What is Film Noir？
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Summary
Film noir has become a thing in and of itself. Is it just a stylistic choice? Is it a way of storytelling involving specific characters and storylines with its own nature? Or is it the perfect distillation of the post-World War II era?
Transcript
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Film noir. What is it exactly? Is it just a stylistic choice? Is it just the use of black
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and white, of particular costumes, particular settings? Or is it more than that? Is it more
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than just a film genre? Is it a genre unto itself? Is it a way of storytelling involving specific
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characters and specific storylines with its own nature? Well, I'd argue that it's the latter. I'd
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argue that it's the perfect distillation of the post-World War II era. That there's a reason
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that The Matrix, despite embracing film noir stylistic choices, doesn't feel like a film
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noir movie. Whereas the novels by Michael Connelly, despite being novels and not really embracing all
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the important elements that you typically have with film noir, very much are a part of the film noir
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genre. And to explain what it is exactly, what film noir has become, it may have developed as a
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stylistic choice, but it has become a thing in and of itself. To explain what that is exactly, we're
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gonna have to borrow from the writings of John C. Wright, the science fiction author. A link down
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below to him, but I'm going to be borrowing heavily throughout this video. And I think the best place
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to start is with analyzing the protagonist. Now the film noir protagonist is what John C. Wright would call
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the noble pagan. See, he differentiates between the Christian and the noble pagan. The pagan doesn't
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really know God. He knows the gods, the random forces of the universe. He understands hubris and
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nemesis. He understands karma, but he does not believe in a higher purpose, a destiny for mankind. Rather,
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he is entirely locked in with the cycles of the seasons, the cycles of history. And with the barbarian,
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his only future to look forward to is death. It is to be rotting in the grave. And so you get two types of
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barbarians. You get the hedonistic barbarian, the one who goes out and tries to live life to the fullest
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every single day, and don't worry about the morrow, for on the morrow we die. Eat, drink, and be merry.
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And then you get the noble pagan, the one who believes in the four cardinal virtues.
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He believes in courage. He believes in temperance. He believes in justice. And he believes in wisdom. He
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tries to live the best possible life he can, yet he has no hope for the future. The three theological
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virtues, faith, hope, and charity, he has none of those. Because he knows he has an earthen grave that
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he's headed towards, no matter how he lives. Yet he chooses to pursue the virtues nonetheless.
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And that is the protagonist of the film noir genre. Living in a society that has fought its last war.
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The last war worth fighting has been fought. We will not see its like again for a minimum of 500 years.
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The film noir protagonist. He embraces the four cardinal virtues. Justice. The film noir story is
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always about justice. This is why it is so frequently a police officer or a private investigator pursuing some
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crime that has committed. Seeking justice for that crime. Courage. The film noir protagonist embodies courage.
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Getting involved in something that's bigger than themselves. It doesn't even involve themselves.
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Temperance. Temperance? You better believe they have temperance. These are people living on the line.
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They live without hope. Most of them drink too much. They have troubles with love. They are very tempted
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to be just as bad as everybody else in their society, and yet they keep it in check. They have temperance.
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The film noir protagonist is a man of the world. Maybe he's never left his hometown. Maybe he served in the
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military then came back and has just done what he was supposed to do his entire life. And yet he is a
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man that understands the world. Who looks at people and is able to see through them. Who is
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able to see into their soul. To see the consequences of their actions.
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He's a man who is quick on the draw and who can figure people out.
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But what about the theological virtues? What about hope? Well, the film noir protagonist doesn't have any hope.
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In fact, we'll get to that analyzing the story, but the film noir protagonist knows that all these people
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he sees are constantly damning themselves. And that they're going to suffer the consequences. They're
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all going to wind up a cadaver in a morgue somewhere because of their own actions. And yet it's still
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going to be his duty to investigate these murders.
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Faith? The film noir protagonist doesn't believe in anything. If he's a cop, he knows how corrupt the
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entire police department is. If he's a private investigator, he knows how corrupt his very own
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clients are. As for God? Well, we fought the last righteous war back in the 40s. We ain't gonna see
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his life again. He has faith in nothing. Except his own pursuit of the virtues.
