The Fatalistic Detour

The Fatalistic Detour The 1945 B-movie classic, Detour, as with most noir films, makes interesting notions regarding fate and life itself. Edgar Ulmer uses the journey of a pianist to discuss a concept deeper than hitchhiking and the life of an average human being that can’t seem to find his way on the right side of anything. The concept is fate. This term is used countless times in the film, which makes it apparent that Ulmer wants the audience to know he is making a commentary on the subject. Though he makes his intentions obvious, he arrives at his thesis through flashbacks and memories of the story’s protagonist, therein lies the issue at hand. It is through cynical dialogue, characters molded to serve as closely as possible as caricatures, and the bleak nature of the B-movie aesthetic that Ulmer creates an illusion centric tale of a man so fearful of fate that his fears become his fate. In Detour, the key characters are all running away from places they do not wish to, or due to risen

Ulmer was known for his allegorical style in film and that is not lacking in Detour. There’s a quite literal way to explain the allegory present in this film. In the ‘40s, “detour” was often used as a metaphor for individuals whose lives and hopes had been interrupted or shattered by the aftermath of war (Nedljkovich). The war often displaced people, which led to them being forced pick up their lives and move elsewhere in hopes of a better life. Though it can be assumed that maybe not everyone that tried this ended up like the characters in this film, Detour highlights the grim truth of an era that wasn’t as light and joyful as it was cracked up to be, focusing more on the common person rather than the larger than life characters that noir films prior to this focused on. This particular concept hits on why Detour is often referred to as a subset of noir called film