The Big Sleep

By David Thomson

Book Overview

The Big Sleep : Marlowe and Vivian practising kissing; General Sternwood shivering in a hothouse full of orchids; a screenplay, co-written by Faulkner, famously mysterious and difficult to solve. Released in 1946, Howard Hawks' adaptation of Raymond Chandler reunited Bogart and Bacall and gave them two of their most famous roles. The mercurial but ever-manipulative Hawks dredged humour and happiness out of film noir. 'Give him a story about more murders than anyone can keep up with, or explain,' David Thomson writes in his compelling study of the film, 'and somehow he made a paradise.' When it was first shown to a military audience The Big Sleep was coldly received. So, as Thomson reveals, Hawks shot extra scenes, 'fun' scenes, to replace one in which the film's murders had been explained, and in so doing left the plot unresolved. Thomson argues that, if this was accidental, it also signalled a change in the nature of Hollywood cinema: ' The Big Sleep inaugurates a post-modern, camp, satirical view of movies being about other movies that extends to the New Wave and Pulp Fiction .'

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1839021594
• ISBN13: 9781839021596
• Release Date: November 2020
• Publisher: British Film Institute
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.1" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Thomson's take on "Big Sleep" a convincing love-letter

David Thomson is arguably the most gifted writer on the cinema -- his "Biogrpahical Dictionary of Film" one of the subject's most valued reference guides. Singling out Howard Hawks' film version of Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" as the most entertaining movie ever made is clearly a bold move on Thomson's part, but his arguments are steadfast and persuasive. Anyone choosing to read this work will emerge with a deeper understanding of the great detective film and an irresistable desire to see it again as soon as possible.