We continue our celebration of Noirvember with ten essential neo-noirs from the 1970s…
From the dark nights to the damp rainy streets and glare of the neon lights, everything about November makes you feel like you’re living in a neo-noir movie.
With Noirvember in full swing, it’s time to look at a golden era of stunning and ruthlessly dark, neo-noirs. The 1970s were perhaps the greatest in Hollywood’s history, with films worldwide also pushing creative boundaries.
From doomed antiheroes to bleak whodunits almost demoralisingly devoid of a happy ending, here are ten essential neo-noirs from the 1970s…
Night Moves
The late great Gene Hackman had a stellar run throughout this decade, and you could certainly include The Conversation or The French Connection in the mixer as essential noir-infused thrillers.
However, let’s go with a more unheralded thriller that’s certainly grown in appreciation over the years. Night Moves, from Arthur Penn, is not your run-of-the-mill P.I. movie. For Hackman’s Harry Moseby, he’s in a rut both in his professional and his personal life. His romantic ideal of private investigation is to be like Sam Spade, but the reality is a more routine and mundane lost persons case. He’s in persistent need to solve, unravel and deduce, stemming back to an event in his younger days. So whilst searching for a missing teenage girl (Melanie Griffith playing the Lolita-esque daughter of a faded/ageing Hollywood starlet), Moseby is also waylaid by following his cheating wife.
Yeah, the central case itself isn’t nearly as important as Moseby’s journey of self-reflection, but Penn still leads us into a noir-trope-laden rabbit hole with a gripping and brutal finale. It’s also got a great, unconventionally jazzy score by Michael Small.
Klute
If there’s something to be said of Night Moves, it came during a great period of somewhat introspective noirs, and it’s not quite as good as this exceptional (and hugely underrated) masterpiece from Alan J. Pakula.
Klute is complex, enthralling, steamy and features two compelling characters played by Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda (whose performance and character are especially nuanced). The whole thing, shot beautifully in widescreen and feeling distant yet voyeuristic, is exquisitely made. As you’d expect of this era, no one rides off into the sunset, and Pakula was a master at taut paranoia.
The American Friend
Wim Wenders’ languid, occasionally drifting and odd Euro thriller is my favourite spin on the Tom Ripley stories. Dennis Hopper plays a cowboy hat-wearing Ripley, who recruits a frame maker facing a terminal diagnosis, to become an unassuming assassin.
This doesn’t play to thriller formula by any stretch, and Wenders takes an atmospheric and laid-back approach at pulling you into a game of manipulation and murder. It feels grounded, gritty yet oddly ethereal thanks to Robby Muller’s incredible photography. Bruno Ganz is quietly enigmatic, and Dennis Hopper swaggers with nonchalant charisma.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
John Cassavetes was a trailblazing independent filmmaker who laid the foundations for aspiring artistes to bring their visions to life, even without the backing of studio money. Whilst many of his great works were intensely character-focused and driven by kitchen sink dynamics, he also managed to take a dank dip into neo-noir with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
Ben Gazzara is a slick strip club owner who runs afoul of a mob boss and finds himself in huge debt thanks to his gambling addiction. He’s given little choice but to pay up or take on a job to clear that debt. Much like more recent films like Uncut Gems, this one powers with dynamic energy as a character increasingly digs himself deeper at every turn, through a series of misguided choices. Yet in spite of it all, Gazzara’s charisma makes us root for this deeply flawed individual.
The Long Goodbye
Elliot Gould is all mumbling, effortless charisma in a stylish 70s adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye from Robert Altman. Playing the eponymous private detective, Philip Marlowe, Gould saunters with style into a murder mystery when an old friend he helps out becomes chief suspect in the murder of his wife, and Marlowe is seen as an accomplice.
He sets off to crack the case and clear his name, opening up a whole can of worms (full of twists). Needless to say, this gets a distinctly 70s cinema upgrade, complete with a downbeat finish, but the script is brilliant (screenwriters could actually write back in those days).
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
This Sam Peckinpah, dusty, dirty and grimy classic fell a little under the radar compared to films like The Getaway and The Wild Bunch. It’s a somewhat icky but compelling neo-noir Western that sees the titular Alfredo Garcia being hunted, after getting a crime lord’s daughter pregnant.
One of the men tasked with carrying out the hit is Bennie, played by a brilliant Warren Oates. The deeper and dustier the corners Bennie delves into, the more interesting the film gets, encountering a host of undesirables along the way. As expected, Peckinpah also delivers stylish and brutal punctuations of violence. Recent HD and 4k transfers have also made this look dazzling.
The Yakuza
Private detectives are a noir staple, and in Sydney Pollock’s East meets West action thriller, Robert Mitchum heads to Japan to help an old friend, whose daughter has been kidnapped by Japanese gangsters.
Written by Robert Towne and Paul Schrader, it’s dripping in noir flourish, whilst Mitchum’s imposing frame and charisma are matched with a considered, culturally attuned character. Ken Takakura is the star of the show, however, and the film has some great set pieces where the deadly deft skills of the Yakuza meet the blunt force of Bobby Mitchum.
Coffy
Revenge is a dish best served with a pint or two of crisp, refreshing noir. Coffy pits the stunning Pam Grier against a drug empire responsible for the death of his sister.
Jack Hill’s blaxploitation classic is essential and moves briskly, packs a punch and features a powerhouse, frankly badass performance from Grier. It’s easy to see why Tarantino loves this film movement and Grier (who was the title star in his underrated gem, Jackie Brown). Hill ensures the descent into violence and the brutal payoffs have the desired effect, and the cast of ne’er-do-wells are taken out.
Le Circle Rouge
Jean-Pierre Melville was no stranger to film noir, and neither was his muse, Alain Delon. This achingly cool and supremely stylish French heist thriller has everything you want in classic neo-noir cinema.
A trio of criminals (including Delon) pull off a heist and then find themselves and their loot being chased from all sides. It’s gripping, tense and did I mention, achingly cool? Good. Somehow or another, I just never took to Delon and Melville’s earlier classic, Le Samourai, as much as I should (despite loving every copycat that riffed on the cool, quiet assassin motif). However, when it comes to Le Circle Rouge, this is the Melville/Delon picture for me.
Serpico
Sidney Lumet teams with Al Pacino for this tension-filled thriller based on the real-life story of Frank Serpico, who becomes public enemy number one in his police precinct after exposing corruption in the NYPD.
Reality rarely has that sunshine and rainbows happy ending, making true life stories rich material for the pessimism of 70s cinema. Serpico is no different, and Lumet manages to bring a sense of growing paranoia and discord to his stubbornly moralistic titular character (played exceptionally well by Al Pacino).
A growing sense of dread comes to an inevitable head (even if you aren’t aware of the outcome of the actual story). Lumet really was a maestro at pacing and simmering just the right amount before letting things boil.
SEE ALSO: 10 Essential 90s Noir Movies to Enjoy This Noirvember
What’s your favourite neo-noir from the 1970s? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
