Editing Film noir (section)

===Worldview, morality, and tone===
[[File:BigClinch.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Black-and-white image of a man and a woman, seen from mid-chest up, their faces in profile, gazing into each other's eyes. He embraces her in a dip with his right arm and holds her right hand to his chest with his left hand. He wears a pin-striped suit and a dark tie. She wears a white top. On the left, the background is black; on the right, it is lighter, with a series of diagonal shadows descending from the upper corner.|"You've got a touch of class, but I don't know how far you can go."<br/>"A lot depends on who's in the saddle."<br/>[[Humphrey Bogart|Bogart]] and [[Lauren Bacall|Bacall]] in ''[[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|The Big Sleep]]''.]]

Film noir is often described as essentially pessimistic.<ref>See, e.g., Naremore (2008), p. 37, on the development of this viewpoint, and p. 103, on contributors to Silver and Ward encyclopedia; Ottoson (1981), p. 1.</ref> The noir stories that are regarded as most characteristic tell of people trapped in unwanted situations (which, in general, they did not cause but are responsible for exacerbating), striving against random, uncaring fate, and are frequently doomed. The films are seen as depicting a world that is inherently corrupt.<ref>See, e.g., Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 4; Christopher (1998), pp. 7–8.</ref> Classic film noir has been associated by many critics with the American social landscape of the era—in particular, with a sense of heightened anxiety and alienation that is said to have followed World War II. In author [[Nicholas Christopher (writer)|Nicholas Christopher]]'s opinion, "it is as if the war, and the social eruptions in its aftermath, unleashed demons that had been bottled up in the national psyche."<ref>Christopher (1998), p. 37.</ref> Films noir, especially those of the 1950s and the height of the [[Red Scare]], are often said to reflect cultural paranoia; ''[[Kiss Me Deadly]]'' is the noir most frequently marshaled as evidence for this claim.<ref>See, e.g., Muller (1998), p. 81, on analyses of the film; Silver and Ward (1992), p. 2.</ref>

Film noir is often said to be defined by "moral ambiguity",<ref>See, e.g., Naremore (2008), p. 163, on critical claims of moral ambiguity; Lyons (2000), pp. 14, 32.</ref> yet the [[Motion Picture Production Code|Production Code]] obliged almost all classic noirs to see that steadfast virtue was ultimately rewarded and vice, in the absence of shame and redemption, severely punished (however dramatically incredible the final rendering of mandatory justice might be). A substantial number of latter-day noirs flout such conventions: vice emerges triumphant in films as varied as the grim ''Chinatown'' and the ribald ''Hot Spot''.<ref>See Skoble (2006), pp. 41–48, for a survey of noir morality.</ref>

The tone of film noir is generally regarded as downbeat; some critics experience it as darker still—"overwhelmingly black", according to Robert Ottoson.<ref>Ottoson (1981), p. 1.</ref> Influential critic (and filmmaker) Paul Schrader wrote in a seminal 1972 essay that "''film noir'' is defined by tone", a tone he seems to perceive as "hopeless".<ref>Schrader (1972), p. 54 [in Silver and Ursini]. For characterization of definitive tone as "hopeless", see pp. 53 ("the tone more hopeless") and 57 ("a fatalistic, hopeless mood").</ref> In describing the adaptation of ''Double Indemnity,'' noir analyst Foster Hirsch describes the "requisite hopeless tone" achieved by the filmmakers, which appears to characterize his view of noir as a whole.<ref>Hirsch (2001), p. 7. Hirsch subsequently states, "In character types, ''mood'' [emphasis added], themes, and visual composition, ''Double Indemnity'' offer[s] a lexicon of ''noir'' stylistics" (p. 8).</ref> On the other hand, definitive film noirs such as ''The Big Sleep'', ''The Lady from Shanghai'', ''Scarlet Street'' and ''Double Indemnity'' itself are famed for their hardboiled repartee, often imbued with sexual innuendo and self-reflexive humor.<ref>Sanders (2006), p. 100.</ref>