The Big Sleep (Howard Hawk 1946)

In this essay I am going to attempt to say why the Auteur Theory has more utility in explaining the meaning of Howard Hawks film than genre theory. I’ve watched this movie three times now, and still can’t fully understand the plot. There are great scenes here that are a lot of fun to watch on their own, but when you look at them all put together, The Big Sleep starts to look more like an unsolvable problem to be solved than it does a piece of entertainment. After taking this one in a few times and still not fully understanding it, it makes you think to question whether or not they’re just dense. But, no, a quick Googling reveals that many have studied this story and not been able to make complete sense of it, and, as a matter of fact, there’s some indication that its original author, Raymond Chandler, might not even have a clear idea of who was supposed to have killed General Sternwood’s chauffeur himself. Shouldn’t a mystery story, at the very least, be able to explain itself by the end of the film?
The big sleep is a film directed by Howard Hawks who based it on the corruption of the 1930s America, especially when it came to money and sexual exploitation. Philip Marlowe is hired to try and solve a blackmail case by a dying millionaire. And when working on the case he realises that it also become a murder case. This film can cover many types of genre such as Drama, Film Noir, Crime, Mystery, and also a Thriller. The technical aspect of the movie, the visual format in other words, also reinforces the concept of complexity. Not without merit, this is movie known for its innovative filming