American History X: Film Noir

254 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: How movies sterortypes ethnic groups

A conscious nod to nuances of the “noir” theme in American History X was the use of flashbacks as a way to narrate the story. Film Noir is genre of film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. Flashbacks show scenes of previous events that occurred before the story begins and help fill out the characters background. It lends the audience a better idea of what is happening in the present along with the film's message. Flashbacks are used in narrative strategy in film noir, contributing to exploration of truth and falsehood in the genre. In the film, this theme was used to narrate most of the story. To start the film, the first flashback revolved around Derek killing two black men who were trying to break into his car at his house.

Show More
Related

  • The History of African Americans in Film

    2062 Words  | 5 Pages

    Minstrel shows were developed in the 1840's and reached its peak after the Civil War. They managed to remain popular into the early 1900s. The Minstrel shows were shows in which white performers would paint their faces black and act the role of an African American. This was called black facing. The minstrel show evolved from two types of entertainment popular in America before 1830: the impersonation of blacks given by white actors between acts of plays or during circuses, and the performances of black musicians who sang, with banjo accompaniment, in city streets. The 'father of American minstrelsy' was Thomas Dartmouth 'Daddy' Rice, who between 1828 and 1831 developed a song-and-dance routine in which he impersonated an old, crippled black slave, dubbed Jim Crow. Jim Crow was a fool who just spent his whole day slacking off, dancing the day away with an occasional mischievous prank such as stealing a watermelon from a farm. Most of the skits performed on the Minstrel shows symbolized the life of the African American plantations slaves. This routine achieved immediate popularity, and Rice performed it with great success in the United States and Britain, where he introduced it in 1836. Throughout the 1830s, up to the founding of the minstrel show proper, Rice had many imitators.

    Read More

  • In America Movie Analysis

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    In America is a movie about an Irish family that immigrates to New York in order to find better work and improve their lives, but end up finding that it is very difficult to live in the U.S. This is due to the problems they face involving health, money, and the overall environment of the place they live. There are many aspects of cultural geography that are brought up throughout the movie. Some examples include the neighborhood they live in, class of people, and the health factors that impact the people that live there.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Rear Window

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    In other words, the higher class creates the beliefs on how the rest of the lower classes should be seen or what ideals they should follow. The lower classes do this to themselves to reinsure their nature of national identity. Cinema is used as an ideological apparatus. Hollywood puts their ideals on the screen and renders them invisible. Such ideologies that are on the screen are heterosexual and it is embedded in almost every genre. Other ideals consist of social class of an individual, the gender of the individual and the age. There are two states of apparatus that are spread ideologically on screen. The first is repressive, discriminates other people to in oppressive state, such as laws that discriminate against certain groups. Second is, Ideological state apparatus, covertly spreads ideologies such as family, church and school. Hitchcock uses the reality effect in Rear Window to draw the audience more into the cinematic experience. He does so by making the protagonist look through the lens of his camera to view his neighbors and look inside their apartment and how they live their daily lives. By doing so, we see the world through Jefferies eyes and he himself becomes part of the audience. While viewing every apartment window we see how people live in their natural state and give the film a sense of realism. Each window shows what life was like, living in America in 1950. Each character represents different social classes. As Jefferies lens focuses on apartment complexes across the alley, it displays a capitalistic view of the tenants. On the top floor lives a hard working pianist in what appears to be apartment house suite with the great view and accompanied by other people that look well kept and pampered. His social standin...

    Read More

  • Paint It Black: The Evolution of Film Noir

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    It’s a dark and rainy night. Our hero is hiding behind a wall with a revolver in hand. A crack of light, illuminates half of his face. He’s shaking nervously because he only has one bullet left. He turns the corner, and a sudden gunshot hits our hero. Who shot him? None other than his partner, who’s secretly in love with the very same dame that our hero fell for. You can consider this an example of a classic film noir ending. Film noir is a term used in cinema to describe a visually styled crime drama. Where did it come from? What are the key elements in a film noir? Why did this kind of cinema emerge when it did? What affect did it have in the film world? And finally, where is film noir now?

    Read More

  • Chinatown Film Noir

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    The genre film noir has some classical elements that make these films easily identifiable. These elements are displayed in the prototypical film noir, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. These elements include being filmed in black and white, a morally ambiguous protagonist, and a prominent darkness. However, the most striking part of a film noir is the femme fatale, a woman who craves independence through sexual and economic liberation. In his film, Chinatown, Roman Polanski uses many of the classic elements of a film noir, however he twists many of them to reflect the time period. This is particularly evident in his depiction of his “femme fatale,” Evelyn Mulwray.

