The influence of 1950s cinema on Star Wars is widely known, particularly that of the classic Hollywood Western and the Samurai movie, which accent and add depth to the 1930s space serial that forms the basis of the Original Trilogy's storytelling. John Ford's The Searchers is a direct inspiration for the depiction of Tatooine, and the plot of A New Hope is loosely adapted from Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress. These two genres have continued to influence the franchise as it's grown; The Mandalorian is patterned after classic western TV shows, and Ahsoka wears its samurai influence on its sleeve with choices in music and choreography. But there's another wildly influential genre that was popular around the same time. Though it came to be known as film noir mostly in retrospect, the noir genre forms the basis of most modern crime films, with morally gray characters, winding plots of danger and deception, and a deeply cynical view on humanity. In fact, many of the same directors who influenced Star Wars in their westerns and samurai films also worked in the noir genre, like Akira Kurosawa's High and Low. But where is this in Star Wars? The cantina bears more resemblance to a rowdy cowboy watering hole than a smoky nightclub; it's strange that for a series so influenced by the film of the 1950s is absent one of its most prominent genres. Film Noir is a favorite genre of mine, and I've always been curious about this, and fascinated when Star Wars media flirts with it momentarily. The Clone Wars' "Lightsaber Lost" is an explicit homage to Stray Dog, another Kurosawa classic, following Ahsoka's journey into Coruscant's underworld, but her idealistic view remains largely unchallenged by what she sees. The Mandalorian's "Guns for Hire" borrows its mystery structure from the procedural, placing Mando and Bo-Katan as private investigators unearthing a conspiracy that goes to the top. Again, however, it borrows aesthetics without outlook, refusing to interrogate the corruption of this society; the actions are the result of one evil man. Clean, pat, and far too idealistic. The only work I know of that comes close to engaging with noir as a genre deeper than surface level is Andor. While Andor is many things, political thriller, heist film, prison drama, it begins with a mystery, and a crime. Like many noir classics, Andor begins with the search for a missing girl. Not long after, on the rainy streets of Morlana One, Cassian Andor kills two police officers. Though it borrows much of the look of these scenes from Blade Runner, Andor engages with the murky social morality in a much deeper way than ever before. As we follow both sides of the crime, we see not only Cassian as a deeply flawed person, but also the dysfunction of the world he lives in. These problems aren't imposed upon society by individual bad actors that can be eliminated, the way Plazir-15's problems are so easily remedied, but inherent to the system itself. By allowing the work to interrogate the world, Andor reaches closest to exploring the personal and societal depravity that is a hallmark of the genre. After the initial three episodes Andor turns its eye elsewhere, transitioning into a spy thriller and running a gamut of other genres. But it left me with the questions that started this post; why is a genre that seems so well-suited to Star Wars in historical influence so absent from its works? Especially now that we've seen how well it can be done in the right hands. What Star Wars media in any form comes closest to the hard-boiled, cynical outlook of noir? And if Disney+ announced a Star Wars noir tomorrow, what would it look like?
Great thoughts. The whole noir mystery aspect of Obi-Wan's tracking down information about the saberdart and the clones in AotC is one of my favorite aspects about that movie.
The Coruscant Nights book trilogy back in Legends very explicitly used film noir tropes. While it didn't fully live up to its potential IMO, it was still a great attempt. I would love to see more of this sort, and not just because I'm a big Coruscant fan.
I feel like Coruscant Nights doesn't really get remembered as noir-ish because, as you said, it didn't really follow up on the initial attempt to sell it that way (especially after the first book). In retrospect I think it was probably a huge misstep to bring Jedi into the concept.
"The Wrong Jedi" Season 5 arc would fit the bill more. It also has Ahsoka journey into the Underworld, only it results in her view being completely shattered and leads to her losing faith in herself, the Jedi and the Republic, and leaving the Order in the end. It is also an homage to Hitchcock's The Wrong Man.
Yeah, I was thinking about the sort of Blade Runner cityscape lower Coruscant has in Episode II, but I completely forgot that the whole structure of Obi-Wan's part of the story is pretty heavily noir. Pounding pavement asking informants, uncovering a vast, complicated conspiracy. Though Obi-Wan doesn't quite discover it in Episode II, the mystery is deeply critical of the world in the way all of the prequels are. Good catch! I've heard these books referenced in regards to kind of hard-boiled Star Wars before. I really ought to check them out, though it's sad to hear they don't fully pull it off. I feel books would be a great conduit, as they're the only piece of Star Wars media that really lets us into the internal monologues of our protagonists. Great catch! That's much closer to the structure and themes of the genre. I went for "Lightsaber Lost" because of the Stray Dog connection, but I feel like with a couple years more experience the "Wrong Jedi" arc hits the target much more closely. The moody Coruscant under streets are wonderfully rendered, and Ahsoka's views are deeply challenged by the way the systems of the Republic and the Jedi fail her completely. You've even got a great cast of morally murky characters, where the Sith-turned-bounty hunter is more truthful and reliable than the Jedi Padawan you're supposed to put your faith in.
