The crime fiction of Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson (1906-77) was a very innovative writer whose life and career took him from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma all the way to Hollywood. Mostly known for his crime fiction, Thompson was not well particularly well regarded during his own lifetime, but he has received a great deal of critical appreciation since his death in 1977. Writers such as Ed Brubaker and James Ellroy have acknowledged his influence, and the movie industry continues to mine his work for screen ideas.

Before he turned to fiction, Thompson had a very versatile career as a newspaper writer and true crime author. This experience gave him a lot of insight into the criminal mind, and he had the ability (and the courage) to really get into the head of psychopathic killers. He was ahead of his time in this respect.

His best known work is probably The Killer Inside Me (1952). The narrator, Lou Ford, is a small-town sheriff who appears to be slightly dull-minded. Yet, in reality Sheriff Ford is very intelligent and experiences a nearly-constant urge to act violently; Ford describes his urge as the sickness (always italicised). Ford is a stereotypical serial killer, created by Thompson before that term even existed.

Other key works include The Getaway, which was adapted for the 1970 movie starring Steve McQueen and directed by Sam Peckinpah. Thompson wrote a script based on his novel, but McQueen rejected it as too reliant on dialogue with not enough action. The script was rewritten, and Thompson eventually sought, but lost, a Writers Guild arbitration to get script credit for the film. There is no question that the original story was greatly altered, but there is also no question that the original book would have been difficult or impossible to film.

Also noteworthy is The Grifters (1963). The narrator is Roy Dillon, master of the "short con", who has a romantic entanglement with another expert grifter, Moira Langtry, who sells sexual favors to her landlord in return for the rent money. Roy's mother, also a grifter, is in the picture as well. Together, the three characters get caught up in a crime spree which culminates in betrayal, infamy and murder. The Grifters was made into a movie in 1990, and this time there were very few changes to Thompson's original story.

Thompson's stories are usually first-person narratives which reveal a nihilistic world-view and a frighteningly deep understanding of the warped criminal mind. There are no good guys in Thompson's literature — most everyone is abusive, opportunistic, or simply waiting for the opportunity to pull a fast one.

Although Thompson was a prolific and generally successful writer, he was always broke and could never really get on his feet financially or otherwise. He acquired a drinking habit from the time in his youth when he worked as a bellboy in a rough Texas hotel, and later as a roughneck in the Oklahoma oilfields. He died from alcohol-related illnesses in 1977 at the age of 71.

100 Bullets

100 Bullets is a crime fiction comic series created by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso and published by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint. The series consists of numerous story arcs arising when a mysterious organization called the Minutemen gives certain people a gun with 100 untraceable bullets. These individuals are assured that the 100 bullets will enable to them to exact vengeance without any legal consequences. There is a much wider story, however, which involves numerous conspiracies related to the activities of the Minutemen going back hundreds of years. The series sets a very dark and realistic tone and most of the characters are deeply flawed criminals of some sort who very authentically display the dress and speech of an underground life on the street. Despite their humble backgrounds and true to the noir genre, many of these downtrodden losers are able to make honorable choices.

Sleeper

Tom Cruise and Hollywood have discovered Ed Brubaker, but comic book fans have known about Brubaker and his crime comics for quite some time. According to wire reports, Cruise is seeking the film rights to Brubaker's Sleeper, and the property does seem perfect for the big screen. Sleeper features a secret agent (Holden Carver) whose fusion with an alien artifact makes him impervious to pain, gives him a powerful healing factor, and allows him to store pain and pass it on to others through skin contact. Carver goes undercover in a super villain’s powerful organization and is eventually caught between two warring sides with unclear allegiances. Mayhem ensues. I'm sure this was one of the most successful Hollywood pitch meetings of all time. It's a 'high concept', easily translated to the screen, and it's a great role for somebody like Tom Cruise. Warner Brothers thinks this might be the next big movie franchise, on the level of the Bourne movies.

So who is Ed Brubaker, and what else is he working on? By his own admission, as a teenager he was 'kind of a thief and a drug-addict...and lived in a really ugly world of speed-freaks and scumbags.' Fortunately, he turned himself around. But he retained a somewhat bent perspective as well as an interest in dark subject matter such as pulp crime fiction. (In his autobiography, My Dark Places, crime author James Ellroy describes a similar scenario, with similar results.)

