blog number 7

The story, The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones, from the Gold Coast section in the book Los Angeles Noir is, in my opinion, most like noir. The story that is least like noir is Kinship. I think that the story, The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones, by Scott Phillips is the most like noir, because it has a femme fatal and a protagonist. The femme fatal in this story is Cherie. She is describe as “Tall and leggy with hair dyed blond, hanging straight with an inward flip just below her jaw line, and looking at her face and body you wouldn’t take her for more then forty”(288). She calls Tate, the protagonist in the story, to come to a house she is house sitting to help her. Once he is inside, she starts rubbing up against him and giving him lots of lets have sex signals. They make it into the bedroom where they have very brief sex, and afterwards she turns on the light. Tate discovers the owner of the house on the floor bleeding to death. Cherie wants Tate to help dispose of the body. This is classic noir with a femme fatale, Cherie, who is trying to convince the protagonist to do something bad and using her body to do it.

The story Kinship, in the Gold Coast section of the book Los Angeles Noir by Brian Ascalon Roley is the least like noir. It doesn’t have a murder or a femme fatale in it. This story also doesn’t have a detective. It doesn’t have any of the things that make this a true noir story. All good noir has at least one of these elements in it. When it doesn’t, the story just lacks flavor and appeal. It’s basically a story of revenge for a wrong done to a family member. It’s about a guy who goes after the father of the child who is bulling his nephew. In the story it says, “They didn’t believe us. Said we were making false accusations against their son. Then Manny went over to confront the guy after he noticed Emerson’s slit braces. The fathers a soccer-dad from hell” (301).The story is mainly about a uncle who used to be a gang banger but is now a youth pastor and a pillar of the community. When he finds out his brother-in-law was beat up by the father from hell, he gets an ice pick and his brother-in-law and they go down to this guy’s house and kidnap him. Then they beat him up and drive an ice pick through his knee. This story is just lacking on all levels of what makes a story noir. I don’t have any idea what the editors of the book were thinking when they put this story in their collection. The only thing in this story that slightly resembles noir is the dark overtones. There is no murder, no protagonist, and no femme fatale. This story is just a waste of the reader’s time and effort.

blog # 6

The role of protagonist in neo noir is as different from film noir as night is to day. In film noir the protagonist is looking for a criminal, a person who has done wrong in some way. He searches through a city, usually Los Angeles, finding clues that ultimately lead him to the criminal, the one who needs to be brought to justice. The protagonist in neo noir looks into himself to find the bad guys. There are three different types of neo noir. They are past, present and future.

In movies that are past neo noir, the protagonist is placed in the distant past where he has to find himself. A perfect example of past neo noir is the movie Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark. The movie is set in the time of World War II. Indiana has to go against Nazis and femme fatals in order to find the Ark of the Covenant. He has to look deep into his soul to find out if he is a man of science or a man who believes in god. By the end of the movie, you find out that he is both. He believes in his science and also in the power of the lord.

In the movies that are present neo noir, the time is set in the here and now. A good example of present neo noir is the movie Bourne Identity. This movie is set in present day with a man who can’t remember anything about his past life. All that he remembers is from when he was in a fishing boat recovering from being shot in the back. Bourne goes on a journey to try and figure out who he is and who is trying to kill him. He has to look deep into himself to find the answers as his training takes over.

Future neo noir is the best of all neo noir. It gives us a look into the future to see what is possible. The protagonist is still looking into himself for the answers, but we get to see it in a way that is very interesting. Take the movie Minority Report; it is placed in the future in Washington D.C. In the future they have perfected a new way to solve crime by using clairvoyants to arrest criminals before they have even committed a crime. The next person the seers say is a murderer is the main character. He finds out and has to go on the run to find his victim and prevent this crime.