Review of The Big Sleep

This was the longest crime script I've ever read. I remember watching the film a few years ago in a film history class I took. I didn't remember how the film was resolved until I read through the script. And in a few days or weeks I may not remember either. The Big Sleep is a long convoluted script that has many twists and turns. Only in the last ten pages is everything made crystal clear. Yet there are a lot of great things about the screenplay.

The descriptions might be too long for contemporary tastes, but the action sequences are told well enough. When I read the script I starting imagining Humpphrey Bogart in every descriptive scene. Often he would be wearing a fedora and a trench coat with rain coming down all around him. It seemed like it was always raining which brought to mind Blade Runner another film where it seemed like it was always raining. After the gambling house scene Bogart and Bacall ride together in a car on a desert highway. This scene was so evocative of a desert highway that seemed to go on forever. It reminded me of the car scenes from Chinatown where Jack and Faye are riding to her house with the villains in hot pursuit.

Maybe the big sleep served as inspiration for Chinatown. I think it did. Since Chinatown was a neo-noir that riffed on a lot of the old film noirs from the thirties. I'm not sure how many acts there were in the film. It seemed like there were at least four parts. The beginning with the setup of the blackmailer being killed off. Then that was resolved by Bogie going to the police. Then it transitioned to the gambling house. Then that part concluded with Bogie escaping from Canino. Then the final thirty or forty pages that revealed Carmen as the one who accidentally shot Shawn Regan and her sister and Eddie Mars as the ones who covered it up.

The script moves rather slowly. Perhaps the film has aged a bit. It's a half century old or so. But there don't seem to be any gaps. It falls from one scene into the next, and the next and the next. There is always some form of action to keep you interested in how Bogie is going to find out who is blackmailing the Sternwoods and whatever happened to Shawn Regan. Bogie is a tough character with high moral principles. Yet he is a rather simple man. He wants to find out what happened to Shawn Regan because he knew him. This is reason enough to stick his neck out on the line.

I don't know how many film noirs Bogey made. I've seen The Maltese Falcon and this film, The Big Sleep and the characters are very similar. Philip Marlowe could easily be exchanged for Sam Spade. They are both tough, no nonsense, but not quite John Wayne. They are vulnerable. They get beat up and seem to be searching for answers the same way readers or viewers are searching for how the crime will be solved. The films are similar too.

But I think people like The Maltese Falcon better. It's simpler, easier to follow and it rolls out better. There is more history and its not as convoluted. It gets to where it's going faster and without too many turns that might be added on or non essential. I suspect viewers feel the same way. It seems like The Big Sleep takes itself too seriously, tries to be slick, sexy, and complicated and it comes off as being too pretentious. Still I did like it immensely. The black and white images that flooded my conscience as I read the script were great. The image of Bogey with his fedora on, standing in the pouring rain, was delightful.