Nighthawks (painting)



A 1942 painting by Edward Hopper, showing a couple of people in a diner at night and illustrating their loneliness and despair.

Since it is one of the most recognizable paintings, it's often a case of Art Imitates Art.

Although it is unarguably a work, it is used like a trope in the greater culture, and that is how we classify it.

See also Hopper Shot.

Comic Books

 * In Transmetropolitan Spider and his assistants hang out in a diner based on Hopper's painting. It's called "Hopper's", just to drive it home.
 * "Hopper's" diner in Batman: Year One.
 * Parodied in the first issue of The Tick.

Film

 * In Glengarry Glen Ross, two characters visit a similar-looking diner.
 * Hard Candy.
 * In the sequel to Night at the Museum, it is one of the paintings that come to life.
 * According to The Other Wiki, this painting inspired the "future noir" look of Blade Runner.
 * Dario Argento recreated the set in his film Deep Red.

Live-Action TV

 * Dead Like Me homaged the painting in the episode appropriately titled "Nighthawks" (season 1, episode 12, if anyone is interested).
 * That '70s Show lampshaded this with Kitty and Red in a diner, in the roles of the woman in the red dress and the suit-clad man sitting next to her.
 * CSI, in one of the promo posters.

Music

 * Tom Waits' album Nighthawks at the Diner is an homage.
 * The cover of Orchestral Manoeuvres' album Crush is done is in a Hopper-esque style and shows the corner on which the diner is situated, but from a different angle.

Newspaper Comics

 * One of the Pearls Before Swine collections is titled Nighthogs in an obvious reference. The cover is a Shout-Out to the painting as well.
 * A Peanuts Sunday Strip has this in its first panel, with Woodstock and three other birds. See page 75 of Around the World in 45 Years.

Video Games

 * You can buy a decorative painting in The Sims 2 that closely resembles it.

Western Animation

 * The Simpsons recreated the scene in one of the eighth-season episodes.
 * Invader Zim.
 * In the 90s, Cartoon Network aired a commercial that took place here.
 * The Veggie Tales sing-along video "The End of Silliness?" takes place in an ice cream parlor modeled after this painting. The actual recreation of the painting can be seen in the title shot.