The Big Sleep

Faulkner was one-third of the screen writers for The Big Sleep, but by far the most noticeable. It's clear to me why he liked this story: it's about corruption, there's no real plot, and the characters are all either double-sided or complex in their own way. For instance,

Vivian & Carmen Sternwood are both unique female characters, but are each very different. Each are essentially two-sided. Vivian appears snobbish but reveals herself to be loyal and capable of love. She is a very masculine, "androgynous" female, because she takes on the role that her sickly father is too weak to. She drinks scotch. She gambles. She can hold her own in conversation with a witty protagonist, and is obviously virtuous enough for him to fall in love with her. Carmen is also two sided but in a different way. She appears innocent but actually isn't, she a murderess, a suspected nymphomaniac, porn star, drug user, and perpetuates all of the evil in the novel. These girls, combined, mirror a lot of Faulkner characters in their defiance of social norms. Caddy's muddy underwear for instance. They are both the pure and impure, the ultra-feminine but ultra-masculine androginous characters.

Then we have General Sternwood who represents his own deteriorating family. He's the "head of the household" yet has to have everyone else work for him, including his eldest daughter. He is clueless in their upbringing and let's them run "wild". He's on the verge of death, and symbolizes collapse. He is extremely wealthy, and, like Thomas Supten, is coming to terms with the fact that you can't just "buy in" or "buy out" of life situations. This is illustrated when Marlowe suggests just paying off the blackmailer, but Gen. Sternwood refuses and says that wouldn't do any good for him, showing that he has realized material goods can't do it all, there are emotions, too.

Lastly, Philip Marlowe is the shining star in a corrupt world. Anything he touches or holds dear is supposed to be looked at in a good light, and we are constantly shown women offering themselves to him and he refuses sweetly every time, placing himself somewhat above the innate sexual desire and the rest of the men of that time. He's the good, in combat with the evil. He's the teller-of-the-tale and somewhat of a rebel.

These characters, though classically "film noir" are also classically Faulkner. They defy expectations, social normalicy, etc. They come from broken or incongruous families. They have to assume roles different than what society expects them to assume. They're also rather exciting.

Death saturates this film, just as it does many Faulkner novels, and when thought of in conjunction with the greenhouse at the beginning of the screenplay being sweltering hot, motivates a plethora of comparisons to be drawn between this and Faulkner's motif of The Wasteland.