Dying: Some do it more gracefully than others

Two men slouched against the wall. Two men with bullets in their chests.  Why do they look so different?  Walter Neff, sweating profusely, fails to produce a match for his limp cigarette.  Jack Vincennes, meanwhile, shows no signs of pallor.  In fact, a smirk has begun to cross his face.

The primary difference between these two men is their standing when they expire.  Walter goes out a killer.  Keyes knows the whole truth, and chooses to shame Walter rather than get angry.  After a lengthy confession, Walter becomes desperate.  He claims that if Keyes doesn't stop him that he can cross the border.  Rather, Neff doesn't make it to the elevator.  He completes his fall from grace with a fall to the ground.  It is here that the director is able to fully capture Walter in all of his squalor.  Keyes, looking down on him quite literally, a defeated look on his face, even his cigarette looks dirty and damp.

Vincennes, quite the opposite, plans to die a hero.  His smirk can be attributed to his plan to alert Exley that Dudley is the man that can kill and get away with it.  Despite his dire circumstances, the director is able to frame Vincennes as a hero.  His brave eye contact with his murderer and his having the wherewithal to save lives as he's dying make him a hero.  His vivacious face is a stark contrast to Neff's lifeless, sweaty, and gray (I know it's a black and white film but still) skin.

While both men are dying of the same cause, the directors have chosen very different ways for them to go out.  One in shame, one in valor, these men each died in a different light.