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Film Noir's Effect on Modern Cinema
High heels click on wet pavement, shady detectives stand in the shadows, shots ring out through the cold, dark city night-just another moment in film noir. These seedy, almost underground films are considered to be some of the best and most influential pictures in the history of Hollywood by anyone's standards, most certainly some of the darkest. Even though the glory days of film noir have long passed and given way to big budget productions, their influence and effect on the industry can be felt and seen throughout the movies of today.
The term film noir is a French term literally meaning, black cinema. During the second world war occupying Germans would control what pictures the people of France saw, and it was not until after the war that the French got a glimpse of what American cinema had been doing for nearly five years. The first thing they noticed was how dark the films were both literally and figuratively; hence the name 'black cinema' [1]. Critics were shocked to see plot lines focusing on betrayal, murder, and topics thought to be taboo at the time including drug use and rape. These films were indeed revolutionary in their time, pushing the limits of what was thought to be acceptable on a motion picture screen in America during the 1940?s and 1950?s.
There will be more detail on the plot lines of film noir, as well as examples. But for now, let us focus on the memorable characters introduced to the viewing public through the dark lens of a noir camera. The most prevalent was often the hard boiled detective or private eye, always a male he was considered to be an anti-hero because he was himself no angel and was often corrupt somehow (the most common example was fall...
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... and there. However, it is allowed to come out of the shadows as the classic movies have an enormous following of fans and students wanting to study them and the techniques used to bring them such unique life. No matter what though, these films will never go away so long as there is a wet side street with high heels clicking down it, with the echo of a far off gunshot somewhere in the cold dark night.
Works Cited
Miklitsch, Robert. ?A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941-1953?.
[Film Quarterly, Berkeley Summer 2004].
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=3&did
Dirks, Tim. ?The Greatest Films-Film Noir?.
http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html
No author. ?The Internet Movie Database- The Matlese Falcon/Cape
Fear/Double Indemnity
http://www.imdb.com
Dirks, Tim. ?Review- Blade Runner (1982).?
http://www.filmsite.org/blad.html
Concerning the nature of myths, one can often find that they are built on broad generalization lacking the premises necessary to make a solid conclusion. Such was the same myths, Pier Larson sought to disprove in his essay “The Student’s ‘Ten Commandments’.” Larson discuss damaging and caustic stereotypes that have worked their way throughout history to create a narrative that often subordinates Blacks when promulgated by a more affluent European society . One myth in particular appears to be quite troubling for its contradictory nature-that being the myth: all Africans are Black. Additionally, to be African is to be Black, Africans are not culturally diverse, and that Africans share one, essentially unified culture. Not only do I find these troubling for their outright abasement of African culture, which is plain to see, but rather for the duplicitous logic that lead to the creation of such myths, and why they remain so harmful when they are continued to be spread in contemporary.
Films that are classified as being in the film noir genre all share some basic characteristics. There is generally a voice-over throughout the film in order to guide the audience's perceptions. These movies also involve a crime and a detective who is trying to figure out the truth in the situation. This detective usually encounters a femme fatale who seduces him. However, the most distinctive feature of the film noir genre is the abundance of darkness.
Film Noir is a genre of distinct and unique characteristics. Mostly prominent in the 40s and 50s, the genre rarely skewed from the skeletal plot to which all Film Noir pictures follow. The most famous of these films is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks. This film is the go to when it comes to all the genre’s clichés. This formula for film is so well known and deeply understood that it is often a target for satire. This is what the Coen brothers did with 1998’s The Big Lebowski. This film follows to the T what Film Noir stands for.
The Progressive Era was a time of great reforms in government and in factories. There were a few different forms of Progressivism: the muckrakers (from a character in John Bunyan's book Pilgrim's Progress) were the type of Progressives who exposed corruption. For example, Collier's and McClure's journalists, some of them secretly went as far as moving into the slums to get the full sense of what life was like for the downtrodden, and shed light on what the slumlords were allowing to happen in their buildings. Women's Suffragists were progressive, as well, they picketed, wrote letters, to officials at all levels of government, staged women's suffrage parades, sent out pamphlets, and made speeches to anyone who would listen, and eventually, in halls of government, in from of Congress. One other type of progressive was those who were for the temperance movement (their goal was to ban alcohol, they saw it as corrupting society). Settlement house workers were progressives, too, their cause fought to improve immigrant relations in the United States. Progressives sought to change society, for the better, through their activism. Progressives hoped for stronger local governments at the level of the American people. Theodore Roosevelt's “Who is a Progressive” speech he stated that “A well-meaning man may vaguely think of himself as a Progressive without having even the faintest conception of what a Progressive is" (Bowels, 2011). Additionally, Roosevelt would consider a person progressive if he or she had sympathy for the common man and was a forward-thinker.
