6/30/09

To me one of the most striking differences between The Big Sleep and Chinatown was the presence of good. In The Big Sleep basically all of the characters were one degree of criminal or another. Most of the characters were a mix of good and bad, with no set of characters being held up as right or better. However, in Chinatown there was a definite undertone of good versus evil. Gittes, Evelyn, Hollis and even Katherine are defiantly portrayed as being “good” people and Noah Cross and his underlings are portrayed as “bad” or “evil” people. The stark contrast between Hollis and Noah was very interesting to me. The two of them were partners, they were equally wealthy, powerful and respected, but they are very opposite characters. Hollis is the epitome of goodness; he struggles to do right by the people of L.A., he takes care of Evelyn and her daughter, his every action seems to be for someone else’s good. Noah Cross, on the other hand, is a despicable man; he is ruthless, greedy, arrogant, a murderer and a horrible father. Nowhere in The Big Sleep are two such polar opposite characters found. No single character in The Big Sleep is as admirable as Hollis or as disgusting as Noah. For me that is why the ending of Chinatown seems so hopeless. Noah has gotten everything he wants and he destroyed Hollis and Evelyn in the process. It seems like a triumph of evil over good. Whereas neither good nor evil wins out in The Big Sleep because neither is found in any concentrated form. The ending of The Big Sleep is actually kind of hopeful in my view. It is revealed that none of the characters are as degenerate as they might originally seem to be.
-Samantha Pepper