> I would agree that the noir "hero" is usually
responsible for what
> happens to him or herself, but they don't go into a
situation aware
of
> what might happen to them. The hardboiled PI or cop
or even
criminal
> inhabits a world of violence and is aware of the
possibilities, the
> noir hero inhabits an everyday world that suddenly
spins out of
> control. That's the distinction I was trying to
make.
>
That's fine as a starting point, but it must be remembered
that individual noirs can inflect this schema in a thousand
different ways. In Edgar Ulmer's film DETOUR, for example,
the protagonist is constantly moaning about his bad luck,
about how an impersonal fate has reached out and put the
finger on him for no good reason at all. He sees himself as
an everyday guy whose world has suddenly spun out of control.
Yet the film makes it absolutely clear that this man is a
hypocrite who invokes the concept of 'fate' as a means of
denying what is blatantly obvious to anyone who looks closely
at the film - that he personally responsible for everything
which happens to him.
Elmore Leonard's novel CAT CHASER works is a somewhat similar
way. The protagonist sees himself as an ordinary guy who has
somehow become involved with a noir world of violent thugs
and ex-torturers. Yet the truth is that he is able to emerge
victorious (with two suitcases full of money) only because he
is ultimately capable of surpassing his enemies in calculated
self-interest.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 08 Apr 2005 EDT