What a great Movie, Just saw it for the first time.
Roger reminded me of Hemingway in his last years. Has this been commented on before?
Yeah, the character was definitely based on Hemingway somewhat.
shareyes, he is partly based on hemingway (the outfit, drinking, damaged masculinity) but partly he is also based on raymond chandler, as altman said in an interview. he said, he didn´t really want to make the film about the novel but about chandler (whose final years were full of sickness and depression). he said to the crew-members that they didn´t have to read the novel "the long goodbye"; instead he handed out copies of the book "raymond chandler speaking". so roger wade is actually a mix between hemingway and chandler - fascinating character.
shareChandler repeated lampoons Hemingway in _Farewell, My Lovely_ (the novel, obviously, not the movie).
shareI don't know that Chandler lampoons Hemingway, exactly, at least not maliciously. In "Farewell My Lovely" I think Chandler is simply poking fun at the pop culture phenomenon that was Hemingway. The heavy-drinking, blood-lusting pugilist that Hemingway presented to the public but never really was. I think a lot of people read "Farewell My Lovely" and assume that Chandler didn't like Hemingway. That's not the case. Satire just as often stems from admiration as from disgust. For example, Chandler once wrote a parody of Hemingway's writing that was titled "Beer in the Sergeant Major's Hat, or the Sun Also Sneezes," which he "dedicated with no good reason to greatest living American novelist - Ernest Hemingway." Any satire or parody that Chandler did of Hemingway was borne from true artistic admiration. Hemingway was an admitted influence on Chandler's hardboiled style. That magical mixture of the hardboiled and the poetic that Chandler achieved, Hemingway achieved first.
shareAgreed. Hemingway is an unmistakable influence on Chandler.
From _Farewell, My Lovely_:
"Who is this Hemingway person at all?"
"A guy that keeps saying the same thing over and over until you begin to believe it must be good."
"That must take a hell of a long time," the big man said.
The second line is Marlowe. I'd agree that he's not especially malicious with it, but he certainly seems to be lampooning him. Roasting one's heroes is a time-honored literary tradition (think of Kingsley Amis's "Evelyn Waugh face" in _Lucky Jim_).
And here I thought that Wade's character was a thinly veiled version of Sterling Hayden's own persona......
Agreed, stirlingwarrior--Besides being an interesting actor, Hayden was a novelist. He wrote sea novels. You couldn't have gotten a better performance.
A real stand-out in this good movie filled with other cracked characters.
Altman always let the actors have their creativity.
Whatever you make of Hemingway, it's Sterling Hayden that is the genius here. I remember him from The Killing, Asphalt Jungle, Suddenly, and a few others. I didn't recognize him in the beard, but once he started ranting about that JC Penny tie of Marlowe's, I realized who it was. Just a wonderful portrayal of a man on the edge of self-destruction.
shareI totally noticed the Hemingway reference, and I agree Hayden was amazing. He was such an amazing actor, especially during the '70s.
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
Hayden is great, and I mention that the character seems liek Hemingway everytime I watch it.
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Agreed on Hayden. The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, Crime Wave, Suddenly, Strangelove, The Long Goodbye. The guy just ruled.
shareHayden was great. As much as I like Dan Blocker, I can't picture this having turned out as the same movie with him in the part.
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