In comparing the 1940s and the modern era, noir sentiment is trendy again as parallels can be made between the two eras. In today’s time, the term best applied is neo-noir or retro-
noir. In some aspects, noir is revitalized in a more generic sense, such as in a section in the New York Times national paper “City” section there is a part called “Noir York”. This is more
related to the night scene and events happening around the city that may attract New York residents. Another way that noir is expressed generically is through clothing, decorative items
and styles, food items like chocolate, and various other expressions to capitalize on the trendy look and feel of black-and-white contrast. There is even a website called NoirNet.
Therefore, after disappearing for the most part from the 1960s to the 1980s, noir has made a comeback and been revitalized through various expressions.
Next, from a fashion and cultural perspective, in today’s society noir has been branded and is found in popular culture in advertisements, magazine articles, editorials,
music videos, and products. It is used to represent the mood, style, or attitude of particular noir films of the 1940s and 1950s. Examples of its expression through popular culture can be
viewed in numerous forms today.
4.9.2 Expressions of Noir in the Media Today and in the Future
The World War II period noir films and literary works still gain a great following even today, as various noir novels are still being turned into movies and TV shows. Even the
original Mildred Pierce from the mid-1940s was remade into an HBO miniseries starring Kate Blanchet just a few years ago 2011. This style of writing and filmmaking from the
1940s is significant to American culture and society as it reflects the real condition of society at the time and how political, social, and economic factors interacted to create such a unique
literary and film style. The noir films can be considered as cultural products which reveal a great deal about the worries, anxieties, and pressures faced by Americans living during the
war. The legacy of these films and the spirit from their unique literary and cinematic style can be enjoyed and emulated by film and classic detective crime novel connoisseurs, film and
TV show producers, as well as historians and casual entertainment lovers. Today, traditional noir films and novels still have popularity and are found in various
forms. Some classic noir films are remade into more modern versions. The classic novels are used as a framework for modern crime novel writers to base their works. Noir is also an
international phenomenon now, not just relegated to the USA, South America, England, France, and Germany, as it was during the mid-20
th
century especially during WWII. Many adaptations are found in numerous countries worldwide. Even various museum displays and
paintings depict the noir theme. The popularity can be due to an assortment of factors, but for newer neo-noir productions, it may be popular because directors can use their artistic freedom
combined with sexual violence or criminality to produce unique stories. Noir can be shown today in many different styles to reminisce about the past time, just to depict an era that is no
more, or to try to revitalize it in some way. Next, since the 911 incident, the theme of being in a Cold War is again revived, only
the difference is that during the Cold War, the enemy was more easily identifiable in the form of the USSR. Now, the enemy is terrorism which is more unseen and stretches over many
countries and is not contained to particular countries. The common theme of noir films related to despair and hopelessness can even be
applied to modern American society. “Americans living through the Great Recession of 2008 got a taste of what it was like back then – how a paralysis of fear gripped the nation as the
stock market crash widened and deepened, as one-quarter of the labor force was unemployed and without hope.”
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In today’s society, noir can be seen as potentially being found all over the world. Even though it was incepted in the mid-20
th
century, the themes of paranoia, betrayal, deceit, hopelessness, and failure are even more prevalent now. As the decades progressed, these
kinds of films were more fatalistic and displayed more despair. Although noir and neo-noir films were not the dominant films of any era, they still attracted a wide audience with viewers
who could relate with the themes and messages found within the films. The newer neo-films can be considered as a response to the repressed era of the Production Code, which had strict
regulations in how films were produced and what messages they conveyed. In addition, neo- films convey many more social ills and criticisms of society that have sprung up worldwide.
Oftentimes, neo-noir today strives to convey how behind a peaceful society with nice houses and fenced-in yards, there is a darker side that lurks behind it. The protagonists are
surrounded by darkness that may swallow them at any time. No safety nets can be found in any layer of society, as the protagonists have to be on guard at all times. These kinds of
movies reveal that the society we live in now is problematic, and the prevalent societal concerns will only get progressively worse.
Consumerism and materialism is much more prevalent today than it was during and after WWII. Many of Nietzsche’s concerns about the effect of society in the face of scientific
and technological advancements have come to fruition. Television has become a more popular form of media compared to movies to express existential aspects and societal
problems today. Some of the various TV series that reveal criminal aspects of society are Law and Order 1990-2010, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit 1999-present, Law and
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Lingeman, Richard. The Noir Forties: The American People from Victory to Cold War. New York: Nation Books, 2012, p.29.
