film noir! film noir!

In an effort to keep me pumped about working on Hearts, I've been watching a shitload of noir flicks. And so, in an effort to  1) further keep me pumped about working on Hearts and 2) to hopefully get some of you knuckleheads to watch some cool movies I will be writing about some of my favorites. 

Noir - whether you define it as a genre unto itself or simply a cycle of film that ran between the 1930s and ended in the late 50s - is a strange beast.  No Way Out, Call Northside 777,  Ace in the Hole and The Asphalt Jungle are all considered to be film noir.  You may not have seen these films, but to glace at the loglines of all four you would be hard-pressed to see how they're all part of a whole.  What connects them all is the element of despair.

Despair in its many forms.

I'll admit it: my favorite noir films center around the criminal element -- not just gangsters, you see, but the losers, hustlers, lowlifes and has-beens. My favorites include Scarlet Street, Night and the City, Pickup On South Street and The Asphalt Jungle. Each of these films have protagonists who are do deep in despair that they can't stand it. They get involved in a life of crime and...well, you can guess what happens in a world where Dread rules (no, not Judge Dredd, ya a-holes!) and Death is the best way to go.

Then you have flicks like The Woman in the Window, Double Indemnity and Gun Crazy, where law-abiding folks find themselves on the side of the lowlifes. Fantastic.

Then you have neo-noir flicks like Way of the Gun and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia: two reasons to argue that noir is a genre. These two flicks are so chock full of bad-assery it makes my dick want to punch a brick wall.

So I'll be writing about a few noir flicks.

Yay me.