Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

indoctrination in the movie in the midst of the Red Scare. The ending of Force of Evil,
with the terrible sense of doom hanging over Joe Morse, is a renovation of one’s self and
one’s responsibility in the world. As Polonsky said, “having reached the absolute bottom
of commitment, there’s nothing left to do but commit yourself. There’s no longer a
problem of identity when you have no identity left at all. So, in your next step, you must
become something” (in Dickos 2004:75).
Figure 43. Force of Evil
All these illustrative examples of films support my belief that film noir is first and
foremost a visual style, a specific aesthetic response to the way we have come to see our
human condition, shaped by the world and the movies which reflect it. An interesting point
here is that if one considers a random selection of the films released over a period of less
than two years, such as The Big Clock (Paramount, 1948), Force of Evil (MGM, 1948),
Railroaded (PRC, 1947), The Naked City (Universal, 1948), Crossfire (RKO, 1947),
Framed (Columbia, 1947), one might notice that all these films employing different
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