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Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

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filmed from the back) is also an important code – Diamond is standing completely still and<br />

rigid in the background and is looking into the distance, which signifies his reflective and<br />

deep nature. When they both meet up in the above fog-bound aeroplane hangar, the viewer<br />

finally ack<strong>no</strong>wledges that Susan Lowell is after all the real cause and source of their shared<br />

antipathy.<br />

Figure 116. Gun Crazy<br />

The ending of the film recalls that of Lewis’s Gun Crazy. Both lead characters of<br />

the film, Annie Laurie and Bart, end up in a marshy swamp filled with fog, as shown above<br />

in fig. 116. They have both become hunted fugitives and have planned one last substantial<br />

heist to finance their retirement from crime. However, they end up lost and shrouded in<br />

fog. This final atmospheric scene is a clear signifier of the insecurity and <strong>da</strong>nger that await<br />

them wherever they go. Just like the protagonists, viewers find their vision blurred and<br />

distorted, making it harder to identify anything or anyone. The shroud of thick fog that<br />

blankets them in the swamp anticipates the final show<strong>do</strong>wn: the camera focuses on their<br />

fearful faces as it tries to define their shapes through the mist. They both hear menacing<br />

footsteps and voices coming afar. Although through the fog, the camera picks out Annie<br />

but her features can<strong>no</strong>t help but be indistinct. Merged with the fog in this way, the images<br />

signify that she has lost her identity by the end of the film. In their last few moments of life<br />

388

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