--- Patrick King <
abrasax93@yahoo.com> wrote:
> But the film, KISS ME DEADLY, is an essential
"noir"
> example, employing, in many cases
inventing,
> essential
> aspects of the style. Altman's film, THE
LONG
> GOODBYE,
> thows all of these essentials out including
the
> story
> and leaves us with an empty dective out of his
time
> in
> an anti-"noir" atmosphere. Maybe its an
interesting
> idea, not to me, but I guess to some. I sure
wish
> he'd
> used a different detective and a different
title.
>
Although Kiss Me, Deadly is considered noir by some, it is
not by me, nor is it "essential" in any way. It's a damn fine
PI film in that it explodes the limits of the usual fare.
Once again, The Long Goodbye is being judged by its genre
cred instead of its own merits. What we have here is that I
agree with a lot of what you're saying. The difference is
that I find those aspects valuable instead of disheartening.
Marlowe in The Long Goodbye is surely out of his time but I
don't find him empty. Where I find the Chandler in Altman's
flick is in the spaces between the words of the novel. Read
the book. The future is closing in. To me, Chandler's novel
reads like a suicide note. Altman -- or whoever wrote the
screenplay -- seems to take that sense of the book and pull
it into a contemporary setting as if to confirm Chandler's
fears. The Long Goodbye isn't Chandler's Marlowe. It's the
Marlowe that would have been had he lived now.
It wasn't titled The Long Goodbye for nothing.
William
Essays and Ramblings
<http://www.williamahearn.com>
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo!
Mobile. Try it now.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 06 Dec 2007 EST