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Charity? Absolutely not. The film noir protagonist, he might feel empathy, he might feel pity for these
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people damning themselves. But charity? No. He's not a bleeding heart. He does what is righteous because
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it is what is righteous. Because he himself is a man that pursues virtue, not because he has charity for
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all of these other people who have damned themselves. Just as the style is very black and white, the storylines
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of film noir are extremely black and white. The film noir protagonist is the noble pagan.
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Now let's consider the storyline of the film noir. The most classic storyline of film noir
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is that the protagonist, the investigator, the detective, he gets involved in a case about a dead
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prostitute. Just another dead prostitute. Nobody cares about prostitutes. Yet it doesn't matter.
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Except he, he cares about justice. He investigates this crime because it is a crime. He puts his energy
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into finding out who didn't. And in the process of investigating this crime, he winds up getting
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embroiled in this giant conspiracy. He gets embroiled with Paula, the last politician that slept with this
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prostitute. And then he finds out this politician was bought off by the mob. And so now he has organized
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crime after him, trying to silence his voice. He fights off all these corrupt, venal degenerates,
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only to find out at the end. The dead prostitute. It was her ex-boyfriend that killed her.
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The society he lives in. It has corruption at the highest levels. The politicians, the organized crime,
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the whole thing is corrupt, even his own trade. And yet, the solution to the crime is corruption at the
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lowest level. It's venal, evil people doing evil to one another. And even the prostitute. Well, she was
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no saint. Because there are no saints. Not even the protagonist himself, who's just another alcoholic womanizer.
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Trying to do the best he can in the broken world.
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So The Matrix, despite having the stylings of film noir, is not film noir.
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Whether you take the standard interpretation of The Matrix, where Neo is Jesus. Where Neo is the chosen
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one. Where Neo redeems both mankind and the machine race. No, there's no redemption in the film noir story.
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Because the next chapter is exactly the same as the first.
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If you take the alternative interpretation, where Neo is still in The Matrix. Where this
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whole ridiculous thing where he had magic powers in the real world. Well, that's just part of his
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delusion. He's still part of The Matrix. Except it's not film noir, because he's not aware of that fact. The
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film noir protagonist knows perfectly well that his struggle is futile.
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And yet he struggles nonetheless. Because courage is a virtue.
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And so for film noir, we need to look in other directions. Michael Connolly, as I mentioned.
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His detective Hieronymus Bosch, whose one calling in life is to listen to the blood music.
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Is to solve the crimes that nobody cares about. To find murderers and bring them to justice.
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he comes across the La Brea tar pits. And they just unearthed the body of a woman drug out of them.
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Whose skull was smashed in, in what was clearly a murder 5,000 years ago.
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And yet he continues to fight on and solve these murders. These murders that nobody else cares about.
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We've got the novel. Do androids dream of electric sheep?
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Which is a movie all about living life during the brief period that you have it.
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These artificial people that have been created.
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Whose job it is, Decker's job, to hunt them down and retire them with his gun.
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These people who know that they're only going to live for a few years, three or four years maybe,
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if they're lucky. These artificial constructs created by humanity to do their dirty work.
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They're only going to live for a few years, and they're rebelling to try and experience life
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during that brief period of time, and to do something that matters.
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And Decker himself? Well, Decker, it turns out, it's heavily implied, it's in the subtext.
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He himself is not a real person either. He just thinks he is.
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And he eventually comes to suspect that fact. That he, likewise, is an artificial person who's
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going to die in a few years. And yet he struggles on, and he finds what virtue he can before the grave.
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Unlike regular people, these, these symbionts don't have souls. And yet, even without those three
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theological virtues, they still can follow the four cardinal ones.
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And so this is why I say that film noir is the modern society summed up in narrative.
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Because we've got no hope and no direction, and yet we continue to struggle to do what is right
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in a world that doesn't believe in right or wrong anymore.
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Like, comment, and subscribe? You know I'm not going to do that to you, folks.
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this great film noir martial arts action film. Cheers, folks.