The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
January 13th, 2008
Occasioned by There Will Be Blood, this revisit was slightly disappointing. My childhood memories of this film were absolutely devastating — I’d probably never seen a tragic anti-hero before — but some of the changes the characters go through feel forced by contemporary standards. Walter Huston’s Oscar-winning turn as leathery gold digger is very amusing and certainly informs Plainview.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. John Huston, 1948. ****
The Long Goodbye
July 18th, 2007
“That’s a lot of entertainment for five grand!” Philip Marlowe’s talking about the questionable spectacle of a bunch of gangsters (including an uncredited Arnold Schwarzenegger) stripping to make a point, but it applies equally to Robert Altman’s time-traveling Chandler adaptation as a whole. Mumbling Elliott Gould is miles apart from Humphrey Bogart but drop dead cool in his own inimitable way, and all of 1970s Los Angeles emerges as his deceptively sunny antagonist.
The Long Goodbye. Robert Altman, 1973. ****
- Roger Ebert
- Terrence Rafferty revists The Long Goodbye
- Terrence Rafferty on the occasion of Altman’s 81st birthday
- Ill-Informed Gadfly
- Christopher Sieving at PopMatters
- The Long Goodbye at Wikipedia
The trailer:
