Existence And Morality

Woody Allen,a now 81-year-old American film screenwriter and director,has in the last fifty years singlehandedly written and directed more than forty films.Prolific as he is,critics have managed to observe various threads of distinctive Woody Allen features underlying his film oeuvre,among which,his filmic contemplation on the entanglement among faith,existence and morality receives constant attention.Nevertheless,few critics have approached this topic from the angle of murder,a persisting infatuation of Allen's and the center of narrative in nine of his feature films.Murder serves as a significant cog in Allen's exploration of the convoluted and even conflicting relation between individual existentialist choice and universal moral laws.In the nineteenth century,early existentialist philosophers S(?)ren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche rebelled against Kantian categorical imperatives,the former chanting individualistic "leap of faith" that transcends ethics and the latter substituting the will to power for morality.In the twentieth century,French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre inherited his predecessors' stand in upholding individuals' freedom to invent their own moral values,but embedded in his affirmation of individual choice was a categorical imperative:not to obstruct the freedom of others.Woody Allen takes a similar stance as Sartre's.He refuses to condone murder under any circumstances,emphasizing rather an existential morality that is utterly humanist:while confronting the contingency and futility of life,one should perform individualistic choice,but one should always obey one categorical imperative:the respect for humanity.From the perspective of existence and morality,this paper addresses Woody Allen's nine murder films in three sections.In the first chapter,it discusses Shadows and Fog,Manhattan Murder Mystery,and Scoop,the three representing Allen's effort to circumvent heavy existentialist and moral matters through diverting viewers' attention towards the comical tone and the aesthetic forms of the films.Nevertheless,under the disguise of comedy,the worlds depicted in these films are disordered,disinteresting and deceptive,where the protagonists,murder solvers rather than murderers,face murder as the embodiment of anxiety and fear for the existential crisis.This paper then concentrates on Crimes and Misdemeanors,Match Point and Cassandra s Dream,three serious dramas whose protagonists murder for wealth,reputation or prospects but never receive just punishment,reflecting Allen's conviction that justice from above is merely a facade and human fate is decided by mere chance.Nonetheless,Allen is not merely accepting that everything is permissible in a godless world but rather emphasizes that individual moral choices are all the more important.In the last three films this paper addresses,Love and Death,Bullets over Broadway and Irrational Man,Allen reveals more clearly his belief in the existential morality that is humanist.The protagonists of these three films murder for sublime ideals such as art,peace and justice,but Allen drags them back to the categorical imperative of existentialism:the respect for humanity.Underlying the nine murder films is Woody Allen's pessimistic view on human existence,and as a result his ardent respect for humanity.