Masculinities and the desolate urban landscape of film "noir"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34640/universidademadeira2022araujo1Keywords:
film noir, masculinities, westAbstract
One of the characters portrayed by the American cinema since its beginning is the man who wanders aimlessly and rootlessly through the country’s landscape. Even though exploitation of the inhospitable landscape of the West is a constant in Western movies, the urban context poses other questions and challenges to this character. In the years after the Second World War, many stories focused on the difficulties faced by those who had been to the war to adapt to civil life. This theme, which was approached in different ways, is present in film noir of the period, but not limited to it. Even without asserting that the character is a veteran, movies in general have protagonists that are rootless, desperate and in search for something. Based on the movie Detour (1945) directed by Edgar Ulmer, this text debates these characters and challenges that they face in places which, unlike the West, are neither a world of possibilities nor the representation of freedom. In noir, these men feel imprisoned even when they catch a glimpse of the West. In the light of some authors, such as Frank Krutnik (1991), Mike Chopra-Gant (2006) and Michael Kimmel (2005), I have problematized this theme, [...].
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