“Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E! You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man. The right hand, friends, the hand of love. Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life. Those fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one agin t’other. Now watch ’em! Old brother left hand, left hand he’s a fighting, and it looks like love’s a goner. But wait a minute! Hot dog, love’s a winning! Yessirree! It’s love that’s won, and old left hand hate is down for the count!”
-Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter
As of last night, I chose to finally sit down and watch Night of the Hunter. Although for its time it was not generally accepted as a good film, it has gained increasing popularity over the years. The only film ever directed by Charles Laughton (Spartacus) tells the story of a travelling preacher named Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) who is corrupted and during his travels meets a man on death row who explains how he stole $10,000 and gave it to his children. When he gets out of prison himself, he travels to the man’s home and marries the widow to try and find the money and then murder her. The film is from the perspective of the children who know where the money really is and tries with all their might to keep it out of Powell’s hands. Now the most iconic scene has to be the scene where he explains to everyone the story of love and hate.
Before watching this film, I saw Do the Right Thing directed by Spike Lee where one scene has Radio Raheem (one of the iconic characters) talking to Mookie who was played by Spike Lee. During this meeting, he explains the story of his new gold knuckles. The right hand says HATE and the left hand says LOVE. He describes them in almost an exact word-for-word definition given by Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter. Now obviously this paid homage to the film considering Do the Right Thing came out about 40 years later. The name of the film even relates to love and hate since doing the right thing means ignoring your anger and hatred and learn to respect one another.
In Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now, a captain played by Martin Sheen is sent to assasinate a renegade colonel who was the best of the best played by Marlon Brando. When Captain Willard finally meets Colonel Kurtz, Kurtz explains how all that truly exists is love and hate. It raises the question of whether or not Kurtz really needed to be assasinated since he was merely confused by the horrors of the military and only wished to free himself and others from the restrictions of hatred.
Although these are clear indications of the conflict within all of us, it is experienced in many films. The idea of doing the right thing versus the wrong thing whether is is easier or could potentially have favored outcomes can be seen in modern cinema all the time. Another recent film I watched that could also relate to this is Kung Fu Hustle. The main character originally wants to join the gangsers who ravage the nation even though in the end, his kindness overcomes his darker quest. Even something as simple as lust vs love could be construed to similar outcomes. A more modern and generationally-accepted film that shows this is Sex Drive. A high school student and some of his friends travel across the country to spend time with a girl he met online. Throughout this, he soon realizes that the whole time he truly wanted the girl he’s been best friends with and not some sexy girl he had yet to meet.
Now you could be saying that hate and lust are not the same emotion. And you are surely correct in that assumption but hate embodies all negative emotions in this context. It can include lust, rage, anger, deceipt and many others as love embodies all that is good and right.
The film Night of the Hunter presents this conflict in an odd way. The villain or antagonist of the film is the one who states that love triumphs over hate even though he has no love for people yet instead hatred toward all who oppose him during his conquest for wealth and crime. These two emotions which are polar opposites continue to elude the viewers in a open yet shut manner. What this means is that it is something not fully recognized in a film but normally is present in some way.
Critical Films 