Film Noir as a Distinctively American Cinematic Genre


I have a difficult time stating that Film Noir is distinctively American. I’m not sure that many styles or Genres of film can be considered distinctively or totally from one specific culture because individuals gather and learn new ideas from many different cultures.

However, because of the history of the style of film noir and the time period from which it developed, I can understand how American film critics could consider film noir as a distinctively American cinematic genre or style.

The style of film noir seemed to have come to a peak in the late 40’s, after WWII. Some of the most popular movies in the film noir style came out during that time. Today, movies which are based on the style of film noir seem to capture or take many aspects of the movies from the film noir genre of the 1940’s.

The style of film noir includes many different characteristics. Through the films mentioned before that I have seen, some of those characteristics include, dramatic lighting, a melodramatic feel even if it’s a comedy, mysterious characters, hard boiled protagonist, moral ambiguity, murder, and so on.

Many of these aspects seem to be predominantly included in many American films, almost as if some of the classic characteristics of film noir, such as ‘good guy/bad guy’ are something significant to American films. However, I still cannot say that the style of film noir is strictly American.

Film noir took many of its characteristics from other countries as have many genres of films across the world. Producers of movies use ideas that have been introduced across the world. Therefore, I cannot say that the style of film noir is specifically American because of diverse influences. Perhaps then, the style of film noir really took off and became popular in America. This creation of popularity among American society for the style of film noir is possibly what puts film noir in the category of specifically American film genres. I feel that if a style or genre of film really takes off in a specific place, or becomes popular among a certain society, then they have almost already claimed that style or genre of film as their own. Therefore, if you look at the popularity and amount of production of movies in the film noir genre, then you could possibly come to the conclusion that the style of film noir is distinctively an American style of film.