Film noir, American workers, and postwar Hollywood

"Ever since French critics began using the term film noir in the mid-1940s, a clear definition of the genre has remained elusive. Though sometimes defined visually, there is more to film noir than meets the eye. This interdisciplinary examination argues for the central importance of class in the creation of film noir and demonstrates how the form itself came to fruition during one of the most active periods of working-class agitation and middle-class antagonism in American history." "After World War II, the crime film centered around the movement of its protagonist outside the law. This movement was congruent with postwar labor movements that were forced to use extralegal means because of the increasing pressure applied by new legislation such as the Taft-Hartley Act, which declared strikes to be illegal. At the same time, many unionists were driven out of the industries they helped to organize by the House Un-American Activities Committee. It is during this period that noir became a lament, with protagonists moving further outside the law to seek justice and with these struggles written on their battered corpses at the end of the film." "Expanding this investigation into Cold War and post-9/11 America, Broe extends his analysis of the ways film noir is intimately connected to labor history. The constructed nature of the cold war and its lurch toward conservatism points to the war on terrorism and the struggles within and between global capital, class, race, and gender."--Jacket.