The Philosophy of Neo-Noir

The Philosophy of Popular Culture

by Mark T. Conard

Film noir is a classic genre characterized by visual elements such as tilted camera angles, skewed scene compositions, and an interplay between darkness and light. Common motifs include crime and punishment, the upheaval of traditional moral values, and a pessimistic stance on the meaning of life and on the place of humankind in the universe. Spanning the 1940s and 1950s, the classic film noir era saw the release of many of Hollywood's best-loved studies of shady characters and shadowy underworlds, including Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, Touch of Evil, and The Maltese Falcon. Neo-noir is a somewhat loosely defined genre of films produced after the classic noir era that display the visual or thematic hallmarks of the noir sensibility. The essays collected in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir explore the philosophical implications of neo-noir touchstones such as Blade Runner, Chinatown, Reservoir Dogs, Memento, and the films of the Coen brothers. Through the lens of philosophy, Mark T. Conard and the contributors examine previously obscure layers of meaning in these challenging films. The contributors also consider these neo-noir films as a means of addressing philosophical questions about guilt, redemption, the essence of human nature, and problems of knowledge, memory and identity. In the neo-noir universe, the lines between right and wrong and good and evil are blurred, and the detective and the criminal frequently mirror each other's most debilitating personality traits. The neo-noir detective―more antihero than hero―is frequently a morally compromised and spiritually shaken individual whose pursuit of a criminal masks the search for lost or unattainable aspects of the self. Conard argues that the films discussed in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir convey ambiguity, disillusionment, and disorientation more effectively than even the most iconic films of the classic noir era. Able to self-consciously draw upon noir conventions and simultaneously subvert them, neo-noir directors push beyond the earlier genre's limitations and open new paths of cinematic and philosophical exploration.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Noir, Art, Pop Culture

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2006

About the author

Mark T. Conard lives in New York City. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Temple University in Philadelphia. He’s the author of numerous essays, and is the co-editor of The Simpsons and Philosophy, and Woody Allen and Philosophy, both published by Open Court Press; and is editor of The Philosophy of Film Noir, The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese, The Philosophy of The Coen Brothers, and The Philosophy of Spike Lee (all published by The University Press of Kentucky). He’s the editor of Nietzsche and the Philosophers (Routledge, 2017). In addition, he's the author of Dark as Night (2021) and A Killer's Coda (2021), both published by Down & Out Books.

Reviews

[Pranjal Awasthi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Conrad's work on philosophy and film is one of the best I've read. In this book he has collated a collection of essays on the genre of Noir and Neo-Noir films. Through the 10+ essays he (along with other authors) takes us on a cinema journey highlighting the elements of philosophy in those landmark neo-noir films like Chinatown, Blade runner, The man that wasn't there etc. For someone like me who thought of Noir as simply hard boiled detective stories born out of the works of Dashiell Hammett, it was eye-opening to understand the subtle nuances of Noir and how films like Polanski's The Ninth Gate, Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight or even Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs qualify as representative works of Neo Noir, exemplifying all the classic themes and iconography which the classic film noir of Bogart used.

[CL Chu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally feel that the selection of essays is somehow repetitive - most of them starts with an introduction to the transition from classic noir to neo-noir; and the analysis can be enriched by addition of critical gender and race studies, as well as the global connection of neo-noir cinema. But overall The Philosophy of Neo-Noir is a decent introductory reading, especially its first part.

[L.M. Elm · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've watched any noir films (Hitchcock anyone?) than none of the troupes provided my Conrad will come as a surprise. But it's a nice reminder of what the genre was and has become.

Well worth a read.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good philosophy, good movies. My kind of book.

[Jay Clifton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rich possibilities for describing difficult philosophical ideas through interplay and comparison with the narratives of a film genre are fully realised in this excellent collection of 13 essays, all written by academics, mostly either professors or assistant professors of Philosophy from various American universities.

