Film Noir Themes

Eventually, this causes her to regret her decision. She takes the robot to a cliffside and orders it to jump off it. She tells the robot it is “just a performance of stuff that he performed without thinking, and it’s not enough” (Harris).

Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.

This article begins by outlining the tragic death of an artificial intelligence robot, named Steve. Steve’s accidental death, by stairs, raises a lot of new questions surrounding robots, and their rights. In his article, Leetaru, discusses the range of questions that have sparked from not only Steve’s death, but the rise of advanced robot mechanics. While the Silicon Valley is busy grinding out new plans and models of robots, especially security robots, how can we establish what a mechanical robot is entitled to? Leetaru offers many different scenarios concerning robots against aggressors, in hopes to reveal that these rights be outlined with the rise in usage of this technology. The article speculates how in the future, when these robots

Hollywood in the 1940s produced hundreds of films, many of which define the decade. America was in a dark time; most movies were used to cheer people during or after the war. Movies made by Walt Disney cheered up children and families with fun cartoons and happy endings. (Dirks, N.P.) Romantic dramas contented couples everywhere, showing them what might or might not have been in their relationship.

Within the movies Rebecca and Suspicion, there are similarities in various themes. Throughout Hitchcocks’s films, there are constant theme similarities. One particularly interesting similarity is the lead actress is the same for both films. Rebecca and Suspicion have themes of homosexuality, bed scenes, and blonde vs brunette ideals.

“Looks like one of your robots got your son, eh! Hope you programmed them right. You might not have the skills!” Shouted another voice from the crowd. Orsen picked up the nearest Mind Stealer and shot down a few people. The army picked up their weapons but robots came up from behind them and started aiming. People picked up their anti-hurt shields. Laser beams flew everywhere ricocheting off walls and shields. The people with super speed raced around trying to avoid being hit. Nicole, Skylar’s best friend, had the mind reading ability and slowly moved closer to Orsen and tried to read his mind. ‘And I’ll just escape with Marlin. I need to get out of here. These robots can handle these immature

In Paul Schrader’s “notes on film noir” essay, he was carefully to describe a very vagueness to the almost genre of film noir. He made it clear that it is a genre that cannot be specifically pinned down to a single black and white definition. For example he very wisely described it by saying, “It is a film “noir”, as opposed to the possible variants of film gray or film off-white”. This explains how there is this subtle thing, or a je ne sais quoi, that belongs to film noir that makes it film noir. While this “thing” that belongs to film noir is a feeling, it is something that also is very specific to a era in time. Schrader says how it is “period of time in film history”, which goes to show how strange film noir is. How can something that is so nonspecific belong to something so specific at the same time?

Film noir is a cinematic term used to describe stylish crime drama movies. They usually involve cynical attitudes and sexual motivations.” All film noir movies are shot in black and white giving sense of moral corruption, evilness or desperation. A dark-themed music is played making the movie more mysterious. The world inside the film noir movie is filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal. The factor in the movie “Out of the past” that proves it is film noir are atmosphere of movie, presence of character as femme fatale and doomed character.

The dominance of film noir took place during the 1940’s until the early 1950’s in America and the elements of it can be seen in the film Woman on the Run (Belton). One major factor of film noir is that it is produced in black and white and is influenced by American pulp fiction. This is exactly how Woman on the Run is depicted as the story of the archetypical detective mystery takes place in black and white (Belton). This mystery follows Frank Johnson evading the police as he witnesses the death of a police informant Joe and how everyone is looking for Frank. Frank’s wife Eleanor Johnson, Danny the murderer disguised as a journalist, and the police all go looking for Frank with different intentions.

After World War II, the American motion picture studios began releasing films shot in black and white, with a high contrast style known as Film Noir. Though the roots of this style of film was greatly influenced by the German Expressionist movement in film during the late 1910-early 1920’s, and films that resembled this style were made prior to the war, including the early films by Fritz Lang, a German director who fled Germany prior to the war to work in America, this film style would become prevalent during the post WWII era. Besides the shadowed lighting style and the psychologically expressive mise-en-scène, the film noir plot-lines often surrounded crime dramas and were greatly influenced by the pulp fiction novels of the period by authors like Dashiell Hammett and

Film noir, directly translates as “black film” from French due to the dark nature of the film which includes its use of low key lighting in all films in this particular genre. Inspired by German expressionism, the genre developed around the time of World War II when musical and comedies were in bloom. But due to the war, people grew weary of the optimism and humour in these films, thus causing the popularity of film noir to slowly grow. Film noir reflected the issues people at the time were going though; fear and paranoia took over the hearts of these people. The story often revolves around an anti-hero, whom usually is a wise cracking tough guy. He would encounter a femme fatale, who is more often to be seductive and promiscuous; she is never who we would think she is. The dynamics between both characters often balances out each other. For example in Double Indemnity, Walter Huff, an insurance agent meets and falls in love with his client’s wife Phyllis Dietrichson. They both plan a murder together to get rid of Mr. Dietrichson. Unlike Hollywood’s musical and comedies, happy endings don’t exists in film noirs. Low key lighting plays a huge part in film noir. It’s a major element that represents the film and its style, with the help of shadows, it creates a shroud of mystery surrounding the characters, for example, whenever we are around Phyllis, there will always be a slight shadow around her face and yet the shadows around her eyes are less visible.

audience) that he will wait in a café until he finds her. The café he

As two robots manage to override the system and it's 'directives' (as referred to by EVE) to progress their courtship and save humanity in the process. Whereas the robots who do stick to the task end up becoming the punch-line of all jokes — like Micro Obliterator (MO) — or causing mayhem; like Auto.

The film noir genre first appeared in the early 1940s and has grown since their first appearance on screen. While there are various definitions and aspects that can define this genre, it is usual depicted as having an anti-hero set in a realistic setting while trying to fight inner demons and the outer world surrounding problems simultaneously. As any genre, it has noticeable tropes that can place it within this spectrum. Over the years, since the first decade of film noir, society has changed, causing the genre to adapt. The changes are not limited to being on film, but also to those within other forms of media, such as television and literature. Rather than focusing upon one area, it is better to look on it as a whole. Headhunters is a more

The robot had been out for 24 hours now and already Jasper has lost his family from the explosions. All 4 of them were dead except for him. He was alone and the frigid night air had engulfed him in chills as he lay on the hard, burned ground.The robot….the robot was originally a government project. Then the AI nuclear robot went rogue, escaping the facility where the tests were being run and started blowing everything up across Dead Creek, Farem, the capital of the Government.