Military Noir - A Term That Defines Halo
How is that fair? 'Why should I give anything to Earth if I don't even live there?' Well, without us, without the UNSC, colonies starve, planets die.
Across the Years Film Noir has been something that has kind of been in the mind of a lot of people, a lot of the most famous movies in the industry are characteristically part of the Film Noir Genre.
The dark, black and white gradient, the lawful detective venturing outside of the law just enough to fulfil his job and the likeable killers that lay on the other side. The silent jazz, and the atmosphere.
Now, when we venture into the Sci-Fi genre a lot of things become heavily blurred, including the perception of certain themes. It starts to take a new face, and obviously, it begins to take new themes.
As I have brought up once before already in a much older article, Ted Chang, the creator of the short novel Stories of Your Life - which has been developed into the screenplay named Arrival - has put it best:
"To me, science fiction- It's not about the special effects or giant battles between the forces of good and evil. Science Fiction is using speculative scenarios as a lens to examine the human condition."
Now, to the point of my words, which is why Military Noir? Well, the answer is... Not as simple as I would like it to be. For me to fully elaborate as to why I believe this is the key term for such a franchise I have to delve deeper into it.
What are the characteristics of Film Noir?
The Presence of Crime: As the book published in 1955 - A Panorama of American Film Noir - states.
"It is the presence of crime which gives film noir its most constant characteristic."
However, in it of itself, the idea of crime is not often a key thing that blows people's minds, American movies have always represented crime in their films, however, the key difference between Film Noir and standard films focusing on crime is vast. The introduction of a grey moral entity into the mix.
"Now the moviegoer is being presented a less severe version of the underworld, with likable killers and corrupt cops. Good and evil go hand in hand to the point of being indistinguishable."
The thing with this is that a Sci-Fi universe like Halo follows this kind of morality shift throughout its entirety. Your enemies are not presented as clear-cut good or evil.
They are what they are. It only changes the perception from a killer, to a whole entire different entity.
The Inevitability of Death:
Going back to the second aspect of a film noir, I'm going to quote the very same book that being death.
"Few cycles in the entire history of film have put together in seven or eight years such a mix of foul play and murder. Sordidly or bizarrely, death always comes at the end of a tortured journey. In every sense of the word, a noir film is a film of death."
Oftentimes, Film Noir movies depict characters that are trapped, figuratively or physically. It creates a certain mood of an impending doom that is out to get them.
And well, in a universe such as Halo. There's often a lot of characters that face similar dilemmas, such as the dilemma of the Insurrection, which in all intents and purposes proposes the idea that you're trapped under the behemoth of the Unified Earth Government.
Forever to be a slave to the system. And this entire pessimistic perspective is heavily present in other aspects of the Halo Universe as well. Such as the case with Truth, trapped in the system with his lies. The lies that will lead to the inevitable doom of his beloved Covenant.
The Private Detective: Here is where the line starts to blur with Halo, because, it's no secret that there isn't a very suitable candidate for a conventional private detective in the Halo universe. "The private detective is mid-way between lawful society and the underworld, walking on the brink, sometimes unscrupulous but putting only himself at risk, fulfilling the requirements of his own code and of the genre as well."
However, more so, than any other character the best candidate for me has to be Thel 'Vadam himself.
Former Covenant Commander and Zealot, Thel 'Vadam. Punished into submission and the promise of the restoration of his honour through death. His story redeems him for the lives he's taken in conflict through the realisation that all he stood for was a lie.
Bringing honour back to the venerable Arbiters that were doomed by the actions of the former Arbiter and First Disgraced Arbiter; Fal 'Chavamee and in the process of doing so, he secured an alliance with Humanity that would last for years.
And the definitive selling point of Thel 'Vadam as the private detective lies in how Borde and Chaumeton describe the hero in their book.
"An inglorious victim who may suffer, before the happy ending, appalling abuse. (Cont) As such, he is far from the Superman of adventure films"
Demonstrating that for all intents and purposes. The world in which the private detective(s) may live in is not fair, and shall never, be fair.
As such, Arbiter loses as many fights as he wins, he observes the slaughter of his brothers and is forced to put down someone who he did not believe was unredeemable.
And according to these three rules, I want to showcase two of my favourite cases as part of my argument.
Major. Akio Watanabe:
“Well, he has admitted to being an Insurrectionist, yes.” Watanabe looked down, as if in thought. “I haven’t gotten much else out of him.”
Kirtley murmured, “I’d hate to be that guy right now.” Watanabe snapped his head up and stared at the two of them. “Mr. Dante Kirtley… do you think I brought aboard a portable torture chamber?”
Kirtley didn’t answer.
“I know we’re the boogeymen,” Watanabe continued. “But don’t be ridiculous. You torture a man, he’ll tell you anything to make it stop. Anything you think you want. He might even, if you’re pushing hard enough, believe whatever that is with all the will that he has left.”
Akio Watanabe unbuttoned the top of his sleeves. He pulled them back to reveal scars running from his wrists all the way up to his elbows.
