The Black and White of Film Noir

Elissa Cooper
Kristin Mock
English 102 Sec. 028
March 29, 2011
The Black and White of Film Noir
Film noir is a unique style of film that emphasizes the darker side of society and humanity. Recognized by film critics and directors as a classic depiction of crime and sexuality, film noir has made a lasting impression on cinema due to its distinctive cinematic qualities and exemplification of immorality. When noir emerged in the early 1940s, it was not without difficulty, because sex and violence were heavily censored and regarded as inappropriate for the screen. A production code that determined what was acceptable for audiences was in place to censor films of material not in alignment with moral, traditional family values, making it an arduous task for directors to navigate around. Directors, however, constantly struggled to free their voice and creativity from the restraints of overbearing censorship. “The peculiarity of censorship, and one of its most noticeable characteristics – in the absence of which we would never be able to grasp its existence – is that things are always managing to get past it” (Naremore, James 96). Many years passed before any graphic material was introduced to theaters, but during World War I and II, the look of film changed from the standard glossy, refined appearance to a rough, harsh appearance. The blackness of the world began to seep into the movies, and for a period of years filmmakers were granted more freedom. The wars and change of direction in cinema prepared the way for the noir era. The introduction of film noir came with much debate. It made people question what they should and should not see, and softened the moral standards of film. However, even though the content of noir films were graphically shocking, it enabled directors to create far more accurate presentations of evil and innocence.
In order to understand the hoops that the production code made directors jump though, one must first comprehend the rigidness of the code. A man named, Will Hays who believed in extremely high censorship established the 1930 Production Code. A few of the rules of the code were: “1. No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin. 2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented. 3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation” (Clark, Charles 4). One can see how difficult it might be to avoid crossing one of these rules. The guidelines were incredibly unreasonable and filmmakers everywhere did not want to stand for it. It was amazing that any of the noir films went into production at all. Such films were bold, risqué, dark, and inevitably surrounded by much controversy. Film noir deeply impacted the production code, and helped to desensitize audiences away from its high standards. Noir displayed society as ugly and fallen as it truly was; it did not try to light up the darkness.
When film noir emerged, American cinema began to look dimmer and elevated crime above morality. “In 1946 French critics, seeing the American films they had missed during the war, noticed the new mood of cynicism, pessimism and darkness which had crept into the American cinema. As the years went by, Hollywood lighting grew darker, characters more corrupt, themes more fatalistic and the tone more hopeless” (Schrader, Paul 2). In the film Laura, criminals are definitely made out to be far more interesting than the good guys. It is films like this one that had companies on their toes. They did not want criminals to be praised, but audiences wanted to see more crime. They were tired of the fake, polished stories about happy love stories and unrealistic characters. Real characters struggled with dark natures and rarely were perfect role models.
Characters in film noir films were not perfect. They had deep, ingrained flaws and were corrupted to the point that they could no longer recognize truth. These characters, however, explored ideas that were fascinating to many audiences. In a far more recent noir film, Memento (2000) by Christopher Nolan, the main character, Leonard Shelby struggles with finding his identity. He suffers from short-term memory because of a traumatic experience involving the death of his wife and cannot create new memories. Since he can no longer create memories he feels that he is stuck in the past. His entire identity is wrapped around an incident because it is the only memory he has. In order to function he has to constantly write notes for himself so that he will not forget where he is. During the entire film he is trying to find a man he suspects murdered his wife. One can see that the movie is about crime and loss, but it is more importantly about identity. “Personal identity is constituted by our having a series of conscious memories, at least usually. In most cases, this memory theory seems to be the only plausible candidate for a conception of personal identity (Conrad, Mark 44). Film noirs have several qualities other than just being about crime.
The common expectation of a film noir is that the film stock is in black and white. The audience anticipates this because the word, noir, means black in the French language. Furthermore, most film noir films are black and white. There is a poetic quality to a black and white film that stems from the colors themselves. Black illustrates the darker, more evil side. White illustrates light or innocence. Of course, not everything black and white is symbolic of evil and innocence. The two colors merely give the film depth (Palmer, Barton 39).
