"What's wrong with you?" "Nothing you couldn't fix." Thus ends the movie, "The Big Sleep". Not terribly memorable lines in and of themselves, but made so by the fact they're uttered by Bogie and Bacall at the height of their glory. I just finished watching the DVD--an unexpected gift from my fiance. She saw I was interested in it and rather than just show me where I could find it, she went ahead and ordered it for me. As Bogie would say, "Thanks Angel."
Now most of the reviews of the movie I've read say it was better than the book. I say baloney. The movie doesn't have any of the internal monologues that make Phillip Marlowe so interesting to me. That said, it's still a good movie. Although I'll admit, if I hadn't read the book the plot would've been a little harder to follow. Still it makes sense in the end, even if you haven't. One of the "behind the scenes" stills on the DVD said Hawks (the director) wanted the movie to unfold like that, through Marlowe's eyes. The entire film you know no more than he does. Great for someone into whodunits and crime noir, lousy for someone who has to be spoon fed a plot. If you're looking for tidy, look somewhere else.
Next for the collection: The Maltese Falcon. I was lucky enough to have seen that one at the Virginia, sometime last year I believe. Then L.A. Confidential and China Town and my noir collection should be looking pretty good.
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2 comments:
So where does The Big Sleep rank with Truck Turner - the self described best movie ever? I'm suprised Truck isn't on your movie listing with 6 out of a possible 5 stars (it's that good). :-)
Oh, and thanks for the link to my blog.
When I watch it again, Truck will appear. The Flick-o-Meter only displays ratings for the last six movies I've watched. And Truck would get 10/5.
Happy to oblige on the link, even though you clearly hate brilliant cinema.
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