Crossfire, written by John Paxton, based on the novel by Richard Brooks - 10 out of 10

Crossfire, written by John Paxton, based on the novel by Richard Brooks

10 out of 10

Crossfire is a magnificent , exalting, admirable motion picture, included on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/5 - for being in so many ways the perfect feature, with an alert pace, from the opening scenes, which set audiences on the edge of the seats, for a man is killed in the first few seconds and the quest for the killer proves to be an intriguing, psychological, intelligent narrative.

Samuels is the man that had just been murdered, when the police arrive on the scene and the man leading the investigation, captain Finlay aka formidable Robert Young, will have to be diligent, intuitive, industrious, emotionally intelligent – EQ appears to be more important than IQ – and perhaps to an important degree…negative – positive psychology studies have demonstrated that in most professions, the positive mind works miracles, obtaining beside a longer, healthier, more successful private life, a much more efficient professional life as well.

Nonetheless, there are some domains where a ‘negative mindset’ looks like it is not just the ordinary condition – in one of the lectures, if my memory does not fail, it must have been at Harvard, professor Tal Ben-Shahar, there is the case of the financial analyst who presents to the spouse the chart of her minor (I guess) failings, as a result of a ‘professional defect’ – but the condition sine qua non…

A detective needs to be negative, because while experiments demonstrate that the positive individuals have a better ‘wide picture’, when it comes down to details, the negative participants in studies see better than the others and thus, along with the cops, people in traffic controlling positions, analysts and lawyers have to be negative…the lawyers have the highest rates of suicide, depression and divorce in America…at least they used to have a couple of years ago.

Montgomery aka flawless Robert Ryan is the demobilized soldier that knocks at the door where the police try to establish the first facts connected with the death of Joseph Samuels, and he says he might have the wrong door, when Captain Finlay opens and then tries to find out more from what might be the first witness, or the first man who might have some clues as to what happened, if not during the killing, at least some time before that…

Montgomery has a version in which he has had some drinks at a bar, with Mitchell aka splendid George Cooper, Floyd and some others, when they met with the deceased, evidently a civilian the soldier would say with some (High?) degree of contempt – he also adds, you know them when you see them Captain or words to that effect.

This witness would have most of this ‘testimony’ later, when meeting with the captain at his office, explaining further that they went to have some drinks, join a ‘party’ at the house of Samuels, where he had spent some time, before leaving with and Mitchell was left behind, the man who becomes the main suspect, especially given the fact that he is absent, unaccounted for and the murder took place recently and only a short time after Montgomery allegedly left.

Keeley aka legendary Robert Mitchum – the star of many films, including Cape Fear http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/note-on-cape-fear-with-robert-de-niro.html - enters the frame and he would prove to be essential in solving the case, first defending the main and for some time apparently the only suspect, Mitchell, even organizing a team to help him find refuge, at least until his name is cleared, he would have had a chance to see and talk to his visiting wife, though the task proves difficult, almost impossible, given the fact that first the man does not remember what he has done after he had been intoxicated, but gradually he sees that he met with a ‘loose woman’, went to her apartment, where he met a very bizarre man.

The latter says he is the husband of Ginny, then he denies it, saying he has lied and he actually wants to marry her, only to refute that too, for who would like to be her spouse…however, this outré personage might prove to be if not crucial, at least a piece of the puzzle in solving the case, which could become very heavy against Mitchell, when his presumably only defense witness, Ginny, denies the facts he had laid out…

The zenith of the investigation is reached beyond the witnesses, timing, when Captain Finlay explains a brilliant analysis of the motive that must have driven the killer to murder a man he had not actually known, since it is clear that one of those involved is guilty and they had only met Samuels a very short while before and the detective reaches the conclusion that it must have been Hate, racism which cause the ghastly crime…

Indeed, Joseph Samuels was Jewish and thus the target of a maniac who hates his community and the captain makes the case by telling the story of his grandfather, who came to America from Ireland, after the devastating famine brought about by a potato crop failure on a massive scale, and at one time found that the crazy mobs were attacking Irish people as ‘papists, Catholics that are spies for the pope and other such crazy, vicious, hateful abuses’, and the grandfather was killed…

Captain Finlay masterly would then present what happens in the future, when any group could be abused, tortured and its members killed in huge numbers – in today’s America, Trump is the exponent and leader of fundamentalists that do not care about values anymore, his acquittal and later ranting, sacking of witnesses proves the level of injustice reached there…