Film comparative study research  

The Maltese Falcon was released in 1941 during the second world war and it is part of the original film noir movement which became popular due to the pessimism and darkness of the war years. The film contains many narrative devices that would later become hallmarks of the film noir movement, like the private eye protagonist having voiceovers and the presence of a woman who tries to lead him down the path of crime.  

This film fits into the stereotype of film noir because it contains most of the established tropes that the movement is known for, like the femme fatale. The film taps into the anxiety that many Americans would have been feeling during the war and Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) represents the ideal of masculinity at the time – he is smart, strong and independent and this is the ideal that men at the time strove for. The film is concerned with themes of morality and many of the characters are morally ambiguous, and this is a trait that it shares with Blade Runner. The mise en scene in classic film noir is high contrast due to the black and white cinematography. 

One of the things that film noir and neo – noir is known for is the sharp, no – nonsense dialogue and this is a feature that both films share and this links to the themes of cynicism and bitterness that are typically associated with the genre of film noir. 

Blade runner was released in 1982, 41 years after The Maltese Falcon, and it blends elements of film noir with elements of sci – fi and the film was released during the Cold War , there is a subtext that links to the anxiety about nuclear annihilation which was not present in The Maltese Falcon and the film is a lot more explicit because it talked about the disastrous effects of environmental destruction.  

Despite this film’s genre hybridity, it contains many of the classic stock characters of film noir, like the private eye protagonist and the femme fatal – the inclusion of these characters is intended to be a reference to the classic film noir of the 1940’s and 50’s and much of the film’s aesthetic is derived from the films of this era and it is combined with futuristic visuals. Blade Runner is not part of the classic noir movement and many of the tropes that appear in this movie do so in a manner that is self – referential.

The aesthetics of film noir were influenced by the German expressionist films from the 1920’s and 30’s and this influence is evident in the black and white visuals of the Maltese falcon; this influence is not as evident in Blade Runner as it uses colour cinematography. Blade Rummer also talks about the humanity’s destruction of the environment which links to the Cold War anxiety about nuclear war. Both films are bitterly cynical about what is happening in the world and both protagonists are hardened and bitter detectives.  

Blade runner is intended to be a direct homage to the film noir of the 1940’s and this film consciously references the tropes and conventions that are present in films like The Maltese Falcon.   

Archetypes  

There are several archetypes that are associated with film noir, these are: 

• The private eye – he is often bitter and cynical. Spade and Deckard fit neatly into this archetype. They are often anti – heroes with a dubious sense of morality. He is often the narrator of the film
• The femme fatale. A beautiful woman who uses her charm and sexual allure to attempt (sometimes successfully) to destroy the man. Pris, Rachel and Ruth Wonderly/Brigid O’Shaughnessy all fit into this archetype. 
• The corrupt cop – could possibly be symbolized by Blatty. 

The aesthetic for film noir is sharply defined and immediately recognizable with the black and white cinematography and films with the established conventions of classic film noir e.g. The Maltese Falcon. Blade Runner conforms to some of the tropes of film noir, but this is done in a self-aware way and it does not have the immediate association with the film noir genre for audiences due to the sci – fi elements of the story and the colour cinematography which is one of the major things that differentiates neo – noir films from classic noir films.  

The term film noir was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank. in his article “Un nouveau genre ‘policier’: L’aventure criminelle” (“A new police genre: the criminal adventure”)  he said that “filmmakers express their own reality and many of them were from Germany” and as film noir was first popularized around the time of the rise of the Nazis and during this time they had limited resources i.e black and white film was less expensive and the filmmakers did not make much money and they used their medium in order to portray their struggle to the world.

Film noir is such a resonant genre of film due to the fact that it is often true to life and and the films do not seek to conceal the cruelty that human beings are capable of , instead the film makers seek to tell a story about how people struggle to survive in a hostile world and the reason that film noir became popular in the first place was the political tension leading up to world war two and the destruction that the war brought and neo -noir was successful because of the constant danger of nuclear annihilation that was posed to the Cold War world

The Maltese Falcon does use some stereotypes that could be considered to be offensive – for example , Joel Cairo exhibits feminine characteristics and there is an implication that he is gay. In the film he is one of the primary villains , due to the fact that he works with the Fat Man , but he is not simply a villain – he helps Spade at various point , this is emblematic of the moral duality that the characters in film noir are known for. Due to the Hays Code , which was a strict set of guidelines that filmmakers had to adhere to , the filmmakers could only hint at the characters homosexuality.

Blade Runner has more modern themes : the environment has been completely destroyed and the officers of the law are corrupt – these are more blatant allusions to the current political landscape than are present in the Maltese Falcon.