Answer the questions from Exercise S2 for the following movies:
(a) In the 1941 movie classic The Maltese Falcon, the hero, Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), is the only person who knows the location of the immensely valuable gem-studded falcon figure, and the villain, Caspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet), is threatening to torture him for that information. Spade points out that torture is useless unless the threat of death lies behind it, and Gutman cannot afford to kill Spade, because then the information dies with him. Therefore, he may as well not bother with the threat of torture. Gutman replies, “That is an attitude, sir, that calls for the most delicate judgment on both sides, because, as you know, sir, men are likely to forget in the heat of action where their best interests lie and let their emotions carry them away.”
(b) The 1925 Soviet classic The Battleship Potemkin (set in the summer of 1905) closes with a squadron of ships from the tsar’s Black Sea fleet chasing the mutinous and rebellious crew of the Potemkin. The tension mounts as the ships draw ever closer. Men on each side race to their battle stations, load and aim the huge guns, and wait nervously for the order to fire on their countrymen. Neither side wants to attack the other, but neither wants to back down or to die without defending itself. The tsar’s ships have orders to take the Potemkin by any means necessary, and the crew knows it will be tried for treason if it surrenders.