¶ … Shorty directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Specifically it will discuss how the film fits into the rubric for a detective story. "Get Shorty" seems more like an adventure or action film at first, but it is really a finely woven detective story that leaves the viewer second-guessing the characters up until the very last minute of the film. It fits the rubric of a detective-mystery story quite well, and is entertaining and funny, too.
There are several crimes rolled into one in this film. At first, the crime seems to be Lou the dry cleaner's crime of running off with Mr. Bones money, but that is only the beginning in a string of crimes that include Harry Zimm's owing the Vegas casino, Bo, the limo company owner's money that Harry lost, and finally the South American drug lord whose nephew and $500,000 are missing. So there are several crimes that the viewer has to keep track of, and they all revolve around Chili Palmer, John Travolta's character. At first, it is not clear which crime is the most important, and there is another storyline underneath the crimes revolving around money. That is the storyline of the business in Hollywood, and how Chili fits into it so well and so quickly. This could indicate that the real "crime" in the story is the crime that just about anyone who has money can make some kind of a name for himself in Hollywood, regardless of talent or any kind of knowledge.
The milieu or setting and environment of the film encompasses Miami, Brooklyn, and most of all Los Angeles and Hollywood. The environment also...
The milieus of the two are very similar, as the film points out quite clearly.
The real victim in this mystery is Mr. Bones, who is trying to collect his money and then is set up by Chili to collect the drug money at the airport, when he has nothing to do with the money at all. However, there is another victim, the moviemaking business, as the "B" horror movie producer Zimm clearly shows. He succeeds in Hollywood because he is just as much of a con man as Chili is, and again this shows the theme that there is not that much difference between the mob's activities and the activities of the "movers and shakers" in Hollywood. Bones himself is a two-bit mobster who thinks he is smarter and has more power than he does, and that is why it is so simple for Chili to set him up. Chili is savvy, and that is why he can succeed in the movie business so easily.
Throughout the film there are several suspects, including Zimm, Lou, Mr. Bones, Bo, the drug lord, and more. There are so many story lines and crimes that it is hard to keep the suspects straight. Chili is also a suspect when he takes Lou's money, and of course Bear is a suspect as is Bo's sidekick. As the film goes on, many of the suspects are eliminated, narrowing down the field and the viewer's analysis of the suspects. This is like any good mystery or detective story, where there are more suspects than necessary to keep the viewer interested and guessing what will…
