The Wild Bunch -1969
The desperate and tragic story of outdated mercenaries, in a world that does not need them.
Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece is also a deconstruction of violence
In several film genres, Noir and HB characteristics were applied to plots and characters. As already underlined, one may observe that during the peak period for these kind of films (50's, and 60's until early 70's), directors or scriptwriters that were applying then the Noir ethic to Westerns, dramas, Sci-Fi and even war films, were often those that produced previously remarkable works for the crime/Noir or HB genres. Cross-genres creators were interesting film makers such as: John Huston, Howard Hawks, Budd Boetticher, Robert Aldrich, Nicholas Ray, Sam Peckinpah, Richard Fleisher, Arthur Penn, amongst others.
Dr Strangelove - (see photo below)
Irony and cynicism cannot wipe out the unconfortable feelings
resulting from this somber view of our society.
The hero and victim is the spectator...
One of Kubrick's masterpieces, full of reminiscences of Noir
On the actors' side, some of the bests for Noir/HB were used in the cross-genres with their top acting as firm support to films that were often produced on lower budget. Just remember the major films, in different genres, of: Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Jack Palance, Robert Ryan or Lee Marvin. And in more contemporary films, actors like Gene Hackman and Clint Eastwood.
Again, as it happened for the crime films, the HB or Noir approach gave to these other genres a grip and dimension rarely seen inside each film category. The genre material produced by Hollywood was most of the time prone to conventional characters, stereotypes and unimaginative plots, all that were turned upside down by the HB/Noir treatment and... top creators!
Gene Hackman-
FOREIGN PRODUCTIONS
Except for Sci-Fi, there was no extended exploration of genre cinema with Noir ingredients in foreign productions.
Westerns were produced in Italy for a while, during the 70's, and the best of these films were lending more towards HB than really Noir. Sergio Leone was probably the closest to the real HB stuff, but lacked always some depth for his characters to be really on par with the best American productions.
Europe produced a lot of top films having WW2 as background and main subject, but the best of these films were most of the time straight from the existential stable, or totally nihilistic, and lacking the heroic dimensions and individual revolt typical of the central Noir characters.
LISTS
I will not give extended details for each category of films, but rather point to what I consider as the most representative of the Noir/HB influence in each of them. Most of the films I list in this section are on par with the best of Noir and cannot be ignored by any dedicated cinema aficionado.
"Pure Noir" short-lists what I consider as most representative amongst the top films.
Longer lists follow, giving the top recommendations for each category.
BLACK DIAMOND- amongst the very bests (cinema masterpieces)
UNDERRATED- or forgotten - way above past critics' opinion -- rediscover first class films
