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

Figure 11. High Sierra
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) was another of W. R. Burnett’s novels to be adapted to
the screen. Directed by John Huston, this film noir is infused with a feeling that society is
generally hypocritical and just as corrupted as the individual human criminals that live in
it. This gritty film was one of the first to show a meticulous robbery and its final outcome
from the criminals’ point of view, making the attitudes shared by the small-time crooks
sound as if there is nothing criminal in what they do. In fact, the film seems to be more of a
character study at certain times than an action film, showing both the protagonists’
reliability and treachery in the violent world of criminality. Burnett ended up agreeing that
it was “without a doubt one of the best films of its genre” (Muller 1998:75). Regarding
Burnett’s adaptations into movies, Arthur Lyons also adds that:
All the movies are united thematically in that the universe of the protagonist, either
internal or external, is out of control. What differentiates The Asphalt Jungle, for
instance, a film noir about a group of gangsters planning and pulling off a
jewellery heist, from earlier gangster movies such as Little Caesar (1930) and The
Public Enemy (1931) is that it is a psychological study showing how flaws of
character combined with fate predetermine the failure and ultimately the
destruction of the participants in the heist. (Lyons 2000:9)
Personally, I would also add that what distinguishes this naturalistic noir film from
the other gangster films (to be analysed in detail in the next chapter) is the feeling of
background authenticity that is instilled in this production. In the scene pictured below (fig.
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