Detour challenges central facets of the traditional Hollywood narrative, the assumption that the action will spring mainly from individual characters as fundamental. There is a distinct point in the film where Al moves from being a causal agent to a passive character, merely trying to save his own hide rather than achieve his initial goal. This break occurs after Al, behind the wheel while his most recent ride, Charles Haskell Jr. is taking a break to sleep. Al discovers that Haskell is not merely asleep, but has actually died of unknown cause(s). Instead of staying calm, Al convinces himself that the police would accuse him of murder and that no matter how hard he tried to impress upon them his innocence, he would be jailed undoubtedly. Thus, Al decides to ditch Haskells body and purports to be Haskell for the remainder of the journey to Hollywood; just in case he is confronted (Al also takes Haskells wallet and trades his suit for Haskells to convey legitimacy).
L ater on, while Al is stopped to refuel, he offers a ride to a woman waiting by the side of the road. This woman, Vera, happened to have had an encounter with Charles Haskell that had been related to Al during his time in Haskells car. As such, Vera realizes that Al has taken over Haskells belongings and automobile; logically, she accuses him of murder and theft. Veras presence alters the course of Als journey: he cannot easily dismiss her because she knows of his connection to Haskell. Since Vera too has reason to stay off the polices radar, she employs Al in devious moneymaking schemes and Al resigns himself to cooperation. Al is inextricably linked to Haskell, who he conceivably murdered, and to Vera. The classic Hollywood narrative is disrupted by the presence of fate, which appears to remove Als causal agency. The link between Al, Vera, and fated is explicated via dialogue, and in a rather direct way. Prior to Al picking up Vera along the side of the road, Al narrates: W hichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you. That statement forebodingly predicts what is to come. Later, during a quarrel typical of Al and Veras relationship in the film, Vera warns Al: People knock themselves out trying to buck fate. By stripping Al of his agency and introducing a narrative driven by fate, Detour toys with the classic Hollywood narrative form.
The ending of Detour cements the film as one that is enjoyable because of the processes involved in the narrative, along with the unique and perfectly played characters. To elaborate, the final scene, that of Al being picked up by the police as he walks along the highway (back to New York), disrupts the satisfaction the rest of the film had delivered. It seems tacked on, and it does not further the interesting ideas employed earlier in the film. The bulk of the film highlighted the arbitrary, devilishly cruel Work of so-called fate. There was no need for the filmmakers to have Al picked up by the police at the end. If anything, the filmmakers should have showed the beginning of another coincidental, horrible pitfall for Al and then rolled the credits. The ending could be viewed as an attempt by the filmmakers to achieve closure with an ideological message. If this is the case, the message could be that no bad deed goes unpunished by the law (assuming that the deaths of Haskell and Vera were not as accidental as they appeared). Possibly, the ending was a metaphor for the desire of an ordered society, one in which mystery and ambiguity is nonexistent.
There is, though, an obvious drawback to this conclusion. Knowing that this film was made in 1945, one can conclude that the ending was appended unnecessarily because of the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code). One needs to look no furt her than the first General Principle promulgated in the MPPC: No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin. Evidently, there might have been some pressure from the censors that caused the tacky ending.
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Author:: Mary Anne Winslow
Keywords:: Detour, Work
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