Surveillance, Security, and Neo-noir Film: Spike Lee’s ‘Inside Man’ As a 9/11 Counter-narrative

Authors

  • Antoni Castells-Talens Facultat Blanquerna - Universitat Ramon Llull

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51698/tripodos.2021.51p109-128

Keywords:

surveillance, neo-noir, Spike Lee, film, post-9/11

Abstract

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, a patriotic narrative permeated all aspects of US society. Planned and executed by the George W. Bush administration and reproduced by the media and by other social institutions, the narrative of the War on Terror permeated all aspects of society with little opposition. A few weeks after the attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act, a bill that redefined security and surveillance in the United States. The new act contributed to the erosion of civil rights. This article analyzes how Spike Lee’s Inside Man (2006), a film that critics interpreted as a commercial thriller when it was launched, employs resources from film noir and neo-noir to construct a counter-narrative on security and surveillance. Through a plot that causes confusion, a distinct visual style, a typically noir role of the hero, and hidden references to a 9/11 theme, the film borrows elements from classical film noir and from eighties neo-noir to take a firm stand against the US response to the terrorist attacks. The movie removes the mask of the dominant narrative by showing a structurally corrupt system.

References

American Civil Liberties Union (2003). Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post-9/11 America. New York: ACLU.

Andrejevic, Mark (2011). “Securitainment’ in the Post-9/11 Era”. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 25(2), pp. 165-175. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2011.553938>.

Arnett, Robert (2007). “Eighties Noir: The Dissenting Voice in Reagan’s America”. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 24(3), pp. 123-129.

—. (2020). Neo-Noir As Post-Classical Hollywood Cinema. Norfolk, VA: Palgrave Macmillan.

Blair, Jayson (2001). “Some Comic Strips Take an Unpopular Look at the US”. The New York Times, October 22. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/22/business/media-some-comic-strips-take-an-unpopular-look-at-us.html>. Accessed 4 January 2021.

Box Office Mojo (Undated). Inside Man (2006). Available at: <https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0454848/?ref_=bo_se_r_1>. Accessed 20 March 2021.

Carroll, Hamilton (2011). “September 11 as Heist”. Journal of American Studies, 45(4), pp. 835-851.

Conard, Mark (ed.) (2006). The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.

Dixon, Wheeler W. (ed.) (2004). Film and Television After 9/11. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Fay, Jennifer and Nieland, Justus (2010). Film Noir: Hard-Boiled Modernity and the Cultures of Globalization. New York: Routledge.

Gerstner, David A. (2008). “De Profundis: A Love Letter from the Inside Man”. In: Massood, Paula J. (ed.). The Spike Lee Reader. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, pp. 243-253.

Harrison-Kahan, Lori (2010). “Inside Inside Man: Spike Lee and Post-9/11 Entertainment”. Cinema Journal, 50(1), pp. 39-58.

Hogan, Joseph (2012). “Illuminating Realism: A Bazinian Analysis of Spike Lee’s ‘Inside Man’”. Cinesthesia, 1(1), pp. 1-7.

James, Caryn (2006). “The Social Realism of Spike Lee”. The New York Times, 27 March. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/arts/the-social-realism-of-spike-lee.html>. Accessed 27 June 2021.

Kellner, Douglas (2003). From 9/11 to Terror War: The Dangers of the Bush Legacy. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

Kitch, Carolyn (2003). “‘Mourning in America’: Ritual, Redemption, and Recovery in News Narrative After September 11”. Journalism Studies, 4(2), pp. 213-224.

Krebs, Ronald R. and Lobasz, Jennifer K. (2007). “Fixing the Meaning of 9/11: Hegemony, Coercion, and the Road to War in Iraq”. Security Studies, 16(3), pp. 409-451.

Larsson, Sebastian (2016). “A First Line of Defence? Vigilant Surveillance, Participatory Policing, and the Reporting of ‘Suspicious’ Activity”. Surveillance & Society, 15(1), pp. 94-107.

Markert, John (2011). Post-9/11 Cinema: Through a Lens Darkly. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.

McGrath, Ben (2004). “The Radical: Why Do Editors Keep Throwing The Boondocks off The Funnies Page?”. The New Yorker. April 19 issue. Available at: <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/04/19/the-radical>. Accessed 24 May 2021.

McGruder, Aaron (2001). The Boondocks. GoComics. Available at <https://www.gocomics. com/boondocks/2001/10/01>. Accessed 19 June 2021).

Naremore, James (2008). More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts. Berkley: University of California Press.

Packer, Jeremy (2006). “Becoming Bombs: Mobilizing Mobility in the War on Terror”. Cultural Studies, 20(4-5), pp. 378-399.

Palmer, R. Barton (2006). “Moral Man in the Dark City: Film Noir, the Postwar Religious Revival, and The Accused”. In: Conard, Mark (ed.) The Philosophy of Film Noir. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, pp. 187-206.

Reeves, Joshua (2012). “If You See Something, Say Something: Lateral Surveillance and the Uses of Responsibility”. Surveillance & Society, 10(3/4), pp. 235-248.

Schrader, Paul (1972). “Notes on Film Noir”. Reprint in Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen (eds.). Film Theory & Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 581-591.

Sweedler, Milo (2019). Rumble and Crash: Crises of Contemporary Capitalism in Contemporary Film. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Tait, R. Colin (2009). “Class and Allegory in Spike Lee’s Inside Man”. In: Hamlet, Janice and Means Coleman, Robin R. (eds.). Fight the Power! The Spike Lee Reader. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 41-60.

Wong, Kam C. (2007). The Impact of USA Patriot Act on American Society: An Evidence Based Assessment. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Zedner, Lucia (2005). “Policing Before and After the Police: The Historical Antecedents of Contemporary Crime Control”. British Journal of Criminology, 46, pp. 78-96.

Downloads

Published

2022-01-27

How to Cite

Castells-Talens, A. (2022). Surveillance, Security, and Neo-noir Film: Spike Lee’s ‘Inside Man’ As a 9/11 Counter-narrative. Tripodos, (51), 109-128. https://doi.org/10.51698/tripodos.2021.51p109-128