The Big Sleep - The Movie and The Book
One would think that it would be quite easy to adapt a novel to a screenplay; after all, what is there to do but turn the dialogue into lines and description into set design? However, common sense, aided by the horrifying number of absolutely awful adaptations, dictates that it simply is not that easy. When moviegoers have problems with a film adaptation of a book, their complaints tend to lie in the tendency of the creators of the film to change elements of the story: plot, character, and the like. It would seem, then, that the best way to make a successful adaptation of a novel would be to just stay as true as possible to every detail mentioned in the book. However, staying as true as possible to plot points, character type, and the like may be the best way to a horrendous adaptation.
In moving from the printed page to the silver screen, moviemakers must be aware that they are not simply reproducing a narrative&emdash;they are changing the medium by which the narrative is presented. Oddly enough, cinema lends itself easily to some of the tenets of writing well: namely, the command of, "show, don't tell." In cinema, there is no option, really, of telling, "the details are not asserted as such by a narrator but simply presented." (Chatman 406). The use of a voiceover, of course, is an option, but even the voice of an omniscient narrator cannot stop the viewer from seeing the images and interpreting what he sees. In movies, the viewer does his own telling.
The very nature of The Big Sleep, then, makes adaptation difficult. The entire narrative is described by a character within the story space: Marlowe tells us the entire story. Our view of the plot, then, is clouded by Marlowe's sight. Being a character within the story space, he has his own feelings and his own reactions to what happens to and around him, and he passes those reactions&emdash;albeit unconsciously&emdash;to the reader, who, also unconsciously, picks up on them.
Marlowe does not act the role of mediator, though, in the film version of The Big Sleep.
John Updike’s “A&P” is a short story about a nineteen year old boy during the 1960’s that has a summer job at the local A&P grocery. The main character in the story, Sammy, realizes that life isn’t always fair and that sometimes a person makes decisions that he will regret. Sammy sees that life doesn’t always go as planned when three young girls in bathing suits walk in and his manager Lengel gives them a hard time, and he comes to term with that sometimes you make bad decisions.
As people age, maturity and wisdom is gained through every experiences. From the time a child turns eighteen and becomes an adult, they are required to deal with the realities of the real world and learn how to handle its responsibilities. In John Updike's short story, "A&P", the protagonist Sammy, a young boy of nineteen, makes a drastic change to his life fueled by nothing more than his immaturity and desire to do what he wants and because of that, he has do deal with the consequences.
At first glance, Sammy, the first-person narrator of John Updike's "A & P," would seem to present us with a simple and plausible explanation as to why he quits his job at the grocery store mentioned in the title: he is standing up for the girls that his boss, Lengel, has insulted. He even tries to sell us on this explanation by mentioning how the girls' embarrassment at the hands of the manager makes him feel "scrunchy" inside and by referring to himself as their "unsuspected hero" after he goes through with his "gesture." Upon closer examination, though, it does not seem plausible that Sammy would have quit in defense of girls whom he quite evidently despises, despite the lustful desires they invoke, and that more likely explanations of his action lie in his boredom with his menial job and his desire to rebel against his parents.
In his short story "A & P" John Updike utilizes a 19-year-old adolescent to show us how a boy gets one step closer to adulthood. Sammy, an A & P checkout clerk, talks to the reader with blunt first person observations setting the tone of the story from the outset. The setting of the story shows us Sammy's position in life and where he really wants to be. Through the characterization of Sammy, Updike employs a simple heroic gesture to teach us that actions have consequences and we are responsible for our own actions.
So, with this knowledge, I expected my experience with the 1946 film version of The Big Sleep to be less than stellar. As I watched the film version, one glaring difference stood out; the romance between Vivian Reagan and Phillip Marlowe which did not exist in Chandler's book. Overall, there is a clear difference in the treatment of Marlowe's reaction to womyyn.
The rolling hills and untouched prairies of the Old West were, by and large, replaced with modern infrastructures and communities by the time Raymond Chandler and Thomas Pynchon got around to writing The Big Sleep and Crying of Lot 49. As the “New West” became the “Noir West” liberality transformed into something more along the lines of uniformity. The now more urban landscapes of the Noir West began to call for a different kind of toughness, one based on mental rather than physical strength. It wasn’t enough to be strong and free spirited anymore; being a “Cowboy of Noir” required more mental acuteness than anything else, as both authors (Chandler and Pynchon) demonstrate with Philip Marlowe and Oedipa Maas.
