American Noir by Barry Forshaw

Author:Barry Forshaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oldcastle Books
Published: 2017-03-10T16:09:15+00:00

3: Selected Crime Films and TV of the New Millennium

The approach adopted here is to cover dramas made in the twenty-first century, but I include shows that began in the last millennium and continued into this one, such as NYPD Blue.

BAD LIEUTENANT (film, 2009)

Abel Ferrara’s original 1992 cult film – with its bitter and caustic picture of a self-loathing corrupt cop played by Harvey Keitel – was always going to be a hard act to follow for any remake, and it took a certain chutzpah from the German arthouse director Werner Herzog (of all directors) to take another stab at the same scenario. With the reliable Nicolas Cage in the title role in the film (subtitled Port of Call: New Orleans), Herzog found another provocative approach to the material, with Cage meeting the challenge and giving a performance that almost matched Keitel’s in intensity. Herzog claimed never to have seen the original and the more blackly comic tone of this version suggested he might have been telling the truth.

BIG APPLE (TV, 2001)

Despite its brief life, Big Apple sported some modest virtues – unsurprising, given that it was the brainchild of the talented David Milch, responsible for the influential NYPD Blue. Directors of the series were generally encouraged to bring a nervy, kinetic approach to their work, and Ed O’Neill put in particularly commendable work as a police officer with a variety of personal and professional conflicts.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE (TV, 2010–14)

The improvisatory quality of the pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire was not to be replicated in the rest of the series. The reason? Martin Scorsese – who favours the extempore method in his work – was contracted to direct this opening segment (a canny commercial move, much used in the promotion of the series), but subsequent directors largely eschewed this approach, long something of a shibboleth in TV production. Set in the Prohibition era of the 1920s, the show’s central character is Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson, the Machiavellian treasurer of Atlantic City in New Jersey. Moving easily between gangsters and politicians, Nucky (a typically distinctive performance by Steve Buscemi) plays both ends against the middle in ruthless fashion. But then he draws the unwelcome attention of the federal government, which has started to take an interest in his conspicuously upscale mode of living. The show was well received and showcased some excellent performers (such as Michael Shannon) but never quite fulfilled the promise of the send-off Scorsese granted it.

BONES (TV, 2005–)

The Temperance Brennan books of Kathy Reichs did not lend themselves easily to TV adaptation, which no doubt accounts for the radical finessing they received in this series. A wise move in the event, given that the show was a palpable hit. Bones adopted a less astringent tone than many of its rivals, and won viewers’ affection – as attested by the fact that it has accrued a respectable 11 seasons and 250-plus episodes so far. The show, though, remains essentially a snapshot of Kathy Reichs’ novels.

BOSCH (TV, 2014–)

More than most literary coppers,

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