The Noir Man

Most often in film noir the main character is that of the hard-boiled detective. A tough, cynical, straight talking man with a troubled past and an overtly pessimistic view of the world and its occupants. A man who doesn't trust easily and is especially distrusting of people of power in the government and the police and yet is so often led astray by the femme fatale character of the piece. These men are a smorgasbord of flaws they are hard drinking, chain smoking, poorly dressed womanisers and yet they are still depicted as the hero (or antihero) of the piece.


The character of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon is described as the archetypal hard-boiled detective by Blaser(2008) and as "being nearly as amoral, ruthless, and greedy as the criminals he defeats". These hard-boiled detectives usually live by a code of behaviour or honour, again not unlike criminals, dictated by their profession a simple code of professional responsibility, loyalty and integrity which is never above the world of sex and violence they inhabit.

"...these are people who live on both sides of the law and at the expense of both criminals and innocents" (Jeffries, 2010).


Disillusionment, martyrdom, fatalism and guilt all abound in the hard-boiled characters of film noir. So often it is the case that the protagonist must lay down his own life in the end, sometimes for the good of others but often just because the world is too much and this was always going to be the end result. To quote Spike from Cowboy Bebop which is heavily influenced by film noir, "I've got to, I'm tired of running. I've got to clean this up."


References

Printed References

Krutnik, F. (1991) In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. London. Routledge

Faison, S. (2008) Existentialism, Film Noir, and Hard-Boiled Fiction. New York. Cambria Press

Filmography

Out of the Past (1947). Directed by Jacques Tourneur. USA. RKO Radio Productions

The Maltese Falcon (1941). Directed by John Huston. USA. Warner Bros.

Cowboy Bebop (1998). Directed by Shinichiro- Watanabe. Japan. Bandai Visual

The Rules Of Film Noir (2009). Written by Matthew Sweet. London, BBC4, 24 May.