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Maltese Falcon Themes And Techniques

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The Maltese Falcon. It follows the story of the private detective Sam Spade, who gets involved with three criminals in search of a priceless statue. Similar to film noir, neo-noir takes these key themes and repackages them to fit the current views of society. An example of a neo-noir film is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The movie tells the story of Harry Lockhart, who goes from being a criminal in New York City to a private detective in Los Angeles. The neo-noir narrative in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was written as an homage to the noir genre through its usage of key themes such as character archetypes and setting; however, redefines the genre through satire and tone shift. The classic noir genre always had recurring themes of setting and character archetypes such as the private detective and the femme fatale. The private detective is considered an …show more content…

Neo-noir borrowed elements from classic noir films such as the Maltese Falcon and transformed them into films appealing to the modern day audience. As both films, the Maltese Falcon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, are set in Los Angeles, this creates the perspective that Los Angeles is characterized by its unreality. It was a lavish and glamorous city where the criminals lurked in the dark of the night and only private detectives could be trusted to bring justice. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang added the noir genre by making the movie more realistic and relatable to the audience. Harry represented how the audience would react if they were placed in the same situation. Perry teaches Harry how to be a private detective, but also does not fit the traditional private detective stereotype due to his sexuality. On the other hand, Harmony was sexualized to appeal to the modern day audience's perspective on how women should be. By shifting from a serious tone to a more comedic tone, this allows the audience to believe the film, and the noir genre itself is more light-hearted and

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