Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Grifters (1990) are two excellent examples of film noir. Each of these films has its core element a vulnerable and alienated male protagonist, who is engaged in some manner in nefarious activities. Each of these films also includes women who are predatory in their relationships with men. In short, these films contains the essence of the film noir formula. However, it is also true that these are two very different films, which also shows the flexibility and adaptability of this genre. .
Film critics have often remarked about how difficult it is to tie film noir down to a conclusive definition, which is another factor that points to this genre's mutability. However, critics Michael Walker locates the origins of this genre within the social conditions of the 1940s and in the hard-boiled fiction of the 1930s, as well as within French poetic realism, all of which can be labeled as precursors to film noir (Orr, 1997). What differentiates film noir from other genres, its "generic dominant" so to speak, is that these films tend to feature a "vulnerable and alienated male protagonist" who is "entombed in a dangerous criminal world" (Orr, 1997, p. 21). This view is consistent with the opinions expressed by Frank Krutnik that noir is generally about a crisis in masculinity (Orr, 1997). .
This factor can be seen in both Sunset Boulevard and The Grifters. In Sunset, Joe Gillis is an out-of-work screenplay writer, who has trouble getting his foot in the studio door because he refuses to write below his standards. Gillis arrives at Norma Desmond's door quite by accident while he is in the process of trying to evade creditors. Admittedly, Joe is not deeply embroiled in the criminal world, but he, nevertheless, becomes enmeshed in a series of lies, which are designed to bolster the ego of the fading silent screen star, the longer he stays at Norma's decaying mansion.
