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For those to whom "law and order" is holy writ, concepts of personal growth & freedom, justice & equality for everyone, and a more humane vision of life that doesn't ravage the planet & the individual soul, are all meaningless at best & dangerous at worst. Sad to say. May the pendulum swing back to the side of brotherhood & sisterhood, peace & harmony, soon!
It's not just that she had the body & the looks, however gorgeous. She had a certain allure that went beyond just sex. There was also a yearning vulnerability that struck a chord with countless people, almost on a subliminal level, a sense of having been hurt & still looking to be loved for herself. Again, either that resonates deeply with someone, or else it doesn't.
I disagree with you, but I don't hate you for your opinion. If she doesn't make that connection with you, that's simply how it is, and nothing wrong with it.
It would definitely have a higher budget, better special effects, and extended narrative arcs ... but would it have the same humanity, melancholy & pathos of the 1970s show? I'm not so sure about that.
It has something in common with Jack Kerouac's books, in that <b>how</b> the story is told matters as much as the story itself. Plot & dialog can translate reasonably well to the screen, often remarkably so if a gifted screenwriter sympathetic to the book is involved ... but when the prose style itself conveys so much of the depth of feeling & the atmosphere/zeitgeist of the story, then it becomes very difficult to translate properly indeed.
As far as I'm concerned, the book not only lives up to all the praise that's been lavished on it, it deserves every bit of that praise.
The alien was completely narcissistic & hedonistic, simply wanting whatever it could get & enjoy. Like They Live, this is a satiric commentary on the "greed is good" mentality of the 1980s, wrapped up in SF clothing to make its point entertainingly. Both films together make a terrific double bill about the 1980s, in fact.
I'd also point out that the screenplay was by Leigh Brackett, who had co-written the screenplay for The Big Sleep in the 1940s, and who knew Marlowe very well as a character. She was right on board with Altman's take on the character, which is to wonder how a decent & honorable P! from that 1940s copes with the enormous cultural changes in America since then. Particularly in the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era. Not only an immensely enjoyable film, with a wonderfully laconic performance from Gould, but a clear-eyed look at America at that moment,
I vaguely recall seeing an episode when it came on. Like Barney Miller & later on Night Court, the basic premise was viable: a core cast in a work situation where there would be a constant stream of varied characters passing through. But it just didn't catch on.
Maybe a mini-series would be best, as a lot happens in that novel. I just hope someone doesn't say, "It's such a great story! Now, let's 'improve' it." Peter Jackson did that with The Hobbit & gave us a load of bad fan fiction that all but buried the original story.
If it is, I'm in! I loved it when it first was published, and I've re-read several times over the decades. What a film it would make, if done right.
Colorized is never better than the intended black and white.
Well, if that's how it strikes you, then I can't & won't try to argue you out of your valid personal opinion. For me, and for many others, it strikes a deeply resonant chord. But I won't insist that you have to like it just because I do.
Well said! :)
That possibility occurred to me as well, but you never know ... :)
You're utterly missing both the poetry & the point of the film, I'm afraid.
All too true!
If you've ever read about some of the actual ploys the CIA used in the 1960s & 1970s, the use of a novel doesn't seem all that far-fetched, to be honest.
People weren't as superficial then, especially not countercultural people. The point is that she sees the whole person, not just the surface, and likes that whole person.
This is one of the saddest comments I've seen in a long time. What a bleak view of both love and life.
It's available on DVD, complete with a good commentary track by the director. A strong, painfully honest movie about middle-aged despair & loss.
It's a 70s movie, with a 70s arthouse sensibility, rather European in flavor & approach. With a sudden plunge into the madness of mass killings all around him, knowledge that his own organization is out to get him & that some very dark ops indeed are going on, plus a concurrent need for human warmth & connection as a result -- it makes sense for the times, believe me. Life was more nuanced & emotions were more sophisticated & fluid then. That was all part of the zeitgeist.