3.3 Fatalism and Predetermination
Although an existentialist perspective can be applied for noir works, it cannot be applied completely when examining the concept of fatalism found in noir. Noir productions
emphasize more on limited choices characters can make, which result in fatal consequences when they do not reform their behavior. The fatalistic aspects are expressed through
voiceover narration and flashbacks. The viewers may know the fatalistic outcome at the beginning of the story. In contrast, existentialism is not fatalistic, in that it strives to give
people the freedom to determine their own values. People have to decide what they want to do and be allowed to do it.
In describing the theme of classic noir, it does not give obvious moral lessons and does not show Americans as being particularly well-adjusted, content, or virtuous.
The world of classic noir proffers a disturbing vision that qualifies all hope and suggests a potentially fatal vulnerability, against which no one is adequately
protected. Classic noir has deeply democratic instincts: no one wins; the unforgiving laws of the human condition apply universally to every individual. The grim
pessimism of classic noir is hardly congenial to the sorts of comic films that flourished in America during the same time period.
17
In philosophical terms, an interesting notion by Socrates is that “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates believes that the purpose of human life is personal and spiritual
growth. People can only understand their true nature if they examine and reflect upon their lives. This mirrors an expression by another philosopher, Santayana, who stated, “He who
does not remember the past is condemned to repeat it.” Therefore, if people are not aware of these patterns, they will subconsciously keep repeating them. People will be sort of stuck in a
rut that they cannot escape from and will continue to repeat mistakes and not grow spiritually. This is a common theme in classic noir films for characters that are unable to escape from
17
Hibbs, Thomas S. “The Human Comedy Perpetuates Itself: Nihilism and Comedy in Coen Neo-Noir”, from Conard, Mark. The Philosophy of Neo-Noir. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2009, p.138.
their predetermined fates without some kind of great sacrifice. Characters have fatalistic existences and are doomed to live predetermined lives. They cannot learn from their past and
reinvent themselves as Benjamin Franklin, Socrates, and Santayana believe. Sartre’s concept of existentialism can be examined from a positive perspective as well
as it encourages people to be responsible, authentic, and independent in finding their own paths. In contrast with this, noir literary and film works look at the negative side of this and
what it would be like to live in a God-less world full of fear, anxiety, alienation, and distrust. Noir protagonists are not really free to explore their lives or take different paths made
available to them from their experiences. The characters do not have true independence to do what they want; they generally only have temporary happiness or meaningless wealth. The
characters act because they are forced to do so, not out of a personal choice. As Sartre is more focused on freedom, noir is centered on entrapment. No matter what the male protagonist
tries to accomplish, in the end it is all futile. The noir protagonist is tied to his past and cannot escape from it. Whatever he does is related to his past.
French critics Borde and Chaumeton considered the central emotions of true film noir to be paranoia, fatalism, violence, and dread.
18
These psychological traits can be linked to the psychological effects of WWII and the Cold War period.
“Noir films held out no cure or hope of heaven here or hereafter, nor did they attempt to explain God’s apparent absence in a time of such vast death and suffering. In that
sense, they were perhaps the popular art form most closely attuned to the après-guerre mood, exemplified directly and profoundly in the existentialism of Camus and Sartre
and the gloomy theology of Niebuhr.”
19
Cornell Woolrich, a famous novelist of the 1940s, illustrates the spirit of noir psychology as being fatalistic: “The path you follow is the path you have to follow; there are
18
Lingeman, Richard. The Noir Forties: The American People from Victory to Cold War. New York: Nation Books, 2012, p.223.
19
Ibid, p.223.
no digressions permitted you, even though you think there are.”
20
He went on further to say regarding the psychology of noir characters: “A sense of isolation, of pinpointed and
transfixed helplessness under the stars, of being left alone, unheard, and unaided to face some final fated darkness and engulfment slowly advancing across the years toward me … that has
hung over me all life.”
21
3.4 Fatalism and Voiceover Narration
Kategori