Brubaker is probably best known for 'killing Captain America'. Except it was actually Steve Rogers that was killed, and the Captain America persona was taken over by his sidekick, Bucky. All grown up now, Bucky was previously known as the Winter Soldier, a programmed Soviet assassin. Let's just say that he has some issues. He is a much darker character than Steve Rogers, and is much more suited to Brubaker's noir style. In the hands of Brubaker, Captain America has become a pulpy blend of sci-fi and espionage.

Brubaker is also one of the creators of Criminal. A straight-ahead crime series, Criminal features career criminals and ordinary people who get in over their heads, with violent and unpredictable results. One volume centered on a prizefighter who runs into some problems with the local crime bosses. Another story is about a Vietnam veteran who gets involved in a heist. Criminal is sharply written, beautifully illustrated by Sean Phillips, and is a worthy homage to the crime fiction of Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson. Each issue also has a prose section in the back, highlighting subjects such as the Black Lizard reprints of classic crime novels, or Harry-O, the classic TV crime show from 1974-75.

Brubaker and Phillips are also working on a new series called Incognito, which Brubaker says is "about a completely amoral guy with super-powers forced to pretend he's a normal law-abiding citizen, because he's in Witness Protection."

See links below for more information. No word on exactly when Sleeper will come to the big screen, but it looks like things are coming along nicely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/books/08capt.html
http://criminalcomic.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_%28comic_book%29

Lush Life

Lush Life is the highly acclaimed 2008 novel by Richard Price, best known as one of the writers of HBO's The Wire. Set in New York City's Lower East Side, the book works on several different levels. It is, of course a crime novel, and it works especially well as a mystery and a 'police procedural'. But it is also a very insightful study of a community in transition due to the 'land rush' of the last decade. Price very successfully portrays every socio-economic strata of the borough, from the Chinese and Hispanic underclass all the way to the mostly white yuppies, wannabe artists, actors and other strivers who are helping to gentrify the area.

The story has several characters at its center: Eric Cash, a 35 year old would-be actor who is just about to give up his dream; Matty, the detective who tries to solve the crime; and Tristan, the inner city kid who was unwittingly involved. Price displays each perspective with gripping psychological realism and succeeds in generating considerable sympathy for the motivations and difficulties of the criminals, their victims, and the police. Price's characters and dialogue really draw you in, and the plot keeps you hanging to the very end.

Thief

Thief is a classic 1981 noir crime film written and directed by Michael Mann. James Caan plays Frank, an expert jewel thief who runs into some problems after taking down a major score. In an effort to recover money from his murdered fence, Frank is lured into working with Leo, a mobster, on a very large diamond heist. The heist is successful, but Frank's mob partners renege on the agreement. Frank angrily informs Leo that he will be paid, or there will be consequences. Leo's henchmen kidnap and eventually murder Frank's partner Barry (played by James Belushi). Frank takes his family to safety and is ultimately able to turn the tables on Leo, murdering him and several of his henchmen.

The movie is based on the true story of burglar John Seybold, who also served as a technical advisor to the film. The plot serves as an interesting counter-point to the work of Donald Westlake in his famous Parker series. Most notably, it would be unthinkable for Parker to work with the mob, and we can see why given the results for Frank in Thief. We can also see why Parker would consider it to be very unwise to have so many ties to the community. Frank is vulnerable because of the businesses that he owns, and also because of his family and home. Parker's burglar ethos requires that he be able to basically disappear on a moment's notice. My guess is that a real burglar would be much more like Parker, and that many liberties have been taken with Seybold's story in order to develop certain themes. By introducing certain elements such as a family and personal ties, Michael Mann explores Frank's desire for self-realization. Frank keeps a collage of pictures which represents his vision of the life that he is driven to have. So there is a definite pathos and tension to the film that would be lacking if it followed Westlake's Parker model. But at the same time, the film probably lacks verisimilitude. I.e., there is no way a real master thief would make the choices that Frank makes.

Also notable is the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.

