Review of The Big Sleep (1946) by Kenneth L — 12 Apr 2011

This is such a famous movie, and you can see why. I've heard people refer to it as the greatest film noir ever made. And yet, I hesitate to declare it such. It is great in many ways, certainly; but it is also extremely confusing, and I can't tell whether or not the plot would withstand scrutiny.

To start off, there are the obviously great aspects of it. The movie has Humphrey Bogart doing his thing, and you already can't ask for much more than that. I really like Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant, but Bogart just has this presence and highly distinctive style that no one else can really imitate. I don't know that any actor has ever had a more instantly recognizable voice. His particular performance here is really good. Lauren Bacall is also very good in the movie, and you can see their famous chemistry here. A slew of other actors get brought in for supporting parts, and are mostly good, although it's easy to lose track of them.

The script, which was adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel by William Faulkner (!!) and two other writers, has some truly excellent wisecracking/bantering dialogue. On the other hand, as suggested by the famous anecdote about Chandler not being able to tell the writers who killed the limo driver in the novel, the plot is kind of messy. We hear certain names a lot without ever seeing those actual characters, and the relationships between characters can be hazy. There are great moments to the story, but I honestly can't tell you how or if it all hangs together. By contrast, the plot of The Maltese Falcon makes a lot more sense. (Also, to be fair to Chandler, I am most of the way through his novel The Long Goodbye right now, and its plot makes a lot of sense to me so far.).

The music is very good in that dramatic 1940s way. Everything about it visually is classic Hollywood storytelling. The direction moves the film along quickly without ever getting intrusive or noticeable. The black-and-white cinematography is very good. Overall, if I had just seen particular scenes of this movie, I might have been inclined to agree that it was the greatest classic Hollywood film noir; however, after being pretty frustrated in attempting to decipher the movie's plot, I'm inclined to say that title still belongs to The Maltese Falcon.