A holocaust is defined as a disaster that results with the tremendous loss of human life. History, however, generally identifies the Holocaust to be the series of events that occurred in the years before and during World War II. The Holocaust started in 1933 with the persecuting and terrorizing of Jews by the Nazi Party, and ended in 1945 with the murder of millions of helpless Jews by the Nazi war-machine. "The Holocaust has become a symbol of brutality and of one people's inhumanity to another." (Resnick p. 11)
The Big Sleep is a novel set in 1920s in which Marlowe, the main character was originally hired to deal with a blackmailing issue with General Sternwood’s daughter but this private investigation then turns into a bigger search as Marlowe founds out more and more. The novel emphasizes the society and the type of people that made up the world during this time period and how they interacted with each other and those around them. Detectives were common during this time due to the lack of trust in the people set to run the society (police, etc). We, the readers, follow Marlowe from a first person to truly understand what a detective goes through and what are the key aspects needed in a detective for a novel to be hardboiled-detective fiction. Chandler attempts to show the reader that there was a great amount of corruption in society within this time highlighting the time period of the depression and the imbalance of wealth amongst the people.
The transition from childhood to adulthood is not only a physical challenge but, psychological and socially exhausting. John Updike who wrote “A & P” recognized this and used it characterize the main character. The protagonist Sammy was developed around the concept of the journey into adulthood. Sammy is a nineteen years old boy who works at the A&P grocery store in a small New England town. It is not until three young girls walk into the store in just their bathing suits that Sammy is faced with the realization that he undoubtedly has to face the harsh truth of growing up.
I chose to do this essay on the idea of story adaptation, and why changes are made to a story. I originally wanted to look at it just in terms of Apocalypse Now, and how the story of Heart of Darkness was updated to fit a different environment and time period, while still being true to many of the events, characters, ideas and themes presented in the story. I was curious about what changes were made, and what that indicated about how the director, and maybe society as a whole, felt about some concept that maybe were no longer acceptable or satisfactory.
In "A&P" Sammy changes from an immature teenager to a person who takes a stand for what he believes is wrong which is reflected in Sammy's words and actions. This paper is composed of three paragraphs. The first paragraph deals with the immature Sammy, the second concentrates on Sammy's beginning his maturing process, and the last focuses on his decision to take a stand no matter what the consequences are.
The short story “A & P” by John Updike is about a young man’s decision to stand up for others or, in the other characters’ opinions, make a foolish decision by abandoning his responsibility. At first he believes his decision is the right thing, quitting his job for how the girls were being treated. Then when he gets outside of the store, he realizes the world he just left behind, regrets his decision, and begins to question his actions. He starts to overthink what the world has to offer him, making his worldview change from underrating to overrating. His “unsure of the world’s dangers” worldview in the beginning changes to overrating the dangers of the future ahead at the end of the story causing Sammy to change throughout “A & P”.
Gettis is similar to Marlowe from the Big Sleep at first glance. Like Marlowe he once worked for the District Attorney and now is a private detective. Gettis also falls in love with the femme fatale character Evelyn, like Marlowe does for Vivian. Here is where most of the similarity between the characters stops. The hardboiled detective as a formal type is indicative of a protaganist with sharp social skills, congeniality and a flawless demeanor. Gettis destroys this ritual. Gettis has moments when he is smooth; by in large he is a far cry from Bogart's portrayal of Marlowe. In one instance he hears a joke at the b...
Along with the development of a file format (MP3) to store digital audio recordings, came one of the new millennium’s most continuous debates – peer-to-peer piracy – file sharing. Internet companies such as Napster and Grokster became involved in notable legal cases in regards to copyright laws in cyberspace. These two cases are similar in nature, yet decidedly different. In order to understand the differences and similarities, one should have an understanding of each case as well as the court’s ruling.
"Small and delicately put together . . ." (5). "Tall and rangy, strong looking . . ." (17). Chandler's descriptions of Carmen and Vivian, respectively, highlight his use or misuse of the typical female stereotypes in, The Big Sleep. From the initial physical description that Chandler gives, the reader can quickly see that the women are complete opposites. Carmen lacks color and does not appear to be healthy while Vivian is "worth a stare" (17). Carmen has sharp predatory teeth while Vivian has, "hot black eyes" (17). Chandler characterizes Carmen as the petite, helpless female who needs protection. Vivian, on the other hand, is a physically impressive, powerful woman.