I really don't understand why this film gets such high ratings. It doesn't work either as an adaptation of a Chandler novel or on its own merits.
I'm a big Chandler fan. I understand that adapting a book to film means making concessions, but I don't think there is a single line of dialogue from the book in this film. If you like Chandler then you know it's his dialog that makes him such an outstanding writer and more than just a pulp-fiction hack.
I can also understand changing the plot, but this movie removes so much of the original and changes not only the storyline, but the characters and motivations that it becomes incoherent. I mean why make Mexican gangsters in the book into Jewish ones in the film? It takes away from the reasoning of Lennox's flight to Mexico. There is never any real understanding of why or how Lennox and Marlowe met or became friends. There are a whole group of characters left out which gave meaning to story. Without any understanding of the characters, the plot doesn't make sense, and the changes take away from the understanding and make the motivations weak.
Although the story was "updated" to the 1970's, the look and feel is more of an early 1960's film. It wasn't avant-garde, but already outdated when it came out.
Some people like the soundtrack, but I find the one song, in it's numerous variations very insipid. Hearing each version over and over again only point out how awful a song it is. It comes off as a cheap trick.
So even on its own terms this movie is very weak and frustrating and as Chandler film it will make aficionados cringe.
I'm a big Chandler fan. I understand that adapting a book to film means making concessions, but I don't think there is a single line of dialogue from the book in this film. If you like Chandler then you know it's his dialog that makes him such an outstanding writer and more than just a pulp-fiction hack.
I can also understand changing the plot, but this movie removes so much of the original and changes not only the storyline, but the characters and motivations that it becomes incoherent. I mean why make Mexican gangsters in the book into Jewish ones in the film? It takes away from the reasoning of Lennox's flight to Mexico. There is never any real understanding of why or how Lennox and Marlowe met or became friends. There are a whole group of characters left out which gave meaning to story. Without any understanding of the characters, the plot doesn't make sense, and the changes take away from the understanding and make the motivations weak.
Although the story was "updated" to the 1970's, the look and feel is more of an early 1960's film. It wasn't avant-garde, but already outdated when it came out.
Some people like the soundtrack, but I find the one song, in it's numerous variations very insipid. Hearing each version over and over again only point out how awful a song it is. It comes off as a cheap trick.
So even on its own terms this movie is very weak and frustrating and as Chandler film it will make aficionados cringe.