I viewed The Street With No Name for the first time in a long time last night and it was as exciting as the first time I watched it---What a great movie! Based on real FBI files and shot on location where possible: Awesome!!! It's an early Donnie Brosco with a very dark, wonderful twist. The movie is a statement on corruption and just how hot it can get for the person/people trying to bring down a very powerful, influential criminal gang of thugs. While the movie does play on the "good guys not being so good" element of film noir, the genre as a whole is just as much about how the movie is shot as it is about characters, and how this movie was shot is where this film falls short of being film noir. While the movie is a very dark crime movie and a lot of the scenes are filmed outdoors on rainy nights, the movie merely gives a nod to the lighting/shadowing aspects of film noir as there are quite a few day scenes and/or scenes that are shot in very well lit rooms (i.e. the boxing gym, the FBI offices, etc.). Furthermore, getting back to characters, this movie is missing one key element if it is to be considered film noir...Aside from the lighting, how women are portrayed in this film also causes it to fall far short of film noir: I won't give up the details, but watch the movie and you'll see what I mean if you know about the roll a woman should play in a noir film. Finally, Although I liked his part in The Kiss Of Death a little more---boy was he evil in that movie--- Richard Widmark does a great job in this, one of his earlier films, and the rest of the actors do a very competent job in playing their parts as well. An 8-8.5 in my book: A great movie, but i don't know if it should be considered film noir.
Review of The Street with No Name
