MovieChat Forums > Detour (1946) Discussion > Art mirroring Life

Art mirroring Life

posted 10 years ago by Teutonsommelier
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Coincidence plays a part in this gritty, small budget noirish movie. The chances of on-the-run Al Roberts bumping into Vera in a different state, the one person who could incriminate him by knowing the guy who has died in suspicious circumstances in Roberts' company, is very implausible indeed! Tom Neal's misfortunes in movie (implicated in the separate, accidental deaths of two people) echo the actor's pattern of (non-accidental) trouble in real life. A further coincidence, Neal's son (Tom Neal Jr) played the lead part in the 1992 remake of Detour. Ann Savage is very believable as the hard-bitten vixen who manipulates the hapless Roberts like plasticine!

[–] mdonln 10 years ago

I'm sorry but I can't tell where you stand on the issue. Do you think the events in this movie are over the top and could never happen or do you think they could?
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Early on in the movie I thought wow, some people have the worst luck but later on I thought no one could be that unlucky.

I completely believe in chance encounters, also known as coincidences. There are some we notice and others we don't; at least not right away. What I don't believe though, and where I do have a slight problem with the movie, is that we're helpless in the face of certain situations.

It's true, things can happen to us that we may consider lucky or unlucky, but what we choose to do as a result of what happens makes all the difference. In my opinion, Roberts, then later Vera, made a series of decisions and choices that led them down the path they were going. In fact, many of the various coincidences they encountered would never have occurred had they behaved differently.