Another modern noir film that exemplifies evil and innocence is the film Pulp Fiction (1994) by Tarantino. In this film, Tarantino takes a look at the meaning of life. In the film, two hit men carry out their duties killing people for a man named Marcellus Wallas. Marcellus’ character is symbolic of finding one’s soul. Marcellus wears a band aid on the back of his neck, that supposedly is there because Marcellus had sold his soul to the devil. He is trying to retrieve his soul back from the devil, and so sends his two hit men. While the hit men are retrieving the soul they are fired at by a man whose presence they were unaware of. The man fires several times, but is unsuccessful at hitting either of the hit men. The hit men then kill the man. One of the hit man sees this as a miracle, while the other refuses to recognize it as such. Later in the film, the hit man that recognized their surviving as a miracle decides to abandon the life of a killer. Here he talks about turning away from his life of crime: “There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you." Now... I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, that meant your ass. You'd be dead right now. I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before I popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. See, now I'm thinking: maybe it means you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here... he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. And I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd” (Conrad, Mark 112). The other hit man thinks he is insane and continues in his line of work. After making their decisions, the hit that continued to be a hit man is killed. The one that left survives. The film is incredibly violent and illustrates crime in an excruciatingly vivid way, but is successful in accentuating innocence and destiny. When watching the film, people are often repulsed, but it is this repulsion that brings to life the message of the film. “Tarantino’s films are ostensibly about redemption, so they suggest that some ways of living are objectively better in a moral sense than other ways. Indeed, in Tarantino’s postmodern world, where violence is eroticized and stylized, and where one way of life cannot be morally superior to another, if it’s a choice between being a cool gangster and being a dorky real person, who wouldn’t choose to be cool?” (Conard, Mark 113).
“Many classic noirs turn out to present clear visions or right and wrong and demonstrate the self-destructive effects of vice” (Conard, Mark 84). Film noir does not completely stray away from the idea of morality. Many mistake it to be a genre all consumed with glorifying crime, sex, and violence when really it takes pride in showing both sides of evil and innocence. In fact, Film noir is not really a genre. “Film noir is not a genre (as Raymond Durgnat has helpfully pointed out over the objections of Higham and Greenberg’s Hollywood in the Forties). It is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood. It is a film “noir”, as opposed to the possible variants of film grey or film off-white. Film noir is also a specific period of film history, like German Expressionism or the French New Wave. In general, film noir refers to those Hollywood films of the Forties and early Fifties which portrayed the world of dark, slick city streets, crime and corruption” (Schrader, Paul 1). Some major aspects of noir include the following: jump cuts, bizarre off angle compositions, lack of continuity, environments that place audiences on edge, and grainy quality. “Perhaps the most striking visual aspect of film noir is its alteration of ordinary Hollywood lighting schemes; this alteration provides dark images to match the dark stories these films tell (Palmer, Barton 38). One of the most controversial noir films, Taxi Driver (1976) by Martin Scorsese is an example of much darker lighting. Many parts of the film are deeply saturated to give an atmosphere of filth and decay. The film was originally rated x, but was allowed to be given an R rating. The film depicts a deeply troubled Vietnam veteran who ends up killing a few gangsters. The film addresses issues such as prostitution and murder. In this particular movie, innocence cannot be found, but it is the absence of innocence that drives the plot and shows how corrupt people can become.
Film noir did not taint cinema, but rather opened the doors for more powerful messages, because it awakened audiences to see the treachery of darkness. Many films today fall into the category of noir, and its impact can be seen throughout film history. People have scribbled down illustrations for hundreds of centuries, but it was not until the last century that film was invented and made into an art form. Artists have the right to express themselves, and should not be restrained. If filmmakers had not pushed and pulled to have their ideas be shown, cinema would not be anywhere close to where it is today. Innocence and evil had never been so vividly portrayed until the era of noir, and it was filmmakers who embraced the concept of noir that forever changed the direction of media.