Noir Protagonists And Their Flaws: Realizations In Brick, Blade Runner And No Country Critical Thinking Example

In the noir genre of film, the world is often depicted as fairly hopeless and without many chances for happiness – film noir is so named not just because of its chiaroscuro cinematography, but this same bleak perspective on life and the world. People are shown to be corrupt, selfish, murderous and uncaring, and poverty and crime are constants in the cities and worlds these characters inhabit. However, despite these desolate conditions, noir protagonists and characters often find a way to gain some sort of personal insight or victory in spite of these unfortunate circumstances. While these gestures are not often great, they mean quite a bit to the characters in question. The characters of Brendan Frye in Brick, Rick Deckard in Blade Runner and Sherriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men, in particular, manage to find glimmers of hope and closure in the dreary, blood-soaked lives and worlds in which they live.
In Brick, the ‘detective’ of the film is Brendan Frye, a streetwise, laconic high school student whose ex-girlfriend has just been murdered. Throughout the film, what drives Brendan’s mad search for her killer is his continuing love for her – the whole relationship is tainted with unrequited love, which Brendan somewhat refuses to accept. He searches for Emily’s killer out of a possibly misplaced sense of justice and romance, doing it to avenge her death as a lost lover would. This journey takes him down a deep well of crime and corruption at this small-town high school, with drug cartels, gang violence and the like giving him all manner of grief in his journey.
Many noir protagonists find their solace in relation to a romantic relationship – this also comes to Deckard in the film Blade Runner. Having spent the entirety of the film chasing down a team of rogue replicants, as well as tried to figure out/romance/keep from killing fellow replicant Rachael, Deckard comes to a greater understanding of the humanity of these replicants through his final confrontation with leader Roy Batty. After a tremendously violent and frightening chase through J.F. Sebastian’s macabre apartment, Deckard finds himself hanging from a ledge, about to die. Batty, however, pulls him up and saves his life, reframing Deckard’s perception of Batty and the others as inhuman machines who need to be destroyed. Batty notes the importance of the memories he has, and how they will be lost once he dies. Once that happens, Deckard returns home (where he has stashed Rachael to prevent people from expecting him to kill her) and they choose to both flee. Here, Deckard finds a glimmer of happiness and solace in the desolate future world they live in – being with Rachael and abandoning his responsibilities to escape to a better life with her. While happiness is not guaranteed (and there is even some question as to whether or not Deckard is a replicant as well), Deckard chooses to take the chance, giving him a great deal of empowerment.
No Country for Old Men’s Sherriff Ed Tom Bell is likely the least consequential of the three protagonists in the film towards the overall plot, but he comes out of it with a better understanding of human nature and the world around him. As Llewelyn Moss has been killed and Anton Chigurh is a desperately barely-alive villain, we are left with Sherriff Bell’s perspective by the end of the film. In the final scene, he speaks of the two dreams he had the previous night, both about his dead father, who manages to both disappoint and reassure Bell in each dream. While they are not necessarily optimistic dreams, they are ones that Bell takes a bit of solace in, as he can reconcile the cold and lonely aspects of life with his worldview. His epiphany isn’t as dramatic as Brendan Frye’s or Rick Deckard’s, but Bell understands that life is about “going on ahead, and fixin’ to make a fire” amidst the cold, dark world around him. Noir can be quite nihilistic in tone, with worlds that do not really bring their characters towards a brighter future; however, these three protagonists are able to find something to hold onto or move on from.