preview

Essay about Traits of Marlow in the Big Sleep

Decent Essays

Marlowe - The Big Sleep

What are my traits?

Marlowe runs a single man operation out of the Cahuenga building in Los Angeles. He is tall and big enough to take care of himself. And his interests are Liquor, women, reading, chess and working alone. He is educated enough that he can speak English ‘if he's required to'. Marlowe used to work for the district attorney, but was fired for insubordination.

Philip Marlowe, a private detective. Tall, dark, and rugged, with a poker face and a quick wit, he is attractive to women but wary of them and of all entanglements. Though cynical and hard-boiled, and a heavy drinker capable of violence, Marlowe is idealistic, even puritanical. Contemptuous of money, he is an honest loner in a corrupt …show more content…

Through viewing scenes where Marlowe is beaten up and tied up by Mars' men, we come to realize the strength of Marlowe's integrity and will. Although he is put through much physical pain as well as the mental pain of witnessing horrific acts, he bites the bullet and commits himself completely to the tasks placed before him. Once again, he does not do his task for the small amounts of money, but he does it because he feels it is what he must do.

Conventions of the Genre

Film Noir was a result of it's time - The war had just ended and It was time where prohibition had influenced an abundance in crime and corruption. Film noir serves to highlight the darkest aspects of human beings. ‘Society is making the machinery of it's own destruction.

Characters:

The Typical ‘masculine' hero - often makes others seem inadequate.
-This is an indication of changing societal needs.

Mis-en-scene shows Viven matching Marlowe in wit and power. ‘You're not very tall are you?' represents the ‘higher standing' in society as a woman in late war America.

Film Noir tags: High contrast filming, low-key lighting provides a sense of underlying evil/undercurrent of malevolence in society.

Contrasts to Arthur Conan Doyle's rigid Victorian context with an environment where ‘order is the exception rather than the rule'

Film noir is the perfect medium to reflect the bleak nihilism of post world war one in

Get Access