-----Original Message-----
>From: jimdohertyjr <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com>
>Sent: Feb 11, 2007 4:30 PM
>To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: The Long Goodbye
>
>Terrill,
>
>Re your comment below:
>
>> Jim, you're assuming Altman thinks being a loser
is a bad thing. If
>you look at just about any of his films it is pretty
clear to see that
>he sympathizes with the losers over the winners every
time.
>
>I'm assuming no such thing.
And I believe you are. Sorry Jim, but I think your thinking
is very one dimensional on this subject and your statements
seem very clear on the matter. No need to backpeddle now. You
think losers are losers. And it's a bad thing. But Altman,
thriving in the 60s and 70s, looked at history - and what was
going on in the present - and decided that the winners were
not always in the right. And that small victories were
occasionally to be enjoyed by the losers - who also would
then manage to look themselves in the mirror in the morning
because they stayed true to their convictions, no matter what
the cost to them personally. It is in this spirit that I
believe his version of Marlowe was born.
And, as others have said, I don't think he was far from
Chandler's vision.
>
>I don't care whether he's sympathetic to losers or
not. I care that he
>made Marlowe into a loser when he wasn't
one.
>
>JIM DOHERTY
That's an extremely debatable opinion as well.
I don't see Marlowe kicking his heels in joy at the end of
most of Chandler's stories.
I think the last scene of THE SEVEN SAMURAI sums up the
knight errant philosophy perfectly. Two samurai look at the
villagers they have saved, who are now enjoying their freedom
from the bandits who oppressed them, then they look on the
hill where four of their dead comrades are buried and one of
them remarks that despite winning the overall battle, the
villagers are the only winners here. The samurai are,
ultimately, the losers. They lost their comrades and now must
leave the village because they are not fit to live among the
normal citizens. It would be intolerable for both the
classes. They are, ultimately, alone in the world.
And so is Marlowe.
TL
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