Detective Film
A popular subgenre of the mystery or thriller genre that relies on the search for clues and culminates with the solution to a crime by a private detective (sometimes these investigations are also performed by policemen, journalists, insurance men, or lawyers). Audience involvement, or confusion, is established through plot elements like double crosses, lies, swindles, and often murder, which the protagonist must unravel. Depending on the approach of the filmmakers, the audience either solves the crime with the hero (The Maltese Falcon) or is left to guess at solutions themselves (The Big Sleep). Either way, heightened musical scores, action, violence, saucy dialogue, not to mention moments of anxiety, fear and puzzlement, have made this type an audience favorite. Classic detective films are distinguished from other mysteries by the charismatic persona (or lack thereof) of the well-defined central protagonist. Characters like {Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe (and in England, Sherlock Holmes and Hercules Poirot) were often hard-boiled, cynical and world-weary but also suave, sharply dressed (suits, hats and cigarettes are all iconography associated with the classic detective), quick-witted and sharp-tongued. With film noir, the detective became even more cynical, obsessed and often morally shaky (Laura), though generally still triumphant. When revisionism hit cinema, starting with the French New Wave in the ‘60s and then America in the ‘70s, most detectives were portrayed not as polished heroes but tarnished, flawed losers. Films like Alphaville, The Long Goodbye, Night Moves and Chinatown presented their protagonists as wounded men stuck in a world they couldn't understand, exhibiting personas instead of personalities.
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