On Dangerous Ground (Dir. Nicholas Ray, 1951)

(Reviewed 5/5 on letterboxd in Nov 2016)

"There was theatre (Griffith), poetry (Murnau), painting (Rossellini), dance (Eisenstein), music (Renoir). Henceforth there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray." - Jean Luc Godard

I reached Godard's moment of enlightenment today. He reached it with Bitter Victory, an amazing movie in its own right. I reached it on this unassuming noir that I didn't bother visiting until I had checked out most of Ray's filmography. I am glad I finally watched it.

I will try to describe three scenes in this movie which underline the genius that is Nicholas Ray.

1. The film opens as we see a wife helping put the gun holster on her husband, a cop leaving on night duty. She puts her sleepy head on his back, rubs his shoulders lovingly and tells him how much she hates being left alone at night. The husband bound by his sense of duty gently brushes her aside as he prepares to leave.

2. Ward Bond in a mixture of satisfaction and embarrassment looks upon the face of the body and remarks, "He's just a kid. That's all he is, just a kid". Ryan, frustrated tells Ward that they must take him down to the house as he prepares to pick the body. Ward brushes Ryan aside, picks up the body as if it was an infant and walks through the snow.

3. Ryan and Ida gently clasp each others hands as they meet over the stairs, nothing needs to be said, they kiss each other, camera pans over the scenery, we know both have found peace within themselves. They are not lonely anymore.

Nicholas Ray worked in various genres but always rose above its conventions to tell us something about ourselves. He showed people vulnerable to both love and hatred. In the end however, you will always come out of a Nicholas Ray film satisfied. You know he has put his heart into it.

"To get anything out of this life, you got to put something in it. From the heart!" - Pop Daily.