Film Noir example essay topic

Red Rock West is a hood example of a new-age film noir. It has all the elements that are needed to make a film noir such as light and dark contrast, symbolic environment, the femme fatal, corruption, treachery, and deception. The film is unlike classic noir because of its use of color, irony, and humor in the movie. In the opening scene we get a sense of what Michael is like. He is driving a boat of a car across the barren desert, like he is scavenging for something. Strapped for money he stops at a somewhat abandoned gas station where he finds a bundle of twenty dollar bills out in plain view.

We get the sense that he tries to be honest because he doesn't take the money and he buys gas with the last five dollars that were in his wallet, just enough to get him to Red Rock and not any further. He then gets turned down from his job because he told the truth about his leg being injured. When he goes into the Red Rock Bar we can see the change in his life coming. He walks in from the bright daylight into the darkness of the dimly lit bar. This lighting hints to the audience that from that point on Michael is fated for disaster. From there on the story's most important scenes take place at night.

For example when Michael hits the person in the middle of the road at night when it is pouring rain. He still shows some what of a conscience to bring him back to the hospital. There is some comic relief because every time he leaves and enters the town they show a sign of either entering or leaving Red Rock. No matter how hard that he tries to leave the town he just can't do it, something always comes up.

The most symbolic settings would have to be at the end when they are in the graveyard digging up the money that Wayne had buried. It was dark with fog coating the ground and they are driving up in a completely black car. The audience can see that this will be the climax of the movie because all of these elements are coming together. Suzanne's character is the one with the most twists and turns in her personality. We learn that she is very flawed from the begging when she is seen committing adultery with another man.

Then as we get to know her we find that she is a heavy drinker of hard alcohol. This use of alcohol as a prop is symbolic for a loss of control and we latter find out that she has lost control; she has robbed a company of two million dollars. Other props such as guns and money represent power. Money was proven to have power because the Wayne got elected as the sheriff just by buying every one in the town a drink.

Also in the movie when one character has a gun they have control over everyone else. When Michael and Suzanne meet for the first time Michael controls the conversation until the idea of more money comes in to play. Now the tables have turned and Michael is listening to her commands. This brings forth that these two things are interchangeable and we see this when Wayne pulls out a gun from the trunk that they dug up. We see more humor involved which surprised me because it was the most important scene and usually in film noir the tone is very serious. Overall Red Rock West was a good example of a film noir.

Its use of color and humor help it break ground for neo-noir films, but all of the elements are there and very apparent of a noir film.