--- Robert Elkin <
rictusaporia@yahoo.com> wrote:
> William:
> I do not disagree with you as to the Huston
FALCON's
> brilliance (one of my more memorable buys
recently
> was the WB 3xDVD boxed reissue of all three
FALCON
> films); but as with most good films of books,
the
> film is a standalone to me--when you say
the
> "nature" of Hammett's tale, I think Faust--but
not
> with the film.
And I don't disagree with you. And I got that same DVD set
from the NYPL and watched the "other" two (I have a copy of
the Huston version). What I appreciated about the book and
the film is that the story wasn't a whodunit in any
conventional sense although Archer's murder was a theme whose
resolution was solved and revealed in a really interesting
way. But the Falcon was a story about greed and dreams not as
a motivation but as a lifestyle. I was disappointed that the
film didn't incorporate the story of the used car
salesman
-- a side road that illuminated the thrust of both the book
and the film. The other film that successfully and brillantly
portrayed it as well was Chinatown
(that's not to say that I don't think there aren't other good
filma of the type). The Falcon deals with crime in a unique
way and others have imitated it but never grasped the depth
of the book. It operates under all the allusions and that's
what Huston tapped into that the other versions missed.
William
Essays and Ramblings
<http://www.williamahearn.com>
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