I rewatched The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall yesterday, and since I had almost no memory of this movie, it was like a new experience.
The Big Sleep is like a video game long before video were even a thing. The hero wanders from scene to scene facing a series of binary choices, or sometimes no choice at all, like a cutscene in a video game. The hero’s personality is that he smirks and says clever things sometimes. The other characters drop in and out of the story as they’re needed, again like in a video game. The outcome of the mystery doesn’t matter, it’s the journey, not the destination. And the writers forgot to explain who killed the family driver, even though his murder drove half the plot (the main script writer later admitted he had no idea who killed him).
Some might argue that Brody lied and was actually the murderer, but I don’t think so. He’s portrayed as a low-level grifter, not a stone-cold killer. Also, he’s kind of stupid, therefore incapable of the elaborate set-up to make the driver’s death look like an accident.
Nevertheless, it’s a fun ride. Watching Humphrey Bogart be Humphrey Bogart for two hours is at least entertaining. But the ending is absurd, and the love affair with Bacall feels forced. Would the General really want his elder daughter and presumed heir of his estate to marry a penniless loser? Probably not. That’s just capitalist propaganda, which is very often just communist propaganda but in reverse. In the 1930s and the Cold War there was a lot of pressure to exaggerate the upward mobility of capitalist systems, no matter how absurd and unrealistic it was.
I happen to be one of the rare and perhaps only enthusiasts for the nerdy bookshop girl Bogart flirted with for an afternoon while it rained outside. She would have been thrilled to get to marry a Chad and helped his underwhelming detective business. If he did the work and she managed the money they probably would have been rich enough to retire in 20 years. She probably wouldn’t have even minded Bogart sleeping around with his sexy clients as long as he didn’t do it in front of her. But that girl is boring and poor, so unsuitable for capitalist propaganda. And yes, there is some brutal Darwinism here.
So The Big Sleep is an accidental parable about a cool guy whoturns down the girl who would have helped him become rich in favor of the girl who was already rich. Bacall’s lawyer would make sure she was well protected in the marriage so in a few years when they divorce he would be back to being a penniless loser. The rich girl can be very selective of her partner and won’t tolerate infidelity while the poor girl is just happy he is sleeping with her 60% of the time. Just to be absolutely sure, the movie even specified that Bacall had already been divorced once before. A woman who pulled the D trigger once will absolutely pull it again without hesitation. Then that insufferably polite and discreet butler would say “Is there anything else before you depart, sir?” then throw him out onto the street by his coattails.
Despite being so meandering and plagued with production problems, The Big Sleep is an entertaining watch and remembered as one of the most culturally significant films in American cinematic history. It’s a good demonstration of how Hollywood at their peak. Even when a movie was a total disaster from start to finish, the actors and production team were skilled enough to make something good. Nowadays, every movie is a disaster, the actors are boring and the producers incompetent. What to do now? Maybe Comrade Trump will shoot all the directors who suck and the penalty for making a bad film will be GULAG.
Watch The Big Sleep on Amazon Prime
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Ian Kummer
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I remember watching “The Big Sleep” and even reading the book the movie is based on, but have absolutely no memory of the plot. And I am a big fan of both Bogart and Bacall. But I remember the nerdy girl and thinking at the time, when I was a teenager, that she was the better option.
Last night, on my phone, I read Ian’s latest Quora troll post about China taking Siberia from Russia, and went to track it down this morning, and found it that this was persistent talking point and that Ian shot it down multiple times before. But the latest post is hilarious. Please repost it on this blog so it gets more exposure.
I remember watching "The Big Sleep" and even reading the book the movie is based on, but have absolutely no memory of the plot. And I am a big fan of both Bogart and Bacall. But I remember the nerdy girl and thinking at the time, when I was a teenager, that she was the better option. Last night, on my phone, I read Ian's latest Quora troll post about China taking Siberia from Russia, and went to track it down this morning, and found it that this was persistent talking point and that Ian shot it down multiple times before. But the latest post is hilarious. Please repost it on this blog so it gets more exposure.