25
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
2. Review of Related Studies
The 1940s noir era is rich in existential concepts and characteristics as a reflection of the societal constraints of the period. Various articles and books have been written about the
topic ranging from the development of noir, the concept of whiteness in noir, the historical context of noir, the economic conditions of the period, the various films belonging to that
genre, the characteristics of these films, the philosophical connections, and the shifts in sentiment over time.
2.1 Effects of the World War II Period on American Society
Before the war, Americans were used to having easy access to food and material items. These shortages had a psychological effect on people’s mindsets. The deprivations
during the war shocked many people who were unaccustomed to living in such a way. For example, Raymond Chandler stated about the shortages of meat in Los Angeles,
The meat situation would make you scream. On Wednesday morning the guy opens at 7 AM and all the desert rats are there waiting for him to give out numbered tickets.
Anybody who delays long enough to wash his face is automatically classed as parasitic and gets a high number, if he gets one at all. On Thursday at 10 the
inhabitants bring their bronchitis and halitosis into the store and park in front of the meat counter and the numbers are coonshouted. When we, having a very late number,
kick our way up to the collapsed hunk of hamburger we are greeted with a nervous smile that suggests a deacon caught with his hand in the collection plate, and we leave
bearing off enough meat for the cat. This happens once a week and that is all that happens in the way of meat … I should be out in the desert trying to dig up a dead
gopher. We happened on a rib roast a couple of weeks back, just walked in and said hello, and there the damn thing was. We ate for six nights running, behind drawn
curtains, chewing quietly, so the neighbors wouldn’t hear.
1
1
Chandler, Raymond, qtd in Selected Letters, from Biesen, Sheri Chinen. Blackout: World War 2 and the Origins of Film Noir. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005, p.65.
Therefore, some of the anxiety of the period was due to rationing. Besides food, movie studios had to cut back on electricity, equipment, and film in making pictures. Even
gasoline and motor vehicles were restricted. This meant that studios had to limit the amount of travel they did in the daytime. It became more practical to shoot movies at night.
As the war went on, Americans were more reluctant to save and give up on essential or luxurious things. Even for attire, cloth became a wanted commodity and clothing was
made shorter and skimpier. However, by doing this it eroded some of the traditional values and women were not as modest in their attire.
The consequences of a war that had eroded the moorings of family, church, and community were frightening. In just four years, truancy and juvenile crime had
increased by more than twenty percent, the divorce rate by more than sixty percent. Cultural changes during the war unleashed forces that Hollywood could not ignore.
The 1930 proscriptions against violence and murder, and especially adultery and illicit sex, now seemed outmoded; the endless stream of movies about fearless warriors and
faithful wives old-fashioned. Just beyond the door of the Production Code Administration on Hollywood Boulevard, sex was in the ozone.
2
The wartime deaths also had a significant effect on the American psyche. Paul Fussell wrote in Wartime that people in America hadn’t been told about even
10 of the horror of this war. The real war was tragic and ironic, beyond the power of any literary or philosophic analysis to suggest, but in un-bombed America especially,
the meaning of the war seemed inaccessible. As experience, thus, the suffering was wasted … America has not yet understood what the Second World War was like and
has thus been unable to use such understanding to reinterpret and redefine the national reality and to arrive at something like public maturity.
3
This essentially means that America had a more romanticized and patriotic notion of war and death. Being far from the warfront, Americans did not really comprehend the
atrocities and horrible suffering involved with the war. Many of the deaths were paid respect in ceremonies, and the mantra ‘No man left behind’ was used throughout the war and is even
applicable today. When corpses were brought back to America, they were even put on special
2
Leff and Simmons, “Dame in the Kimono”, from Biesen, Sheri Chinen. Blackout: World War 2 and the Origins of Film Noir. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005, p.65.
3
Lingeman, Richard. The Noir Forties: The American People from Victory to Cold War. New York: Nation Books, 2012, p.54.
ships as if they were living passengers instead of cargo. This denial and unwillingness to accept the true war situation can be perceived as being manifested in noir films. The mass
deaths of Americans overseas may represent people’s own mortality at home, especially when those who die are relatives or friends. Related to the film industry, most war movies
traditionally showed patriotic and noble efforts of people fighting for their country. The noir film era put a different twist on this notion by showing the grim realities of death and war that
can happen at your own doorstep or in your own backyard. As Sigmund Freud suggested, “At bottom no one believes in his own death … in the unconscious every one of us is convinced
of his own immortality. We attribute deaths to normal causes accident, disease, infection and muffle its import in stylized rituals and religious consolation. This is done to modify the
significance of death from a necessity to an accident. But in war death comes in great numbers, overwhelming our emotional defenses; thus, we think about war deaths as
exceedingly terrible.”
4
Therefore, noir films with violent deaths can symbolize the lingering realities of wartime deaths for all those involved.
