![]() ![]() That’s what Sam Spade would do.” Thus his wife’s lover chides Moseby, when the latter confronts them in an unforgettable break-in scene. However decayed and reduced, he carries a residue of dignity, which no insults or jokes at his expense can entirely destroy.Īnd plenty of jokes are made at his expense. Harry is a remnant, but he’s a remnant of something more substantial. And what is that but an attempt to convince the self that progress has been made, against the nagging instinct that something was lost which was perhaps of greater value. Technology’s nothing if you can’t revel in it. An old-fashioned PI who does “leg work” contrasted with the company he refuses to work for, one that uses and talks about using a computer. What had America become by 1975? From a small republic to a fledgling empire… to a decaying imperial husk in 200 years. The symbolism is all direct, front and center. No great leap is necessary to see the link, and the film makes no attempt to obscure it. It was released in 1975, just before the Bicentennial. We catch on: the film’s largely about the breakdown of a society no longer young, but unable to age gracefully. The symbolism here is so direct it practically interprets itself: formerly glamorous, she’s looking for the next generation, which is lost, while clinging desperately to what remains of her former glory. When he gets to the Iverson residence the same theme is driven home: the former actress is in an alcohol-sodden late-middle age she talks about how beautiful she used to be, how she once had “great tits,” and tries half-heartedly or half-seriously to seduce Moseby with her bloated body. On the other hand we have Harry, alone in his dusty office, no clients waiting, nothing to do but take the case of Arlene Iverson-a woman who “used to be in the movies,” and is now looking for her missing daughter. And the man explicitly contrasts their styles: he uses a computer, he’s modern (we picture a busy office with support staff). ![]() He has only one message: it’s a case thrown to him by a more successful investigator. He listens to messages from a machine-private detectives no longer have secretaries in 1975. The office looks neglected, with a rusty old lamp on an old-fashioned desk. Everything around him is already emptied out, old, wearied, wearing thin. We see Harry Moseby, a private detective, played by a middle-aged Gene Hackman, pull up to his office in Los Angeles. Arthur Penn’s 1975 masterpiece Night Moves begins with music that sounds like a 1970s porno soundtrack, and immediately we understand the world we’re looking at.
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