Order: Criminal Intent 2001-2011, CSI: Las Vegas 2000-present, CSI: Miami 2002- 2012, CSI: New York 2004-2013, Criminal Minds 2005-present, among numerous other
types of shows that deal with criminality and sex crimes. There is even a FOX Crime Network that deals specifically with crime TV shows 24 hours a day. Furthermore, the most
recent popular TV series that deals with the dark side of humanity and an existentialist perspective from the protagonist character is True Detective 2014-present about the lives of
two detectives, Rust Cohle played by Matthew McConaughey and Martin Hart played by Woody Harrelson, who become entangled during a 17-year search for a serial killer in
Louisiana. The existentialist mindset of Detective Rust Cohle is easily observable in the first 15 minutes of the 1
st
episode of True Detective, after the two protagonists have left a grisly murder scene and are taking a car ride together in the boondocks of Louisiana. This is
portrayed in the following dialog. Rust Cohle: People out here it’s like they don’t even know the outside world exists.
Might as well be living on the fucking Moon. Martin Hart: There’s all kinds of ghettos in the world.
Rust Cohle: It’s all one ghetto, man. Ginat gutter in outer space. Martin Hart: Ask you something? You’re a Christian, yeah?
Rust Cohle: No. Martin Hart: Well, then what do you got that cross for in your apartment?
Rust Cohle: That’s a form of meditation. Martin Hart: How’s that?
Rust Cohle: I contemplate the moment in the garden, the idea of allowing your own
crucifixion. Martin Hart: But you’re not a Christian. So what do you believe?
Rust Cohle: I believe that people shouldn’t talk about this kind of shit at work. Martin Hart: Hold on, hold on, uh … 3 months we been together. I get nothing from
you. Today, what we’re into now, do me a courtesy, okay? I’m not trying to convert you.
Rust Cohle: Look. I consider myself a realist, all right, but in philosophical terms, I’m what’s called a pessimist.
Martin Hart: Um, okay. What’s that mean? Rust Cohle: Means I’m bad at parties.
Martin Hart: Hey, let me tell you. You ain’t great outside of parties either. Rust Cohle: I think human consciousness was a tragic misstep in evolution. We
became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are all creatures that should not exist by natural law.
Martin Hart: Huh. That sounds god-fucking-awful, Rust. Rust Cohle: We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, this accretion
of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when, in fact, everybody’s nobody.
Martin Hart: I wouldn’t go around spouting that shit, I was you. People around here don’t think that way. I don’t think that way.
Rust Cohle: I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one
last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal. Martin Hart: So what’s the point of getting out of bed in the morning?
Rust Cohle: I tell myself I bear witness, but the real answer is that it’s obviously my programming, and I lack the constitution for suicide.
Martin Hart: My luck, I picked today to get to know you. Rust Cohle: I get a bad taste in my mouth out here. Aluminum, ash. Like you can
smell the psychosphere.
From the above dialog, the existential mindset that was prevalent in the 1940s noir era literary and film works can be seen as a prevailing theme in many forms of modern
entertainment media. Even the tag words used by HBO to promote the TV series True Detective convey its dark mood with the phrase “Man is the Cruelest Animal”. Therefore,
America’s fascination with crime and the dark aspects of humanity is easily recognizable in these types of TV shows that gain substantial viewership.
Today’s media has many negative effects on the American mindset. The modern reality of today’s society depicts people being more detached than they ever were before.
People do not spend as much time in their communities, as they prefer interacting in virtual communities. People seem to be more disillusioned as big businesses become bigger and
people are increasingly isolated in society. Americans are obsessed with money, in the hopes that the more material possessions they acquire, it will somehow substitute for the emptiness,
hopelessness, and despair in their lives. There are further many television programs like Extreme Makeover, Pimp My Ride, The Apprentice, Wife Swap, I Want a Famous Face, just
to name a few that promise with major alternations to people’s personal appearances or home and automobile appearances, it will bring instant happiness. These TV shows do not show
minor alterations but emphasize knocking everything down and starting over from the beginning. The American public is deluded into believing that drastic changes in their
physical or economic condition will make them instantaneously cheerful. There is also a constant barrage of advertisements proclaiming that consumerism is the path to happiness.
Even on the international scale, the negative effects of consumerism have pervaded the music video industry. The most recognizable example in today’s popular culture is visible
in the music video “Chick Chick” by Wang Rong Rollin, a Chinese singer from China, who released the song in October of 2014. When examined from a superficial perspective, the
video can be seen to be about a hen which cannot find its chick and asks the other animals it encounters for assistance. However, from a noir existential perspective, this video can convey
the influence of Western decadence and how extravagance, luxury, and self-indulgence have infiltrated societies worldwide, resulting in a sense of moral decline. With the Cinderella,
Lady Gaga, as well as fat and lazy American references, it shows the negative effects of materialism and the decline of Western society. This is in line with the materialism concerns
and social decline of Nietzsche in the late 19
th
century as well as the loss of originality as Ben Franklin had wanted.
To top this, there are also fears of terrorism, empty promises from government leaders, corruption, war, greed, violence, and other societal ills. With these societal aspects
becoming more obvious today, it lays the groundwork for noir moods to be depicted in various media. As consumerism becomes more rampant, various social problems are more
prevalent, and as the media has an increasingly negative effect on American society, it will lead to more social criticisms of the state of the world as expressed in noir literature and neo-
noir films.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS, SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
