Humphrey Bogart

Since watching Play It Again, Sam with my parents, I've thought a little more about Humphrey Bogart and the impact he's had, which is why I was excited to see this book review in the NY Times for a new biography about him called "Tough Without A Gun" by Stefan Kanfer.

"The Bogart we came to know on the screen was mature when he arrived, with compressed emotions, an economy of gesture and a compact grace in movements that were wary and self-contained, as if all the world were not a stage but a minefield. Kanfer’s book takes its title from Raymond Chandler, who approved of the decision to cast Bogart in “The Big Sleep” as Philip Marlowe, the hard-boiled detective he had created, because Bogart could be “tough without a gun.” "

But what was most catching, was The Times' reviewer's final paragraph about culture and film generally:

"Bogart’s appeal was and remains completely adult — so adult that it’s hard to believe he was ever young. If men who take responsibility are hard to come by in films these days, it’s because they’re hard to come by, period, in an era when being a kid for life is the ultimate achievement, and “adult” as it pertains to film is just a euphemism for pornography."

Definitely a succinct summation of a cultural symptom.