A fast unclip of his odd, high-necked collar revealed horrible scarring around his throat. “If I tortured them, I’d be no better than them.”
He sat down and rebuttoned his uniform slowly.
The presence of a character such as Akio Watanabe is a welcome change in the days where ONI is only seen as the boogeyman and the necessary evil.
As characters that only desire the best of humanity for the betterment of humanity.
Their will is strong, and their resolution even stronger. But in the case of Akio, he is a tortured man, loyal to the cause because as many others, tortured and broken, this cause was what saved him.
Saved from hell itself. It easily leads to a cynical character, something that is easy to sympathise with.
“If you don’t mind, Lieutenant Keyes, now that you’re done playing with your new friends, I have a favor to ask.”
Keyes had a wide grin on his face from the relief that the Helljumpers weren’t actually going to kill him and a bit of pride from their actions. “Of course, Major Watanabe. What is it?”
“I’d like you to come dirt side with me. There are not a lot of people I implicitly trust. The nature of the job, you know. Judging by your actions, you seem like a man I could trust with my life, implicitly. I would count most of the bridge crew as trustworthy, given my research on them, but to be honest, Mr. Keyes, I think they just plain don’t like me. How that would play into a split second’s hesitation to back me up in a dangerous situation, I’m not sure…”
“You’re a cynical man, Major.”
The Prophet of Truth:
“This is the Prophet of Regret, and this the Prophet of Mercy.” Then, sweeping his hands up beneath his wattle: “And I, the least worthy of us all, am the Prophet of Truth.”
The three Hierarchs leaned forward in their thrones, as low as they could go without toppling their mantles. At that moment, each of the holographic Halo rings blazed even brighter as immense Reclamation glyphs manifested inside them.
The crowd roared its approval. Before he straightened in his throne, the Prophet of Truth took a moment to consider the irony of his announcement. According to tradition, he could have picked any name he wished from a long list of former Hierarchs’.
Most of the names would have been quite flattering. But ultimately the name he chose was the one that carried the greatest burden—the one that would always remind him of the lies he must tell for the good of the Covenant and the truths he must never speak.
Oftentimes confused with a crazed megalomaniac, once you delve deeper into his character you realise that he was a benevolent leader. Someone who did all he could to keep the lies that kept the Covenant together standing.
The lie, that through their Covenant, they were the only rightful heirs of all that their holy forefathers created. Only to had been revealed that it was the humans all along and not themselves the right heirs of such riches.
Entire millennia of peace and stability built on a lie. Truth saw it his duty to keep the lie alive, through becoming the high prophets, commencing a new age for the Covenant, Truth, Mercy and Regret saw to it that the lie is kept alive.
Through the promise of the rings, and their Great Journey.
At the end of the day, his death only fulfilled the very thing that he hoped to stay away from, and his greed and lust for power having led both Mercy and Regret to their deaths, the betrayal of the Sangheili.
His own ambition and greed became his own undoing. Leading to his inevitable death and the fracturing and fall of his Covenant.
He was nothing, but an impulsive liar for the sake of the Covenant stability, and a simple coward opportunist.
"I... am... Truth! The voice of the Covenant!"
Why 'Military' Noir?: Well, I could've called it many things, but I do not believe that Halo is specifically either a full-fledged Film Noir, as obvious as that may be, or a futuristic noir such as the amazing Blade Runner.
Instead, I believe that Halo serves primarily as a ruthless and heartless universe, where the military and all its intricacies take the spotlight.
And as such, I do firmly believe that calling it a Military Noir is not only accurate but entirely self-descriptive. From its gruesome aspects of conflict to the unforgiving reality of death, all the heroes we see suffer incredible hardship.
John-117 is forced to send his brothers to their deaths, his best friend died under his command saving him. And of course, Linda-058, who received a shot to the head in front of him.
Characters like Gage Yevgenny, who are forced to see their friends die. Sacrificing themselves before they could have their happy ending. Suffering from their own actions shaming himself for it as the war went on, their only redemption came through his own sacrifice.
"Years ago, I told my father it was 'just dirt.' But it's not just dirt. It's where we live. It's our dirt, dammit. And more importantly, it's about who's standing on that dirt. Those children. Your family. Your friends. And those freaks are going to pay for every piece of dirt they've taken from us."
In many ways, Halo shall always remain a Military Noir to me. No matter how much it changes across the years. This remains its purpose.
As novelist Matthew Stover once said when describing Halo comparing it to the Iliad, "war is the crucible of character" further posing the issues of being Human in his "You Are The Master Chief" essay in the 224 page; Halo Effect: An Unauthorized Look at the Most Successful Video Game of All Time.
And an obvious Thank you and recognition to these beautiful madmen that still continue to support my work. Thank you guys, really.
My Halo: Reach & Half-Life articles will be out soon, however, I thought you guys deserved something before the end of the month. So here you are, a little essay from the bottom of my heart. To all of you.
- Brendan Lor Lowry
- Nels Jones
- H8TRFFC
- ULTRAMANZX
- Some Perv
As Always, Live your lives, stay safe and play lots of vidya gaems!
- HaruspexOfHell
