Classic Film Noir Structure

The Formal View

Either because he is fated to do so by chance, or because he has been hired for a job specifically associated with her, a man whose experience of life has left him sanguine and often bitter meets a not-innocent woman of similar outlook to whom he is sexually and fatally attracted. Through this attraction, either because the woman induces him to it or because it is the natural result of their relationship, the man comes to cheat, attempt to murder, or actually murder a second man to whom the woman is unhappily or unwillingly attached (generally he is her husband or lover), and act which often leads to the woman’s betrayal of the protagonist, but which in any event brings about the sometimes metaphoric but usually literal destruction of the woman, the man to whom she is attached, and frequently the protagonist himself.

James Damico, “Film Noir: A Modest Proposal”

The Cultural View

Behind the free-floating anxiety of noir is a primal anxiety over borders and boundaries that manifests itself in specific fears and phobias of race, sex, maternity, and national origin

Kelly Oliver and Benigno Trigo, Noir Anxiety (2003)

· Hero/Anti-Hero: a male loner, sometimes with a tragic past (e.g., a war veteran). Hero may be associated with either side of the law.

· Femme Fatale/Black Widow: a dangerous, sexually aggressive woman who “traps” the hero with irresistible sexual allure. Hence, the films feature (as do many American films) both a fascination with and fear of sexuality, especially women’s sexuality.

· “Good” Woman: The dangerous woman is sometimes countered by a “pure” (often meaning asexual or sexually passive) woman who may act as a salvation for the hero. The gender stereotyping in noir often follows the classic “good girl/bad girl” dichotomy. Sometimes, the hero is forced to choose between a male friend and dangerous woman. All these gender stereotypes connect to male anxieties over the changing and expanding role of women in society.

· Uncertain Moral Climate: It is often difficult for the main character as well as the audience to perceive differences between good and bad. As noted above, heroes in film noir may be either law enforcers or lawbreakers; in both cases, the audience is unable to neatly categorize the main characters into the “good” and the “evil.” Again, this uncertainty reflects reactions to social and cultural change.

· Futility of Human Agency: Often the existential dilemma for the hero is whether human agency--the attempt to intervene in and change the course of human affairs--is a worthy project or even possible. This issue extends to questions of culpability and guilt as well.