    Read More

  • Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Film Analysis

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    Earlier in the semester we defined historical memory as an interpretation of the past and how a group of people remembered history in order to shape it to their current needs. After assessing the differences between the characters in the film and novel, comparing the different versions of Lincoln, and identifying central themes of the works, we could use historical memory to give a definite answer as to why we used the principles of the Twenty-First Century to convert Mr. Lincoln into a vampire hunter. In reference to the varying characters within the film and the novel, the book was written in a more historically accurate manner where there was no central black characters surrounding Lincoln, however, the movie created a central African American character and a central voice for women. The Twenty-First Century film producers incorporated the ongoing fight to end the oppression of women and African American individuals. They did this in order to show the advancement of the United States while simultaneously surrounding President Lincoln in the movie with progressive, Twenty-First Century characters that would not have been viable at the time in which Abe was alive. Another way

    Read More

  • Hollywood versus History: New World

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many adaptations and interpretations on how the English arrived to the Americas and established their colonies. The 2005 film “New World”, written and directed by Terrance Malick, is a film based off the English settlers and how they settled in the Americas in 1607, and the forbidden relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas. Although the film highly exaggerates on some scenes in order to make the history seem more interesting, the film still holds most historical accuracy and is an enjoyable film.

    Read More

  • Hitchcocks North By Northwest: The Birth of the Modern Action Film

    1745 Words  | 4 Pages

    1959 was an exciting year in the history of filmmaking. An extraordinary conjunction of talent throughout the globe existed. In France, Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette, and Resnais all directed their first films, thus establishing the French New Wave. In Italy, Fellini created the elegant La Dolce Vita, and Antonioni gave us L’avventura. Most importantly, though, in America, famed British director Alfred Hitchcock gave us the classic thriller North by Northwest, the father of the modern action film.

    Read More

  • Movie Analysis: American History X

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.

    Read More

  • American History X Essay

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    America has come a long way with how people are treated as opposed to how things use to be not so long ago. In the film American History X (1998) we see how some parts of America were not adjusting to change in their towns which resulted in violent outbreaks and many deaths. Although throughout the movie we see the main character, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) that at the beginning of the film is in a “white power” gang and later transforms as a character to protect his brother and the rest of his family from being hurt and corrupted by the racist world that they were living in.

    Read More

  • Chinatown as Film Noir

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    Films that are classified as being in the film noir genre all share some basic characteristics. There is generally a voice-over throughout the film in order to guide the audience's perceptions. These movies also involve a crime and a detective who is trying to figure out the truth in the situation. This detective usually encounters a femme fatale who seduces him. However, the most distinctive feature of the film noir genre is the abundance of darkness.

    Read More

  • The Film "O brother, where art thou?"

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    long shots. high-angle shots, and a lot of fun. spherical camera lens. These particular devices provide a glimpse at the realities of the oppression, poverty and despair of many of the American people during this time. From the start of the film it is apparent what time frame it is taking place in and the differences in the social stratification through the lack of colors.

    Read More

  • Thematic and Stylistic Devices in Neo-noir Film

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    While there are many different ways to classify a Neo-noir film, Roman Polanski’s, Chinatown captures many. The 1974 movie consists of many of these elements, including both thematic and stylistic devices. One of the main themes of neo-noir film that is constant throughout the film is the deceptive plot that questions the viewers’ ideas and perceptions of what is actually happening in the film. Every scene of Chinatown leads to a twist or another turn that challenges the practicability of the film’s reality. All of the never-ending surprises and revelations lead up to the significant themes the movie is trying to convey in the conclusion of the film.

    Read More

  • American History X

    2187 Words  | 5 Pages

    American History X (1998) illustrates how segregation is aggravated by missing father figures as well as the herd mentality of the characters in the film. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the herd mentality states that people need a concept or a worldview to adopt in order to give meaning to their lives. This herding of people who choose to adopt this certain ideal or ideals in effect causes the stifling of individual thoughts or creativity because everyone chooses to think a certain way (Floyd). This mindset that people are attracted to is not always chosen or forced but is rather seen as an obligation because of loyalties certain people have to others.

    Read More

  • American History X

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many factors contribute to decisions we make, often life changing decisions, like we see in “American History X” with brothers Danny and Derek. Both are active skinheads in Venice California, under command of Cameron Alexander a Neo-Nazi leader. Derek and Danny were not raised as racist, but when their father was killed by a black gang member, their views changed. Derek’s turning point for the better was during his time in jail. His brother is headed in the same direction, but Derek was a major influence in his racist deprogramming.

    Read More

More about American History X: Film Noir

Open Document