7 Great Noir Movies That Marked the End of an Era

Film noir emerged as a direct result of the national mood of disillusionment that plagued the United States following the Great Depression and the start of World War II. Influenced by European filmmakers and the popularity of hard-boiled pulp fiction, noir was first identified by French critics in 1946. To this day, film historians still can't fully agree on what, exactly, it is. Is it a genre? A filmmaking style? Or was it simply a film movement much in the same vein as the New Hollywood wave that would come years later? Whatever the case, several of the greatest films of all time are either noirs or neo-noirs.