Review of The Big Sleep (1946) by Marko B — 20 Jan 2009

Dark, seductive, twisty and fresh. Hawks' second outing with Bogie and Bacall concreted the two as a perfect duo and tore every rule the detective story contained previously to bits. The structure of the film is reminiscent to some of William Friedkin's work in the 70s; it starts as a harmless and even light affair and slowly and abysmally enters a nightmarish circuit of violence and corruption.

The plot becomes tangled and messy, and toward the end of the film, quite frankly, it doesn't matter because Phillip Marlowe is in over his head and it's exciting.