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I love THE
BIG SLEEP, despite the fact that I've seen it a hundred times
and still have no idea what the hell is going on. Well, I
have a little better idea now (more on that later). Humphrey
Bogart stars as Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled
LA private detective, who is hired to take care of a blackmail
case by Mr. Sternwood, an obscenely rich man with two difficult
daughters. Along the way he uncovers murder, missing persons,
and of course, Lauren Bacall.
Warner's
new DVD of the film offers two different versions of the film:
the 1945 "pre-release" version, and the version that was eventually
released to the public, which was extensively re-cut and partially
re-shot to beef up Lauren Bacall's part. Unfortunately, one
of the things that was cut was a nine-minute scene about halfway
through the film in which much of the plot was explained!
Not that
anyone has ever cared. THE BIG SLEEP has more atmosphere and
snappy dialogue than five other movies put together, and of
course the legendary Bogie/Bacall chemistry.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
The film
is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The picture
on the release version is very disappointing. The print isn't
in very good condition: there is the usual amount of blips
and a few blotches, and an occasional vertical line, but the
black level is extremely variable. Much of the film is very
washed out, leaving the black level in many of the scenes
gray. And this washing out isn't consistent during its frequent
occurrences. It usually doesn't cover the whole picture. In
many cases half of the picture, or one quarter of it, is washed
out while the rest is fine. It is very distracting. The picture
is at its worst during all of the scenes inside Geiger's house,
and in the rear-projection scenes. But even more distracting
is the very noticeable flickering caused by varying black
level and the wear and tear on the print. Really a shame.
The picture
on the "prerelease" version is marginally better, with much
less wear and tear, and less "washing out" than on the release
version, but given that this version was not in general release,
I expected it to look a hell of a lot better than it did.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
The soundtrack
is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. The music has developed a bit of
age-induced harshness, but overall was all right. Dialogue
was clear throughout.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? The disc
includes a 16-minute documentary featuring Robert Gitt of
UCLA, who analyzes the scene differences between the two versions.
Many of the changes didn't really need to be pointed out,
because they amounted to lengthy scenes being cut or added,
but Gitt covered a lot of more subtle differences (including
re-looping of some dialogue) that might be missed.
The disc
also includes production notes, the theatrical trailer,
and a cast list but no bios.
Parting Thoughts
The laserdisc
of this film was pretty bad, and the DVD actually is better:
but it's really a shame that Warner couldn't come up with
a better print of a movie that is loved by so many people.
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