Existing comment:
"After the uplifting parables that Hollywood churned out during World War II, the postwar genre called "film noir" validated a country's creeping sense of alienation. Having witnessed firsthand the atrocities of war, veterans and civilians alike were drawn to noir's cardinal themes of paranoia and pessimism -- not as an empty stylistic stance, but as recognition of a hard-won existential truth. The genre's detached anti-heroes and bleak environments offer psychic respite from American boosterism run amok, and remind audiences that, in victory or defeat, we never leave our shadows entirely behind."
-- Ann Hornaday, Chief Film Critic, Washington Post |