In relating the damage that was done by the Pearl Harbor attack, a World War II veteran, Paul Fussell, wrote, “The damage the war visited upon bodies and buildings, planes
and tanks and ships, is obvious. Less obvious is the damage it did to intellect, discrimination, honesty, individuality, complexity, ambiguity, and irony, not to mention privacy and wit.”
5
This quotation reveals how the society changed in its outlook to be more anxious and pessimistic. This concern was transformed to the big screen through the jaded and troubled
characters in film noir. Americans were overcome with worries and concerns that pervaded many aspects of their lives.
4
Ibid, p.57.
5
Fussell, Paul, Wartime, from Biesen, Sheri Chinen. Blackout: World War 2 and the Origins of Film Noir. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005, p.59.
Another effect of the war was that many individuals involved in the movie industry enlisted in the Armed Forces, resulting in a shortage of actors, studio executives, movie
producers, and screen writers. This opened opportunities for those who were unable to fight or too old to enlist. This also affected the type of scripts being written, which provided more
opportunities for Chandler and other writers of crime and detective scripts. The shortage of story materials and writers now has film companies seriously ogling
the pulp mag scripts and scripters. It marks the first time that Hollywood has initiated a concerted drive to replenish its dwindling library supplies and its scripter ranks from
the 20 cent-a-word authors of the weird-snappy-breezy-argosy-spy-crime-detective mag school.
6
Even though there were many shortages during the war period, it did not have a negative effect on noir film productions. Fewer films were made but ‘A’ level films were
shown longer in theaters, resulting in higher profit. Another pertinent effect of the war was related to women’s involvement. The WWII
era was significant for the advancement of women’s causes in a shifting of gender roles. As many men in the film industry went to fight the war overseas, it provided women with an
opportunity to fill some of their roles. Besides filling acting roles, women also became writers, producers, and directors. This enabled women to partake in addressing various
concerns about gender issues. Traditionally being homemakers, now they had more power as active members of the workforce. Women were no longer just confined to the home to rear
children and engage in household activities. “The films on which these women worked furnish complex, critical, and generally progressive analyses of American mores and
institutions. While facing the same obstacles dramatized in the films, these female filmmakers nudged Hollywood toward more enlightened views about gender and, in one
6
Variety Magazine from Biesen, Sheri Chinen. Blackout: World War 2 and the Origins of Film Noir. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005, p.67.
case, helped to redefine cinematic authorship.”
7
As a consequence, more feminist perspectives were able to be introduced into this genre that was previously male-dominated.
Angela Martin commented about the effect of the war on women and soldiers. “Over 4 million women were working in 1943 … coinciding with the peak of woman’s involvement
in the labor force, the armed services began, in late 1943, discharging psychoneurotic veterans at the rate of 10,000 cases a month, leading to the hospitalization of 850,000 soldiers
and the addition of 2,500 army medical officers to the 25 thus far working in psychiatry.”
8
This was also compounded with a sharp increase in the divorce rate due to the effects of the war. There was disillusionment among the people about the war and concerns for women
about having to leave the workforce towards the end of the war. Woman played an instrumental role in making noir films, both as actresses and behind
the scenes in assisting the filmmaking process. They were able to bring to light alternate realities of gender roles in the 1940s and beyond and show the oppressive conditions faced by
women during this period. Noir films were essential in depicting the cultural shifts transpiring in a changing world that gave a glimpse into various hopes and fears in the minds of
Americans post WWII. The change in gender roles had a significant impact on American society in WWII.
“More than six million took new jobs, increasing the female labor force by more than 50 percent. By 1944, women composed more than 36 percent of the total labor force, up from 25
percent in 1941. Defense jobs spelled significant social mobility, as many women traded low- paying employment in restaurants or laundries for wartime production work that as much as
7
Osteen, Mark. Nightmare Alley: Film Noir and the American Dream. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2012, p.185.
8
Martin, Angela, qtd in Kaplan, Ann. Women in Film Noir. London: British Film Institute, 2008, p.203.
doubled their wages.”
9
Nevertheless, it still had contradictions in society, as women were still expected to maintain their traditional roles and only work out of necessity until the male
workforce was reintegrated with society. This viewpoint was even more prevalent among war veterans when they returned home after the war. Many war veterans still kept their traditional
pre-war viewpoints about traditional gender roles or even felt more strongly about them. As women also made up a greater viewership in movie theaters during the war, more
films had to be produced that were appealing to them. As a consequence, more melodramas were made with stories that female moviegoers could relate to. Therefore, “Femme noirs –
noir films written, produced, or directed by women – share many traits with the woman’s film: female protagonists; gender anxiety; and ambivalence, or downright cynicism, about
marriage. In addition to treating women’s issues, then, these films blurred generic boundaries and brought strong women characters into formerly male territory.”
10
2.2 Post World War II Condition
Kategori