The credentials of the contributors, outlined in the Contributors pages, are impressive, but more impressive are the effort they have made to be understandable outside of academia, as the editor says in the Introduction, “The essays are written in nontechnical language and require no knowledge of philosophy to appreciate or understand.”

To describe all the essays would take too long, but if I had to pick one as exemplary it would be “Blade Runner and Sartre: The Boundaries of Humanity” by Judith Barad, a professor of philosophy and women’s studies at Indiana State University. Barad employs a close reading of the narrative of Blade Runner to delineate the ideas of Sartre.
The correlation of Sartre’s ideas to the narrative of the film enriched both my comprehension of Sartre and my appreciation of a film I already loved very much. It’s not difficult to comprehend ideas such as the following: “Sartre counsels us that, when we choose, we should restrict our efforts to what is under our immediate control… Rather than focussing our energy on things beyond our control, we concentrate on what we can do. Deckard [the hero of Blade Runner] can’t save his society by himself, but it is within his power to save an individual.” (p.26).

As with the other essays in this book, Barad’s close reading of, and respect for, the film’s narrative leads to some fascinating correlations. She notes, for example, in relation to Sartre’s “In order to get any truth about myself, I must have contact with another person” that, “Ironically, it’s only the replicants, who, through most of the film, display intersubjectivity by caring about each other. All the humans… live alone, without any apparent intimate relationship to anyone else.” (p.29).

Elsewhere there is a very interesting categorising of Neo-Noir into three types- past, present and future – by Jerold J. Abrams, with a focus on identity, and the essays also look at some now almost forgotten Neo-Noir films (Dark City, A Simple Plan), exploring them from a philosophical framework. In some cases I enjoyed the essays more than the films they were about.

If you generally enjoy Neo-Noir films and feel that in some way they are offering more than simple entertainment but an invitation to consider the meaning of one’s existence, then this is a book you will relate to and enjoy. It’s also a useful introduction to some important ideas in modern Philosophy – or an enjoyable road back to forgotten studies – as well as a good overview of some of the most interesting films in the Neo-Noir genre. (Jason Clifton, 17/1/13)

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memento, Blade Runner, Chinatown, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Point Blank, A Simple Plan, Hard Eight, Miami Vice, and several films by the Coen brothers receive in depth analyses as the style and themes of neo-noir are developed along with such philosophy themes as subjectivity, personal identity, knowledge, justice guilt, and redemption. Thirteen essays that move the ball from noir to neo-noir with plenty of meat whether your perspective is film theory, philosophy, or cultural studies. Includes and excellent discussion of Nietzsche's ideas on nihilism and perspectivism and a sharp argument against Kant's categorical imperative as it applies to moral conscience. The style in these essays, as with The Philosophy of Noir, is not too technical or academic, so more casual readers interested in the ideas underpinning noir and neo-noir films shouldn't be put off by the heavy-duty themes.

[Noah Lustgarten · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to learn what neo-noir is all about, read this book. One of the most educational books about film and philosophy ever crafted!

[Jake Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the volume on classic film noir better and think there were probably a lot more films that could have been written about but hey I'm no philosopher. Enjoyable (if very academic) reading.

[Debbi Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a true cinephile, this book makes fascinating reading, as long as you don’t mind plowing through a bit of professorial language.

The essays are broken down into three parts: Subjectivity, Knowledge, And Human Nature in Neo-Noir; Justice, Guilt and Redemption: Morality In Neo-Noir; and Elements Of Neo-Noir. Among the best of the bunch are the essays on Blade Runner, Memento, and the neo-noir antihero in Part One. They set the stage for what’s to come in the following parts.

Much of what’s written compares classic noir with modern day noir, in terms of how the paradigms and tropes of classic noir are updated, defied or self-consciously invoked. In Mark T. Conard’s study of Quentin Tarantino’s films and Reservoir Dogs in particular, Conard (citing Andrew Spicer) divides neo-noir into two camps: modernist and postmodern.

To read the entire review, click here: https://debbimacktoo.wordpress.com/20...