Existentialism, Film Noir, and Hard-Boiled Fiction By Stephen Fa ...

The noir detective is presented as a member of the working class, whose lonely struggle is to make an honest dollar in a dishonest world. His cynical amorality is conditioned by the contradiction between the nation’s expressed principles and the cold, cruel reality. In hard-boiled fiction and film noir, the trail of clues generally leads from working-class subordinates to the rich and powerful who veil their criminal activities behind a cloak of respectability. The hard-boiled detective may solve the case; that is, he may discover whodunit, but he cannot stop the deterministic forces that operate behind the scenes. He cannot control the cards he is dealt, but as an existentialist, he insists upon the freedom to choose how he will play those cards.

Existentialism is an outlook that begins with the individual’s psychological and moral disorientation. It emphasizes contingency in a world without transcendent values or moral absolutes, a world devoid of any meaning except that which the individual creates. Existentialism has its positive aspects of freedom, responsibility, and authenticity. The creators of American noir, writing from the perspective of the estranged working class, were drawn to the negative aspects of existentialism characterized by alienation, anxiety, meaninglessness, and death. The titles of noir-ish films often express these negative features. Caught, Cornered, and No Way Out illustrate the disorienting sense of entrapment. Detour, Suddenly, and Street of Chance describe the uncertainty and danger of contingency. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Kiss Me Deadly, and Kiss of Death communicate that even a most tender expression can be fatal. Nightmare, I Wake Up Screaming, and In a Lonely Place articulate the anxiety, fear, and alienation of the noir world. Force of Evil and Touch of Evil attest to the unsettling feeling of hidden, malevolent powers.

Our inability to explain human existence is demonstrated by the futility of activity in the noir world. The resolution of the noir detective’s case usually settles very little and leaves him wondering whether the whole affair was worth the bother.