Currently Watching: The Big Sleep

This is classic film noir - and the second film Bogart and Bacall stared in together, the first after their marriage. The story comes from the first of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels of the same name. If that weren't enough for pedigree, the screenplay featured the work of William Faulkner... yes, that William Faulkner. Actually, the movie is as well known for it's confusing plot as it is for the stars behind and in front of the camera. Admittedly, Chandler's plot was far too risque for Hollywood in 1945 (and even for many today... not exactly Agatha Christie), and parts of the story were cut or blurred, which may explain the jumbled feeling. Also, parts of the movie were shot a year later in early 1946 to boost the appeal of the film by exploiting the Bogart-Bacall relationship.


But who doesn't love Bogart and Bacall?

On the whole, I appreciate the movie as a classic, and probably need to watch it again a couple of times to get a better sense of the plot. But it feels a bit like many of the Harry Potter films: you have a little room to say a lot, and in the process, stuff goes missing. The story goes that when Faulkner and one of the other screenwriters were working on the script, they found a murder without a murderer. They called Chandler up, asked him who did it, and were promptly chewed out by the author, telling them that the answer was in the book. A while later, Chandler called back and admitted that he had double-checked the book, and had not provided the killer's identity in the story. In fact, he didn't know the identity of the killer, and left it up to the screenwriter's to decide who had been the killer. They provided a killer for the original 1945 cut of the movie, but when they reshot the film, left that part out. I think this sums up the nature of the film: at some point, you just don't know what is going on. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy the film for what it is: a Hollywood legend.

P.S.: I've gathered most of this trivia from the Wikipedia and IMDB pages. Which means that they could all be lies. But I doubt most of this is fiction... still, you can't trust everything you read on the internet. You might also be interested in the 1978 version. But I haven't seen it, so I'm not recommending the movie. Just acknowledging that there is one. Still... it might be more clear cut, since the omitted plot points are now retained.