![]() When it comes to cyberpunk that follows the codified noir structure, there seems to be a spectrum based on how much the creator intends on evoking the works that have inspired it. One of the most crucial elements of weaving an engaging cyberpunk yarn is style, and in my experience with the genre, I’ve noticed that creators vary widely in this regard. However, the similarities don’t start and end there there is a wide range of cyberpunk that digs deeply into the sordid history of industrialization, to the point that it becomes significantly altered from what we most commonly attribute to the genre. For instance, the paranoid, lonesome, and invasive nature of the private eye (the noir’s favorite protagonist) is oftentimes transplanted onto the hacker archetype. Cyberpunk that takes heavy inspiration from the noir (but more commonly its successor, the conspiracy thriller) oftentimes follows the hard-boiled detective format down to a T, simply updating elements that would otherwise feel anachronistic. While it does tend to play with a plethora of styles and plot structures that range from full-out, over-the-top sci-fi action (though even elements in early action movies can be traced back to the noir as well), slice-of-future-life dramas, and neo-myths, the lowlife element is a common factor. ![]() Hopefully, this is enough to highlight why film noir tropes keep popping up in cyberpunk. As it is considered to be a force to be reckoned with in the postmodern movement, almost nothing is romanticized or held sacred in the noir, deconstructing the so-called fundamental goodness of humankind’s technological and sociological progress that were presented in modernism. Cinemaphiles oftentimes cite the noir’s use of dramatic, Expressionist-inspired lighting as a staple of the genre, but I’ve found that this is not necessarily the case what truly lies at the heart of the noir is a deep-seated cynical (or sometimes outright nihilistic) worldview that came about as the result of late-stage, post-war capitalism. The death of the classic era of film noir is largely marked by critics by Orson Welles‘ masterpiece, Touch of Evil, which was released in 1958, as following films that banked on noir tropes either fell into cliche or evolved into what we now refer to as the neo-noir, an international expansion that has reached nearly every corner of the globe. The “birth” of the film noir is commonly attributed to the release of The Maltese Falconin 1942, which was based on the hard-boiled detective novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. However, I could get on a feedback loop about the subject for days, so these are the basics, in case you’re not as deep into the genre as I am. In the original draft of this article, I was going to list off the countless ways that noirs have influenced their successors, including numerous subgenres that have cropped up since the death of the classic noir. It’s quite possible that the film noir may be the most influential form of media that has ever hit the silver screen. ![]() Wrapping yourself up in tales about scoundrels, femme fatales, crooks, and regular joes who just found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time scratch an itch in the deepest, darkest bowels of the soul that other film genres can’t quite reach. Sometimes, it’s good to kick back and watch a good, old-fashioned noir.
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