Out of the Past

Wouldn’t you know it. A day after exhorting the Suns’ 2007 defense for the umpteenth time, the Timberwolves drop an otherworldly 59% shooting on Phoenix in a 121-112 win to break the Suns’ 17 game win streak overall, and 9 game road win streak in Minnesota’s Target Center Monday night.

Fortunately for me, I wasn’t there to see it.

I was fretting all day knowing that I would miss the game for one of my film classes. I left as late as I possibly could to make it to class on time, but I was ten minutes late anyway as I searched for a parking space close enough to class. Once I got there, I didn’t hesitate to whip out my laptop and log on to suns.com to follow the box score, which decided to stall at 6:28 of the second quarter and the Wolves leading 45-40. I got that sinking feeling that this would be the one - the end of the streak - and I reluctantly logged off and shut down as the night’s movie started.

Monday’s class is Film: The Creative Process II. It’s basically a history class that has less to do with the creative process of film making and more to do with appreciating a style of film-making long lost to Hollywood. To start the semester we focus on Film Noir, the classic shadowy low-budget psychological crime drama thriller genre that gained momentum in the 1940s.

The basic premise of all Film Noir is that a man falls for the wrong woman, who traps him in a web of deceit and misdirection, gets involved in the most convoluted scheme to get rich quick and get away with as big a body count as is necessary, and invariably he is led down a path to his own deluded self-destruction. The “good guy” always dies in the end. And in the end of all this, it didn’t matter that I missed the game because I was watching its metaphor in class - Out of the Past starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and a surprisingly young Kirk Douglas.

Jeff Bailey (Mitchum) is a gas station owner in rural California trying to make a new life for himself with the naive but safe Ann Miller when his past unexpectedly catches up with him. Jeff’s real last name is Markham, and he’s been on the lam from his former employer, Whit Sterling (Douglas), for close to three years. Turns out that Jeff fell in love and began a seedy affair with Kathie Moffat (Greer), the woman Sterling hired Jeff to hunt down and bring back to him - along with a missing $40,000. Long story short - Sterling finds Jeff, brings him back to do another job to make up for his betrayal, then sets Jeff up to take the fall for killing Sterling’s tax attorney with the help of conniving Kathie. Although he tries to foil the plot, Jeff figures out too late to escape the fate he designed for himself three years earlier, and everyone dies.

Classic Noir. It’s a great movie by any standard, and I highly recommend anyone from today’s fast edit, thin plot Hollywood generation to sit back and take it for all its unreal dialogue and slow-paced action.

It certainly made me feel better about missing the Suns game, but I was still anxious to get home and read about win number 18.

I got home, whipped out the laptop, turned it on before plugging it in, and by the time I sat down, I saw the bad news - 121-112…Timberwolves? What the hell? Seriously? What happened?

Box score - my holy grail of game information. She never lets me down, and I’m sure to figure out what went wrong this night. Suns are 37-74 from the field, 15-36 from three, and 23-25 from the foul line. Um…shouldn’t that be a win?

It should be but for the Femme Fatale stepping from the shadow of the past to seduce us with her ungodly beauty and unholy intentions. 49-83 for the Wolves. Unreal. Ann Miller is going to be very disappointed, maybe even feel betrayed.

It seems the old dog wasn’t too happy with the previous encounter and wanted a little revenge of his own. Garnett went unconcsious in shooting turn arounds and fade aways that stroked the bottom of the net as delicately as a mother powders her baby’s bottom. 18 for 29, 15 fourth quarter points. Unreal. Only the fourth 40+ point effort of his career, and the second highest point total Kevin Garnett has ever notched on the scoreboard.

So where was the defense? Going by post-game articles and highlight reels, it seems that it actually was there. Well, as much as it can be when the opponent raises up over double and triple teams to score. The Suns knew what was going on, and they tried to foil the Timberwolves’ plot. Phoenix got caught by its own high octane court savvy. The demons from the past, coupled with their inability to avert the inevitable, doomed them to a gunshot wound to the gut in the closing minutes of the game.

Yeah. That crazy dame snared us in her web, alright. She played the tune that had all the rats dancing off a cliff to their own ecstatic demise.

There is nothing the Suns can do about the past. They just have to look forward to writing a new script and sticking to it until the bloody end. Maybe in the end of that one, they can walk off into the sunset with Ann Miller and forget that Kathie ever existed.

That crazy dame - always turning up at the wrong time.