road to perdition

               Road To Perdition was a very good film about gangsters, love, and lost. The question that I will be answering in this blog is, is this film a modern day example of film noir? Noir legitimately means black and film noir movies are generally black and white movies. Except the film Road To Perdition is in color so is it an example of film noir? To be considered film noir it has to mislead you to think there's a happy ending, there are dark and dreary areas in the film, everybody smokes everywhere, women have no fear to betray you or kill you, women wear low necklines and mascara and lipstick, and men wear suites and fedoras and ties.
              In the film Mike and Michael finally think that they are done running and killing people and that they can relax but at the end of the movie you see Mike looking through the window watching Michael play with his aunt's dog and finally feeling that they can settle own and put the past behind them and live their lives without fear. At that moment you see the photographer shoot Mike in the reflection of the window and you can almost feel the pain that is going through his body. At the moment that Michael comes in the house and sees that after all that his father and himself had gone through was for nothing he pulls out his gun and aims it at the photographer. You think that he's going to shoot him and his life will turn out like his fathers until Mike pulls out his gun and shoots him so he can save Michael from the type of life he lived. So in the very end of the movie Michael takes his dog and moves in with the older couple he had stayed with before and he never touched a gun again so even if they tricked you about the film having a happy ending Michael still never had to live the life his father did so a good thing came out of a bad situation.
               The film had a very dark mood to it even if the film wasn't in black and white it had the feeling of a black and white movie. Even in the homes they used the same concepts they would use in a black and white movie. They definitely used their lighting as an advantage. They weren't always lit up so you could see them but that's the whole point to knowing where your light is so you can tell a story better.
               Mr. Rooney thought of Mike as more of a son to him than his actual son, Connor. Even though he loved Mike he still let everyone go and try to kill him. So I guess blood really his thicker than water. In the end Mr. Rooney still chose Connor and Mike chose Michael. Mike also chose to spare Mr. Rooney's life so even though Mr. Rooney tried to kill Mike, Mike still cared about Mr. Rooney.
              With all of this in mind I truly believe that a Road To Perception was a modern take on film noir. But you can make your own decisions on whether you believe it is film noir.