The Maltese Falcon to Body of Lies

the long version

"Film noir is by definition dark, but not, this book argues, desperate. Characters in noir movies repeatedly implore one another, 'Trust me!' Although trust may not save the characters, it is often a horizon of hope. Examining twenty-eight great noir films from the first noir, The Maltese Falcon (1941), and other early examples such as The Big Sleep and Out of the Past, to such twenty-first century spy films as The Good Shepherd, Syriana, and The Bourne Ultimatus, this philosophical study sets out what audiences may understand about the representations of trust and commitment that noirs and spies propose. Recent films about international intrigue, the author posits, depict what happens when individuals give their primary allegiance to the state, and the moral consequences of that position are a major subject of this thought-provoking book." -- Back cover.