Robert Aldrich's film, Kiss Me Deadly, has been called “the definitive, apocalyptic, nihilistic science fiction film noir of all time. " The film was produced in 1955, during the time when the classic era of Film Noir was sweeping through Hollywood. The term, meaning "black film," was originally applied to thriller and crime films made in the mid-1950s. Forties and fifties. French critics designated the term to a group of well-known directors, including Orson Welles and Fritz Lang. The film noir genre is known for emphasizing cynical attitudes and sexual motivations and the use of a lower lighting to create the effect of chiaroscuro, contracted light to create shadows, according to Belton, the genre depicted a unique American experience of wartime, postwar desperation, and alienation as disoriented Americans adjusted to a new social and political reality. after World War II. After German expressionism reached its peak during the Cold War, a new era of cinematic techniques, powerful femme fatales, and a new reality created an uncomfortable malaise in viewers that became known as film noir. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The end of World War I left Europe in complete ruin and people living in fear with the threat of darkness and destruction beckoning them. The invention of the H-bomb and other nuclear weapons sparked anxiety and fascination in people around the world as it established a powerful new postwar reality. Kiss Me Deadly shows interest in nuclear weapons when Hammer finds the box that Catherine left for him, but only opens it enough for the audience to see the light coming from the box. Film Noir transformed this fear into a cinematic art form that people had never seen before. “That aforementioned sense of menace found in early Film Noir manifests itself in many ways, from crime lords to dangerous debutantes, but in the films chosen to screen this quarter that terror reflects the genre's shift with the Cold War anxieties of early 1950s”. In Kiss Me Deadly, suspense and mystery are established as the audience waits to find out what the box contains after Mike opens it, only to reveal a small light coming from inside. Aldrich creates suspense by not revealing to the audience what remains inside the box. The film ends with the villain, Lily Carver, being suffocated by flames after opening the box to reveal the mystery Christina left behind. Belton says, “All it takes is a single noir character, situation, or scene to produce the disturbance or disorientation necessary to give the audience an unsettling twist or distressing jolt.” Carver's miserable screams and the explosion of the beach house at the end of the film make the audience feel uneasy, wondering what happened to Lily. The reality of people's post-war lives is continually demonstrated in the darkness and fear that Mike Hammer experiences in Kiss Me Deadly. After the Nazi occupation stopped the screening of many films in France, German expressionism was introduced to viewers through a new aesthetic in films. One of the most recognizable noir techniques, low-key lighting, uses light to enhance the shadows in the scene in black and white films instead of focusing on the characters. This technique evokes a feeling of coldness and desperation by focusing on the setting and how it creates the mood for the scene. This style differed from early American films in that it glamorizedthe star, commonly using lights on actresses' eyes and eyebrows to accentuate their beauty. In Kiss Me Deadly, Mike Hammer enters his apartment with the feeling that someone might be inside, and Aldrich's use of the shadows of the two men creates suspense in the audience as they wait for what is going to happen next. To create the space, wide-angle cinematography was also used, distorted space, and consequently the audience. The wide angle shot would also replace horizontal lines with vertical and slanted lines to create an uneasy feeling throughout the film keeping the audience intrigued. The film noir aesthetic reflected the darkness and fear experienced during the war and continued afterward. “The narratives had changed, the main characters were less heroic (sometimes called anti-heroes), the plots had become darker, full of crime, violence, corruption and sometimes erotic tones,” according to John Abbott who writes about the history behind this well-known genre . The use of new filming techniques and narrative style mirrored the effects of the Cold War, thus allowing the film industry to develop new genres and attract a wider audience. During the Cold War, many men left their families to go into battle, where they were transformed into tough soldiers in a violent environment. Like the soldiers, film noir established the character of the male protagonist, but as an antihero rather than a hero. According to Lee Horsley who writes in a film noir blog, these characters are “often antisocial loners, cynical, disillusioned, morally ambiguous, flawed, or tarnished in some way by their past. They may have their own moral code, but they will be out of step with society and ultimately powerless. This character also shows some sort of flaw or darkness from his past and is not very socially involved. Mike Hammer, for example, has good intentions when he tries to discover the message left by Catherine, while his personality somewhat separates him from the rest of the characters. He sometimes seems selfish and emotionally uninterested in his friends' deaths, but takes priority over avenging Nick's death when he was intentionally crushed by a car. Other famous actors like Humphrey Bogart, who played Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, seemed insensitive to his partner's death, but made sure to take revenge on the killer. Spade quotes, "When someone in your organization gets killed, it's a bad deal to let the killer get away with it." Sexuality was also introduced into these films as men who chose to stay at home as fathers and husbands became attracted to the infamous femme fatale while living with their "boring" wives. This paved the way for a new interest in the erotic, which usually ended badly for the male protagonist. In Kiss Me Deadly, Hammer has many sexual encounters with beautiful women which he uses to resolve the meaning of the message, do you remember me? The villain, Carver, also uses her sexuality to repeatedly try to seduce Hammer into falling in love with her, even though he repeatedly shows no interest in her. Overall, film noir recreated the murderous male protagonist in a way by adding the moral dilemma, darkness, and increased sexual desire that soldiers experienced during the war. Men returning from war faced both anxiety and the discovery that their wives had left the house for the night. in the workplace led to the creation of the femme fatale character. This woman is strong, manipulative, and powerful, which is unusual since most films play the part of the damsel in distress. In Kiss Me Deadly, Gabrielle's alter ego, Lilly.