Saturday, January 5, 2008

Film Noir

Now that's interesting. There is an article on the cover of this weeks Village Voice with an image of a gun titled "The Year In Bloody Good Film: Violence Is Golden". The Village Voice and the LA Weekly did a year in film critics' poll, and something like the top 10 notable films were all violent or something. What does that say about these days and times when the top ten films in a critics poll are all violent. And somewhere in that article they actually mentioned the phrase "Film Noir". And I wasn't exactly sure what the word film noir even meant until I Wikipediaed it up. And that Internet bible dictionary Wikipedia described the phrase "film noir" as a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s and emerged in the United States during the Depression. The term film noir is French for "black film". Well, I am not exactly sure what this all means, but I guess the term means to glorify and romanticize violence. And I do find it amazing that any publication with advertising would even mention that phrase in an article these days, that film noir glorifies violence, being that guns and the images of guns are advertised everywhere in film, television, newspapers, telescreens, music lyrics, video games, cartoons, posters, commercials, sides of buses, insides of buses, the floors and walls of every single form of transportation possible, light poles, bus stops, sidewalks, doorsteps, walls, floors, ceilings, t-shirts, clothing, the air and anywhere else on planet earth that looks marketable. It is bombarding the advertising of guns to look cool these days. For what reason could not actors and models or any other person hold an object other than a gun or a weapon to look cool. Could not everyone start posing with flowers, or sticks and stones or something to look cool in these media advertisements these days. And what about public broadcasting non commercial sponsored media. Is public, listener sponsored media an alternative to corporate sponsored media and violent content. And what is corporate sponsored media. And what about technology and violence. Are they related. And what is technology and its advancement. And then there is that fourth amendment of the the right to bear arms constitution, the right to take another life for a piece of property, a shelter over ones head that should be free, a basic necessity of life of mankind, material goods. And the whole world is paying as someone loses their life to gun violence every day as the story is told today and the headlines will read tomorrow, yesterday and thereafter with no end in sight. If only a constitution could be written to abolish guns and the images of guns from everywhere and everyone on the face of planet earth. And in any given publication of most newspapers, half of the film advertisements have images of guns in them. In any given news cast, half of the news program, programming is of crime and violence. On any given prime time television schedule, half of the television programs are of crime, violence and guns. And again, I could copy my blog posts over and over in my appeal to end gun violence. To banish guns and the images of guns from every single place and human being on the face of planet earth. Guns are the worst invention of an industry ever. It is bombarding, the advertising of people holding guns to look cool, and pointing guns at you, the viewer, as you look at the poster or printed advertising. Does not advertising and programing influence and program society and people? Does not glorifying violence influence the world. And what are those TiVo things. Do they help one to filter out offensive programming in the media. It is that vicious cycle that feeds on itself again, advertising feeds marketing, which feeds crime, which feeds the news which feeds more crime which feeds more violence which feeds more advertising which feeds more news cycle. And it is interesting to read what the origin of film noir means, that this whole film noir thing started during the depression, right along with the Satan, Santa Claus marketing of the Christmas holiday shop, buy, spend more money, go into more debt, over consumerism season. Does this glorifying of violence as if it is romantic, reflect the moral decline of the world, the collapse of society? Are wars debasing the value of human life. Is there hope for the world. Will this beast, whatever or whoever this beast this may be ever release its grip on mankind. It seems as if the Emperor is wearing no clothes in the world these days, whatever the moral of that story may mean. What was life like before the invention of guns? I am only one blogger, one voice. No one is free while others are oppressed. Is another world possible? Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind. And what does this have to do with a No Police State?
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry but you will have to do a lost more research on film noir before you can even begin to argue the issues here.

Violence is an element of classic film noir, which is more essentially an aesthetic that explores inter alia existentialism, criminality, lust, angst, and psychoses.