I agree on the Jedi issue -- I remember being disappointed when I first read it that it was "just another Jedi book". I don't have a principled problem with Jax Pavan (any of them) but it felt like it did take away from the "down there" grittiness that I expected. Plot-wise, though, especially volume 2 ("Street of Shadows") is very overtly noir, what with the murder case and the femme fatale and all. Sadly Michael Reaves' style tends to stray into the soap-opera-esque when unchecked, with too much time devoted to all the characters' repetitive ruminations IMO. Properly edited and perhaps adapted into comic form, it could be a sweet Coruscant Noir tale. (Speaking of which, I hear there's a fan fiction trilogy by that name? I haven't read it, but judging from the name alone it might be of interest here.)
I'm putting together a noir flavored soundtrack for a SWRPG game I'm running and I've remembered another fun way these two things connect. John Williams scored Robert Altman's wonderful laid-back neo-noir The Long Goodbye, and every track uses the same motif in different musical stylings. In The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson requested they homage his score for The Long Goodbye by using the same motif played on piano during the Canto Bight visit. Rian Johnson of course has a history with neo-noir, starting with his first feature Brick (which is fantastic), and I do believe The Last Jedi reflects the genre in some ways. The murky morality of Canto Bight's denizens, including DJ, displays an institutional rot, a human rot that undergirds the galaxy. The many perspectives on Luke and Ben Solo's confrontation intentionally harks back to another of Akira Kurosawa's films, Rashomon. And though Rashomon may be set during the time of the samurai, its multi-perspective murder mystery shares much in common with the crime films of the era. One of my favorite aspects of TLJ is how it widens its reach beyond Star Wars itself, knowingly pulling not only from the movies that influenced Lucas but from a wide range of filmic history. I'm glad Johnson has found success if his own, but I'd love to see him return to the universe at some point. Hopefully in a way that doesn't subject him to quite so much anger this time.
The way to do that is what they should have done first time around - give him an enclosed, independent space to work in. Not the middle act of a massively high profile trilogy, where there is an expectation of being Act 2, linking well to Acts 1 and 3.
Yeah, I think he real-world stakes were too high on the Sequel Trilogy and his big swings didn't connect with everyone. It'd feel a little obvious, with his revival of the murder mystery, but it would be hilarious if he ended up doing a Star Wars movie that was basically Columbo in space.
I can almost see it now, with Peter Falk walking back inside of Jabba's court. "Oh, there's just one more thing..." Brick was good. My sister happened to have rented it years ago, back when it first came out and I saw it via Netflix-in-the-mail. I enjoyed TLJ probably more than the average Star Wars fan, but it was wildly inconsistent. The Admiral Holdo stuff, Canto Bight, DJ, and the "humor" of the opening scenes was fairly meh, but the twist about Snoke, the design of Crait, and everything with Luke, Ben, and Rey was incredible. I revisit it about once per year and every time I do I seem to hate and/or love something different about it. I, for one would love to see Rian Johnson's proposed trilogy be made, just to see what else he is capable of and to hopefully have the noisy negativists jump ship for the final time. But at this point with Disney, they're looking for safe bets and it'll probably never get made, despite Kennedy's diplomatic spin to the contrary.
Just about everything I did not like in The Last Jedi I liked greatly in Knives Out and Glass Onion. The same techniques but far better on a different genre.
I love The Last Jedi but there's no doubt it's a big swing for the franchise, so I think the fan base would generally be a lot more receptive if Rian was allowed to do his own thing with new characters. The galaxy has no end of scum-holes filled with crime and corruption; I'd love to see a planet like Nar Shaddaa finally get its due with a mystery series that really lets you crawl into the depths. Though, thinking about it now, it does seem like The Acolyte might take on a few of these mystery elements and blend them up with classic Jedi action. Very curious to see how that works out tonally.
Nar Shaddaa is overdue in general for a depiction in live-action. Everybody was kind of assuming that what became Daiyu in Obi-Wan Kenobi was going to be Nar Shaddaa when it was first seen in the trailers, but considering how vanilla the series was, I'm kind of glad it wasn't. Nar Shaddaa would need to be much seedier and scummier, with a combination of not just criminals and drugs but literal trash and probably a lot of Hutt influence on the setting and architecture.
Yeah, I think live-action Nar Shaddaa definitely needs to emphasize the Hutt influence at least architecturally if it's to be distinct. I love the very glitzy depiction in TOR just because I'm a fan of neon-lit futuristic cities in general, but it's pretty indistinguishable from the lower levels of Coruscant as seen in AOTC and afterwards.
Yeah, I'm thinking along the same lines, @Vthuil . Even in the EU, Nar Shaddaa and the underlevels of Coruscant were fairly interchangable. I mean, both are vertically-oriented cities with the only real difference being that Nar Shaddaa is likely all scum from top to bottom and has no "nicer" upper levels.
