Neo Noir…. Defined as the revival of film noir, a genre of sinister stories in a shadowy style. These films are the continuation of our old school black and white noir films, a “revival” if you will. Older noir films were very suggestive of explicit scenes such as sex or violence. But as noir progressed into the neo noir phases violence and gore particularly became less suggested and started being shown on consumers screens. In our Neo Noir reading from Dickos, he states: “The neo-noir is generally more violent, and more graphically violent at that, than the classic film noir ever was. Such violence is almost always stylized and often less disturbing.”(screenshot of quote) With that being said, why has this explicit violence become a characteristic among neo noir films, and why have the suggestive methods used in early stages of noir been dropped in favor of these gore loaded and revealing scenes?
Early on in production of noir films we think about movies such as Scarlet Street which does suggest that kitty, who took credit for Chris’ paintings for her and her boyfriend’s gain, is stabbed to death by Chris when she becomes hysterical over the fact that he thinks that they could run away together. But in an effort to stick to the suggestive nature of early noir films we see Kitty go under the sheets shortly before Chris stabs her repeatedly (Insert clip of the scene). We also look to a film like Double Indemnity, which almost completely brushes off the death of Mr. Dietrichson, and kind of just suggests that he has just been murdered. This film doesn’t even suggest it just assumes that we know the “deed has been done.” Out of the past is another movie that uses a suggestive method to reveal a heinous murder of one of the characters.
As the needle starts to shift and films became “Neo Noir” we see less suggestion and more of scenes depicting the actual acts. The first film that comes to mind for me is Pulp Fiction where we see many different scenes of people being shot. Not only does the film show these acts but it also shows them in the light of day. From Pumkin and Honey’s restaurant hold up, to Jules and Vincent killing the young drug dealers, Butch killing Vincent, and Butch’s scenes with Marsellus and Zed. You can even argue that Vincent stabbing Mia in the heart after her overdose was a somewhat visual and violent moment. Pulp Fiction was a very early Neo noir film, so if we look down the line at something a little bit more modern like John Wick and we see noir films start stretching and being a part of other genres as well. John Wick is a very action filled movie, so inherently the movie includes a lot of action and a lot of killings as well (include clips from John Wick). But other films that come to mind are Brick, The Batman films, I robot, etc…
So, diving into the question of why the explicit violence has become such a staple of neo noir. I think that when Neo Noir was picked up and newer producers started trying to imitate what the early noir films did. Naturally there was some evolution that came along with that since a new generation of creators was in the industry. A quote that I read from Angelica Jade Bastien, a writer for Vulture, had this to say: “Free of the original studio system, neo-noir…has more brutal violence and sexually explicit scenes, turning what was once subtext into text…In recent years, [neo-noirs] still care about style, but it’s grounded in the personal hells these characters navigate in their urban and rural landscapes.” (Have a screenshot of the quote). This quote, I think captures exactly the mindset of most filmmakers during this revival era of classical noir. The Original studio system was already not very fond of noir films which romanticized protagonists with eerie and maybe not always morally correct decisions and behaviors, and the violence and dark feelings that accompanied these kinds of films. So, producers brushed the fine line of suggesting but did not feel that they could go as far as depicting the actual gore and killing itself. So, I think the basic answer for why it become a characteristic is simply that producers of these films felt less restricted by “the studio system”. And once people started to take interest in these kinds of films, it really turns into business decision making at that point. Those kinds of films started to become more popular, and they were selling more copies and tickets. The studios didn’t really have much of a choice. Trying to put similar restrictions back on these newer films could’ve possibly dimmed the interest and overall would’ve felt like a regression in the film industry. Dickos also mentioned in his Neo Noir piece that violence provides a certain excitement that can really be substituted for anything else. This connects back to the notion of the film industry almost forbidding this kind of on-screen portrayal, and I feel like it created this feeling that consumers like to capture knowing that at one point in the past this type of imagery was frowned upon and rarely used.
Neo Noir and the characteristic violence that comes along with it developed over time due to the relaxation of the industry paradigms. Once fans got their first taste of violence actually being shown on the big screen, it became more and more common. It became popular among fans and gave them a kind of feeling that they were watching something that should be “forbidden” if you will. I think this is what led to the continuing development of the neo noir subgenre and also led to the evolution of the violence, sexual, and explicit imagery that we see today in our neo noir films.
The bibliography seems to be missing….