Film Noir and Neo-Noir - Essay Example

Film Noir According to Spicer, one of the most arresting traits of film neo-noir is how it depicts the male protagonist who lacks such qualities as courage, tenacity, incorruptibility and dynamism (47). All of these qualities characterize the prototypal American hero who, hence, functions as antiheroes. He continues to argue that the distinctive noir male agonist is weak, unstable, confused and ineffectual. They are damaged men suffering from a range of psychological neuroses and unable to figure out and resolve the problems they often face. Film noir will always remain something of a mystery. Hence, the significance of film neo-noir is that they draw upon or relate the image, the notion and the putative rules of film noir. The approach of the research paper is to identify the attributes that Spicer argues “neo-noir has remained a form that continues to accommodate complex, difficult ideas whereby existentialist attitudes continue to flourish.” Using the film Memento (Nolan), I can present how these neo-noir attributes have been presented in the film. Perhaps Memento has the most complex neo-noir feature as it provides a space in which the audience can, if not force, to deliberate the nature of identity. Though the question of identity is a repeated theme in neo-noir films, it is in Memento that has directly addressed this concern. The film depicts an antihero whose memory maybe or is faulty and his experience of time is confusing and is uncertain about his past and not sure about the meaning of the present activity he has engaged in and the very fabric of his identity (Nolan 217). Therefore, depicting that it consists attributes of neo-noir. The film is much concerned with the dark side that emphasizes loneliness, alienation and the fear that any or all activity being carried out by the character may be futile and meaningless. Therefore, the choices taken by the noir protagonist are never the real ones; lack the opportunity of escaping the bonds of convention, except via a hollow freedom represented by money, power, sex, and promise of adventure. Moreover, in the film, Memento, the noir antihero (Leonard) is often acting from desperation instead of rational choice, reacting to an inchoate, contingent world dominated by blind chance, which is often threatening and carries an undercurrent of violence that at any moment they can strike. Therefore, being an instant in the film of attributes stated by Spicer’s in his essay as being a neo-noir. The protagonist in Memento, has anterograde amnesia, and is unable to create new memories. The protagonist in the film is Leonard, who with his wife, they are assaulted in their house, and Leonard is hit on the head; thus, he loses the ability to create new memories. It eventually causes Leonard to seek vengeance because of his wife’s murder. However, this is all on the surface as underneath the film’s plot lurks the problem of what makes up personal identity over time. Also, lurks the issue of what makes and individual the same individual at two distinct times. In the film, the viewer can see that Leonard insists on the fact that everyone needs a mirror in order to remind him of who he is. He attempts finding or creating some memories for himself. Therefore, he identifies the nature of memory and its significance in the creation of identity as argued by Spicer (48). Leonard attempts to track down the person who murdered his wife; he keeps himself on track by using temporary paper note and permanent tattoos. The protagonist even questions his reliability as a narrator. He presents his audience with constituents of first person narration and the viewers’ perception of reality. This presentation of internal monologue or the first person narration within neo-noir has an emphatic effect on the understanding of the truth, altering sequences and distorting the perception of the audience regarding the narrative to a point where all is manipulated (Nolan 214). It is the narration, which drives these stories and, therefore, affecting the viewers’ perception of truth and reality. However, in the film because of the protagonist own memory fallacies, his narration self aware and also provides a map for the viewer as to what is happening within the film. This is an instant in the film of attributes argued by Spicer’s in his essay. Even when the film begins, it depicts that Leonard has already found his wife’s killer because it is based on narrating backwards. With noir themes of identity in the film, the protagonist must start from scratch in his search. So the he asks where he is. This places the audience in the dark as to the reason Leonard must depict himself with this anonymity. The film is based on two aspects; one is that the story is subjectively narrated from Leonard’s perspective and the second aspect is that the he has a certain condition that he refers to as innumerable times. In addition, the film, Memento, is narrated in reverse. The color sequences have been edited in reverse with the white and black sequences that works as interstitials depicting the attribute of neo-noir. The viewers learn much about Leonard’s past, filled with flashbacks and his previous job as an investigator. Leonard start speaking via the phone to another person shrouded in anonymity, the conversation talks of his background to the audience, where it explains who Sammy Jenkis is (Nolan 124). Therefore, the narration switches and becomes uncertain temporality. Just before Leonard kills the person he thinks killed his wife, he tries to ensure that he is right and reads the back of the polaroid of the person he is about to kill. This is an attribute evident in the film with respect to Spicer’s argument in his essay. Another instant of how neo-noir has reamed a form that continues to accommodate complex-difficult ideas whereby existentialist attitudes continue to flourish in Memento is when it is concealed that the protagonist has already avenged the death of his wife. In addition, it is revealed that Teddy who is the most suspicious individual in the film is really a cop. Teddy tells Leonard that the complete past, that Sammy Jenkis did not exist and that the assailants of his wife were caught. The narrator says that teddy has been killing other people round the town because he is a corrupt cop who pitted him, and took advantage of Leonard’s condition to make more money on it. The shocked Leonard, in his madness starts writing on the photograph of the person who has just told him the truth. He writes, “Do not believe his lies. This is the one. You should kill him” (Nolan 222). Leonard slumps into denial and he performs his monologue. “He thinks that he has to believe in the worlds outside his own mind, to believe that his actions still do have meaning, even though he cannot remember them.” He says that he has to believe that when he closes his eyes, the world will still be there. However, he questions his ability to do that by asking if he should believe that the world is still there? This is a real instant of what Spicer argues in his article that depicts the attributes of neo-noir. It is because the monologue explore the ideas of identity and it primary purpose in the film genre of noir. It taps into the experiential layers of the genre, which depicts the American antihero in the form of the film that is known for its misdemeanors and crimes. In conclusion, the film philosophical aspect is related to Locke’s problem of identity, if the memories actively develop an individual’s transformation into a monster. Every time Leonard closes his eyes, he says that it is like waking up from something else, meaning that he does not have memory of what just happened. The way Memento unfurls, that narrative structure is dependent on Leonard. Memento explores the neo-noir element of the first person narration and it is unreliable and effect on the viewer’s perception of truth (Nolan 221). Generally, in the film classic noir feature a narrator who tells his story through narrations and flashbacks as the narrator, Leonard, tries making sense of the events that took place to make consistent story. The protagonist of the Memento is not able to create new memories, thus thrusting the audience into a spiral because the films if narrated in reverse. Works Cited Christopher Nolan. Memento and Following; London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print. Nolan, Christopher (2000) Memento. USA (Film) Spicer, Andrew. (2009) ‘Problems of Memory and Identity in Neo-Noir’s Existential Antihero’ in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir (Ed.) Mark T. Conrad; Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 47-63. Read More