Conscience in "Crimes and Misdemeanors"

            “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989) is a Woody Allen movie with overlapping storylines. The weightiest concerns Judah, a married man who has been having an affair with Dolores for two years. A crisis arises when Dolores decides Judah’s wife should know the truth. He consults Ben, a rabbi and old friend, who counsels him to confess to his wife and ask her forgiveness. Judah doesn’t see this as an option. The situation heats up when Dolores threatens to expose a shady financial dealing if he doesn’t do what she wants. He confides in his brother Jack; Jack arranges for the murder of Dolores. After the crime, Judah is wracked by guilt. Jack reminds him that he will be brought down too if Judah turns himself in. Judah comes to an uneasy peace with himself, saying that in real life people deny and form rationalizations about egregious things they have done.

            I told Paco about the movie, and he said Judah’s intense feelings of guilt reminded him of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Judah goes to the scene of the crime to retrieve love letters; Raskolnikov keeps returning to the scene of his crime. The difference arises in how the two stories end. Raskolnikov can bear his inner torment no longer and turns himself in to the authorities. In the movie, Judah meets Cliff (Woody Allen), who is a filmmaker. He tells him his story as if it has happened to someone else, thinking it would make a good movie. Cliff says that, to make the story a tragedy, Judah has to have the guy turn himself in. This is when Judah says, “But that’s not what happens in real life!”

            Both Johnston and Marsh analyze “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” Johnston focusing on the movie’s underlying atmosphere of amorality and Marsh enthusing over its “portrayal of how complex moral questions are part of everyday life.” I’d like to look at its treatment of Judah’s conscience.

            As a boy, Judah was taught by his devoutly religious father that the eyes of God were always upon him and that God would surely punish him if he committed an evil deed. Judah grows up and abandons religion, but not before internalizing his father’s teachings. The movie implies that these are the source of his guilt. While his crime is still adultery, the rabbi advises him to make a mature response to his conscience; to seek the joy and peace that come with a clear conscience. Judah gives lip service to the idea but is more worried about the complex issues he is facing. Then the murder happens—he is astounded at how horribly easy it is to solve the problem of Dolores—and his conscience comes forward. There is a scene where he drives through a tunnel and comes to the light at the end. Johnston says this represents Judah’s deciding not to judge himself. Considering the later scene with Cliff, I would interpret it as the moment when his insight about real life arrives: things happen; we do things we regret; we keep moving; we don’t think too much. By the time he meets Cliff, he has suppressed his conscience.

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