The film displays meticulous attention to detail, which is a direct result of Mann's decision to employ Seybold as an advisor. The tools and techniques of the trade are authentic, right down to the oxy lance used to penetrate a safe.

If you watch closely, you will see CSI's William Petersen in a small role as a bartender. Later he will work with Mann in Manhunter, another overlooked classic of the 80's.

Donald Westlake's Parker

Donald Westlake's Parker is a hardened professional thief who appeared in a string of crime novels published in the 1960's and 70's and written under the pen name of Richard Stark. Parker has been the inspiration for several movies, most recently Mel Gibson's Payback (1999), based on the first Parker novel The Hunter. Darwyn Cooke is working on a graphic novel which is also based The Hunter, soon to be published by IDW. If you like Ed Brubaker's Criminal series, you will definitely want to pick this up. Brubaker has acknowledged that his work is in many ways inspired by Westlake's Parker.

Perfectly capable of murder, Parker has almost no redeeming qualities, aside from his professionalism and the fact that he is an honest crook. In The Hunter, Parker chases his ex-partners and his ex-wife, who have betrayed him in a heist and left him for dead. He survives, but is arrested by the police. Slowly, methodically, one by one, Parker kills his betrayers, ultimately taking on the mob in the process.

Parker is a loner, in many ways indistinguishable from the unnamed protagonist of Clint Eastwood's Dollars trilogy. He operates in an amoral world where everybody is a criminal of some sort. In this world crime pays, there is no good or evil, but simply different styles of crime. Crime is a business, and all business is a form of criminal activity. In fact, Parker is an entrepreneur of sorts, competing with the syndicate and fending off assorted psychotics, amateurs and losers. Of course, there is no law, so Parker cannot be caught and punished. He can only be injured or delayed. He has no connection to society, and seeks only to acquire money in order to remove himself to comfortable isolation.

But what makes Parker so archetypal and enduring is that he speaks to something very deep in our collective psyches. We envy Parker's lack of shame, or guilt, or any type of sentimental feeling whatsoever. Although he is hunted constantly, he is totally unselfconscious, totally focused on his purpose. Parker is a very remarkable, enduring anti-hero.

Watchmen

Watchmen is literature, at least it is according to Time magazine. Watchmen was the only graphic novel to appear on Time's 2005 list of "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present".

Watchmen (1985) is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by the brilliant but temperamental writer Alan Moore. A near-mint, first printing of the entire series now sells for about $200. Moore also wrote From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, both of which have also been adapted for the screen. (League was a great comic book, but a terrible movie. Definitely explains why Moore has so much distrust of filmmakers attempting to adapt his works.)


Moore is also known for his 1986 masterpiece Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. This was intended to close the book on the original Silver Age Superman's history subsequent to the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Hard to explain, but anybody who enjoyed Superman comics as a kid in the 60's and the 70's should check it out. You can pick up the back issues for about $8.00.

In a nutshell, Watchmen takes place in an alternate history United States where the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. After government-sponsored superhero The Comedian is found murdered, the vigilante Rorschach warns his former colleagues of what he believes is a conspiracy to kill costumed heroes. As the story progresses, the protagonists discover that one of the heroes has devised a plan to stave off war between the United States and the USSR by carrying out a plan that will kill millions of innocent people.

Watchmen also features a comic within a comic in the form of Tales of the Black Freighter, a fictional comic book. Moore and Gibbons used a pirate comic because they reasoned that since the characters of Watchmen experience superheroes in real life, "they probably wouldn't be at all interested in superhero comics."

The most important character of Watchmen is probably Dr. Manhattan. In fact, he is the only 'superhero' in Watchmen that actually has superpowers. Through a nuclear accident, he acquires almost total omnipotence, which results in an interesting exploration of quantum mechanics. Due to his almost total mastery of his environment, time has no meaning to Dr. Manhattan. Time folds into itself, and he experiences all time frames as happening simultaneously. A similar theme is explored in Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel Destination Void, wherein the creation of a powerful artificial intelligence results in the folding of space/time.

Along with Frank Miller's 1986 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen was a breakthrough deconstruction of the superhero genre, and ushered in an entirely new approach to comics and the movies inspired by them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whatever_happened_to_the_man_of_tomorrow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Dark_Knight_Returns