In Robert Altman's film Thieves Like Us (1974), various radio programs are employed-more than twenty times over the course of the film. Most of these are presented as diegetic sounds; only in three bank robbery scenes do radio sounds of unclear origin (neither diegetic nor nondiegetic) appear.
This paper demonstrates that these "unsourced" radio sounds yield another narrative that renders the bank robbery scenes differently. With reference to Thomas Elsaesser's concept of the "unmotivated hero," one of the salient features of the New Hollywood in the 1970s, I argue that while the film's protagonist, Bowie, lacks motivation to act, the minor character Chicamaw desires media attention, which is why he hits banks. In other words, Chicamaw desires to be the "protagonist" in some kind of "narrative," and the bank robbery scenes are narrated as parts of a Chicamaw-centered story. The radio sounds in the bank robbery scenes exaggerate this aspect of Chicamaw, painting him as the "villain."
This paper considers the construction and failure of this potential "story" in this film through analysis of images and sound and, eventually, places it vis-à-vis Altman's other works.
抄録全体を表示