The princess bride is an incredibly entertaining book. Although it was written mostly as a parody it contains many themes. The developments seen in the dynamic characters are astounding ones. The theme, or motif, which I'm going to follow through the story is that of Fezzik and his quest for self confidence and a good self image. From the time that the novel starts to the end, Fezzik achieves a good self image. He starts out with a very low self image and, by the end, he finds in himself talents that give him a better image of himself.
As a society we value and admire heroes who represent the idealized version of ourselves whom we stride every day to become. This is why they are sometimes scrutinized, unless they are an anti-hero, of course. The anti-hero is also admired by some even if he utilizes unlawful methods to achieve his goal, because he represents the good in a corrupt world. But this is not always the case as it is seen in some Noir stories. In Noir stories, the anti-hero is supposed to be a modern knight. Transgressing society's corrupt rules in order to reaffirm for its male audience the need to act justly do rightly; however, the anti-hero through this false nobility and sexism reinforces the social problems that plague contemporary society.
The Princess Bride puts a twist on the archetypes of, Star-Crossed Lovers, the Color Black and Evil Character with a Good Heart to render the material new. The Star-Crossed Lovers archetype is rendered new, when Goldman leaves the ending of weather or not Buttercup and Westley will live happily ever after up to the reader. The Color Black archetype is rendered new, because the man in black is the hero and not the villain. The last archetype that is rendered new in this story is the Evil Character with a Good Heart which is rendered new by the fact that Inigo and Fezzik were never really evil but they seemed evil because of who they worked for. The Princess Bride is a modern tale of star-crossed lovers who have to face obstacles just as big as Romeo and Juliet to be together.
All in all, the progressive movement was made up of very influential events and changes that amounted in success. Even though only few of the reformers had been successful, the most important movements- to restore economic competition, making government more efficient, and stem the tide of socialism- were successful. By allowing for support from President Wilson, progressives were able to gain support and become very successful in completing what they stood for. Not only did this mean they gained rights for child labor, but they also helped to create a more equal government for the people, and eliminate competition from large companies. In the end, the progressives were very successful in achieving each of their goals.
The term film noir means, “black film” and was originally coined by French critic Nino Frank in 1946.. The author of “Film Noir”, Bruce Crowther, points out that “in some cases, the movies were based upon the work of such novelists and short-story writes as James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. The work of these and other American writers of the tough-guy and hard-boiled schools were published in France…The prevailing atmosphere of pessimism and doom in these new romans noire translated with ease to the medium of film and prompted the coinage of the term film noir.
Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
The progressive movement of the early 20th century has proved to be an intricately confounded conundrum for American historians. Who participated in this movement? What did it accomplish, or fail to accomplish? Was it a movement at all? These are all significant questions that historians have been grappling with for the last 60 years, thus creating a historical dialogue where in their different interpretations interact with each other.
The ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ era came about from around the 1960’s when cinema and film making began to change. Big film studios were going out of their comfort zone to produce different, creative and artistic movies. At the time, it was all the public wanted to see. People were astonished at the way these films were put together, the narration, the editing, the shots, and everything in between. No more were the films in similar arrangement and structure. The ‘New Hollywood era’ took the classic Hollywood period and turned it around so that rules were broken and people left stunned.
Africa’s struggle to maintain their sovereignty amidst the encroaching Europeans is as much a psychological battle as it is an economic and political one. The spillover effects the system of racial superiority had on the African continent fractured ...
There is no doubt that European colonialism has left a grave impact on Africa. Many of Africa’s current and recent issues can trace their roots back to the poor decisions made during the European colonial era. Some good has resulted however, like modern medicine, education, and infrastructure. Africa’s history and culture have also been transformed. It will take many years for the scars left by colonization to fade, but some things may never truly disappear. The fate of the continent may be unclear, but its past provides us with information on why the present is the way it is.