Friends, get ready for the ride. The Big Sleep isn’t only about Philip Marlowe’s (Humphrey Bogart) short ties and adorable pajamas. Or only about the heat between Bogie and Lauren Bacall practically burning through reams of celluloid. It’s also about a lot of stuff that many viewers and reviewers couldn’t quite follow.
Many a commentary on the film, both contemporary and subsequent, has ruminated on its convoluted plot. As James Agee’s 1946 Time review proclaims, “The Big Sleep (Warner) is wakeful fare for folks who don't care what is going on, or why, so long as the talk is hard and the action harder.” Just a heads-up, before you watch.
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With Savor the View, we’ll watch, think, and talk about movies and the things that matter. A special welcome and thanks to our regular crew!
Each Monday, I share brief, spoiler-free remarks and questions to frame viewing a movie on our own.
Each Thursday, I share post-viewing questions to poke at the issues, ideas, quandaries, inspirations...whatever...that movie might have summoned (spoilers, ahoy!).
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Overview
The Big Sleep (1946): This film directed by Howard Hawks also happens to feature a writing credit for William Faulkner – to be fair, a fellow specifically not renowned for a straightforward narrative style.
The Hays Code from days of yore further confounded. The Raymond Chandler novel from whence the movie was adapted included all kinds of contemporary taboos, from queer characters to naked ones, which Hollywood would not permit on screen. Wrenching these elements into more palatable forms added to the movie’s mystifications.
By the time the movie was released, its leads Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall had married, a celebrity pairing for the ages.
The universal/general
Hard-boiled detective fiction is firmly rooted in a no-nonsense present. Can you track any themes, or at least trends, that reach farther, beyond the immediate concerns of this particular story? Does it matter to you if you can’t?
The specific/unique
Where does the action happen in each scene (a home, office, etc.) – and why that scene for that particular action?
How is each setting decorated and populated? What mood do these elements cultivate? Do they advance the plot in any way? Or perhaps just complicate it?
The viewer is always present
Given the critiques of this film’s hard-to-follow-ness, what do you enjoy more – and less – about it as it moves forward?
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