"Things are going badly in my life. Must be the fault of the woman I'm involved w--" NO. Stop.
It didn't even work for Adam! You still got blown out of the Garden, buddy. Own it.
is it maybe that that's what the directors are trying to show? --the blame-others tendency when clearly your own bad choices are actually what got you into the situation?
In the cases of Double Indemnity and Criss Cross, definitely; it's part of what makes the movies work. There's a lot of real fatalism in the genre, but there are also a lot of characters who want to pass the moral buck. It's easier to be foredoomed, because then it's not your fault. If there was never any way out, you can't be blamed for not finding one. I really need to rewatch The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) to see how that movie apportions its blame and complicity. I remember it being a two-person job.
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It didn't even work for Adam! You still got blown out of the Garden, buddy. Own it.
is it maybe that that's what the directors are trying to show? --the blame-others tendency when clearly your own bad choices are actually what got you into the situation?
In the cases of Double Indemnity and Criss Cross, definitely; it's part of what makes the movies work. There's a lot of real fatalism in the genre, but there are also a lot of characters who want to pass the moral buck. It's easier to be foredoomed, because then it's not your fault. If there was never any way out, you can't be blamed for not finding one. I really need to rewatch The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) to see how that movie apportions its blame and complicity. I remember it being a two-person job.