears glasses or not. The moral times where he is unable to cope with Dolores death or pondering he wears glasses, and when he divulges to the Rabbi. He allows a moral lense to filter his actions, as the dichotomy of "good and evil" war after each other. At the wedding in the final scenes he has finally shed off this perception of moral right and accepted a glassless fate like Lester, Jack, his aunt and uncle. This duality isn't the only representation of bad fate within Judah but rather found in Halley Reed as well. She continuously wears glasses throughout the film, large ones that obstruct her features. Halley assumes that she has assimilated a proper outlook, a morally good one that mollifies her demands in life. However, marrying Lester to further her own career goals we finally see her without spectacles.  Halley has tossed these glasses aside and joined the ranks of the individuals like Lester and Judah who find morals, identity, and purpose outside of a Godless society; her career. Clifford clings on to the teachings of Professor Levy in the end, his face covered with these lenses unaware that they are ironically blinding him and not allowing him to see the world for what it is. As the beginning of the film tells us the eyes of God are watching, by saying these eyes are literally of God, some characters have acted in bad faith. Unbeknownst to them the pious have been led astray and misappropriated the message. Woody Allen is not recruiting the idea of the Abrahamic deity that we know of but rather our own moral compass, we are own God and our own center of moral righteousness and meaning. For the individuals who have not grasped these concept they remain hazy or go blind, continuously acting in bad faith.

  

The existentialist and philosophical themes within Crimes and Misdemeanors are literally stated in the final scene, a voice over by Professor Levy encapsulating the events that occurred. The films message of finding or own moral purpose is solidified, “But we define ourselves by the choices we have made, we are in fact the sum total of our choices.”(1:40:03). However by taking this message literally and hoping it has taught us a Hollywood lesson is too simplistic. For by taking this message we have not enabled free will and made our own choice but one dictated to us by the film, thus making a contradictory statement against the themes the film presented. Woody Allen presented himself as Cliff the documentary film maker is not only questioning the bad faith and religious crisis of Judah, but of himself. Woody Allen is coming to copes with being a Jewish child in the aftermath of the holocaust, unfurling the events as a documentary film maker. Woody Allen in reality is so offended by the actions of the Nazis he unlike Professor Levy who professes a positive life message and survived the holocaust cannot cope with an idea of God and is horrible shaken by the war. So he decides not to act in bad faith by actively believing in a religion he denies. So Levy’s death not only is the demise of a character within a film but an entire view point of Woody Allen’s. He can no longer cope with the philosophical good or moral right in life thus Crimes and Misdemeanors has become an admission of this belief. By contextualizing it as reality and changing his profession from a fiction film maker to a documentary film maker he is adding an objective lens. It is a way to perceive the changing societal elements that are unfurling in his generation, not only the holocaust but the impending collapse of the U.S.S.R. With these collapses cause the further schism towards a more secular and skeptical individual. One not acting on bad faith by learning of the previous generation’s tragedies and misdeeds. Cliff like the people before him made the unfortunate decision to document things outside of his own life (Lester), thus he becomes blind. In the end this film explores the theme bad faith through the protagonist Judah and supporting characters (Lester, Halley, Cliff) and that trying to find a moral justification and fate outside our selves we are dooming ourselves to be blind. We must be aware of our faults and desires and act upon them, to serve our best interest and in the end tear away the shackles of bad faith and not find moral absolution outside of ourselves.