Monday 3 January 2011

2 Examples of Contemporary Film Noir

Sin City (2005)



Directors - Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino


This is a film based on Frank Miller's comics which is split up into three different stories: The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard and The Big Fat Kill. In "The Hard Goodbye" a man called Marv meets a girl called Goldie, they have sex. The next morning he finds her dead next to him. Marv gets framed for her murder and so he goes out and hunts the true killers and to find out the truth behind her death. In "That Yellow Bastard" Hartigan is 60, in the police force and nearing retirement. He is assigned his last assignment to do before retiring. Nancy Callahan who is 11, is kidnapped and going to be raped by Roark Jr, a paedophile. Hartigan gets shot and prisoned. 8 years later he goes out to find Roark Jr, now That Yellow Bastard and meets Nancy, now 19 along the way. In "The Big Fat Kill" Dwight finds out that Shellie's (his girlfriend) ex boyfriend Jackie Boy is going to start trouble in Old town. He follows Jackie Boy to Old town where the prostitutes of Old Town murder him for causing trouble. Later on they find out that Jackie Boy was a policeman. If the cops find out about Jackie Boy's murder, the truce between them and Old town with be destroyed and the town will be filled with dead prostitutes. It's Dwight's, Gail's (the head of the prostitutes) and the prostitute's job the make sure that no one finds out. 




Blade Runner (1982)





Director - Ridley Scott 


Scientists have made great scientific advances and created biologically-engineered humanoids called replicants. These sophisticated replicants were declared illegal due to a violent revolt that had taken place "off world". November 2019 - Rick Deckard is called out of retirement and taken to his boss, he informs him that Nexus-6 replicants have escaped and they are the worst yet. He is ordered to eliminate the four replicants: Roy Batty, (the leader) is a combat model, Leon Kawalski is a nuclear loader, Zhora is an assassin built for martial arts and Pris is a pleasure model. Deckard is teamed up with Gaff and are sent her to Tyrell corporation to make sure that the Voight-Kamff test works on the Nexus-6 models. Deckard finds Tyrell's young assisstant Rachael is an experiment replicant that believes that shes human. Rachael's mind has been enhanced with implanted memories from Tyrell's niece. Due to the replicants four year life span, Roy and Leon go to the eye manufacturer. Chew directs them to J.F. Sabastian who is their best chance of finding Tyrell. Rachael visits Deckard to try to show him that shes human, however leaves because he explains that her memories are merely implants. Deckard finds Zhora and "retires" her. Deckard spots Rachael in a crowd, but before he can get to her he is beaten nearly to death by leon. Rachael saves Deckard by shooting Leon. Roy kills Tyrell and Sebastian. Deckard arrives at Sebastian's apartment and is ambushed by Pris. He retired Pris after getting his gun. Roy comes back and sees Pris and rages. Deckard falls trying to leap across the building trying to escape him and lands on a beam. He loses grip and Roy saves him. Due to his life span Roy dies. Deckard goes back to the apartment and finds Rachael alive. The film ends with Deckard and Rachael leaving the apartment block.