Curran, Angela. Review of Dan Flory's PHILOSOPHY, BLACK FILM, FILM NOIR. NDPR (March 2009).

Flory, Dan. Philosophy, Black Film, Film Noir. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2008. Recently many philosophers have examined how film can prompt philosophical thinking about skepticism, personal identity, ethics, free will and determinism, romantic love and the nature of truth, to name just a few topics. But philosophers have given much less attention to how film can prompt philosophical thinking about race. This neglect of this topic is corrected with the publication of Dan Flory's important and thoroughly researched new book. I will begin with a summary of the book, and then devote the last part of the review to raising some critical questions of evaluation. Flory examines a diverse group of recent American and international films -- ranging from Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing (1992) to Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, 2004) -- that Flory groups under the broad rubric, "black film noir." These films exploit the techniques and themes of film noir in order to advance "blacks' protracted struggle to achieve full social equality" (17), hence the term "black film noir." Over the course of eight chapters, Flory argues that these "black film noir" philosophize by prompting viewers "to reflect upon fundamental human questions like who one is or how one should live" (316). Flory grounds his argument in contemporary philosophy of film, often using analytic concepts developed by philosophers Stanley Cavell, Noël Carroll, and Stephen Mulhall, and by film theorist Murray Smith. . . . Read the rest here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=15452.