In the 1940’s,
American movies were growing darker and gloomier,
both visually and also in terms of theme and content.
Hence, French film critics coined the term “noir”
which literally means ‘black’ in French.
right after Double Indemnity
I watched another classic which falls under film noir as well
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
The ensemble casts,
instead of one single protagonist
add multi-dimensional flavours of darkness
to the film.
An iconic characteristic of film noir is fatalism.
The ill-fated protagonist is sent
into a quicksand by a small minor mistake.
His futile attempts to escape
make it more difficult to get back on to the right track.
This is often described as a “spider web of deceit”.
In the movie, the web of deceit is
triggered by the burglar alarms going off
all over the place for no sensible reason.
Out of commotion,
a gun fires of its own accord,
shooting down a man.
The alarm put the cop on alerts and
they have to put up a tough fight
escaping the crime scene.
This is purely an accident which
dooms their meticulously planned heist.
As Dix put it,
“Blind accidents,
what can you do against blind accident?”
Transgression is one of the common themes
explored in film noir.
Personality who commits wrongs
with conscious of guilt
but there is no way out.
Emmerich is an epitome of transgression.
He is a well-to-do lawyer with established career.
However he ends up heavily in-debt and
commits more wrongdoings,
partly owning to his spoilt young mistress.
In his unfinished last note
before committing suicide,
he asks for forgiveness from the wife.
p/s the mistress looks familiar, isn’t she
the young and sweet Marilyn Monroe
before her fame
To Doc,
Emmerich’s act of ending his own life
is a foolish act because the jail term that
he will probably get is less than two years.
However for a lawyer of his status,
the cost of bearing the disgrace
out weights the jail term.
A key element of film noir is
the overshadowing desire and obsession of man.
It is a personal subjectivity,
unique to the protagonists.
It is usually being fulfilled in a very ominous way.
Dix has the long lost childhood dream of
returning to the ranch where he once belonged.
Heavily wounded,
he has hallucination of the simple life
he once experienced at the farm.
In the lyrical ending,
he falls down and on the meadow grass,
amidst some grazing horses he dreams of owning.
Finally Dix dies a quiet moment at the place where he belongs
and beside a girl who cries her heart for him.
The social setting of film noir is usually
based on a dark age of corruption and moral collapse.
The opening scene presents an urban environment of
bleak and decayed.
The focus is the police patrol,
being the one and only vehicle on street.
The scene sends ominous signals
as to the happenings of the city.
Even the title of the film is suggesting
the city of crime.
Asphalt, in a literal meaning, is
a black, and stick semi-solid found in crude oil.
It implies complication and entanglement.
Just like what Ciavelli, the family man describes,
“If you want fresh air, don't look for it in this town.”
In this seemingly placid “jungle”,
there are petty bookie & horse gambling activities,
corrupted cops, crooked lawyer and
big-time thieves.
Asphalt Jungle indeed falls into
the genre of film noir.
The elements of darkness are presented
within the individuals and
also the community as a whole.
The only form of escapism is death.
Sounds pessimistic?
This is what the infamous film noir is all about.
The Asphalt Jungle / 1950
Works Cited
Dirks, T. (n.d.). The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Retrieved June 10, 2011, from Film Site: http://www.filmsite.org/asph3.html
Horsley, L. (2002). The Development of Post-war Literary and Cinematic Noir. Retrieved June 10, 2011, from Crime Culture: http://www.crimeculture.com/Contents/Film%20Noir.html
Westcombe, R. (2003). What is this thing called film noir, anyway? Retrieved June 10, 2011, from Big House Film: http://www.bighousefilm.com/noir_intro.htm