The Long Goodbye (1973)

Seventies classic. Is it still good? Yes you bet, that's why it is called a classic, those are by definition timeless! But it is a very laid back, slowburning seventies movie, that is probably not suited for the masses, who might long to see a straight, fast action packed thriller, which it is not. But that lack of straight, fast action packed scenes, only enhances it's cool appeal, because "The Long Goodbye" most certainly is cool...

"The Long Goodbye" portrays a cool, yet rundown private eye who gets framed for a crime he didnt commit. The story revolves around finding the true culprit of the crime. Nothing new here. Then what is so special about it? The already mentioned "cool factor" makes this movie so special.

Elliot Gould, (who plays the character Philip Marlowe), is born with a cigarette in his mouth. This private eye only cares about his cat and his cigarettes. He is Mister Cool himself. No matter what is thrown at him, he will react with a smart *ss remark. Saw many reruns of it on television and it is just one of those movies that keeps pleasing me, because secretly I wanna be as cool as detective Philip Marlowe as well...

Fmovies: The Long Goodbye is a cool as ice mystery that retains Robert Altman's idiosyncratic sensibilities.Robert Altman's labyrinthine take on the Raymond Chandler classic is noir unburdened by a straight narrative - it's a triumph of atmosphere and attitude, a swiftly unfolding whodunit punctuated by subversive absurdities and shattering acts of violence.

I really don't understand why this film gets such high ratings. It doesn't work either as an adaptation of a Chandler novel or on its own merits.

I'm a big Chandler fan. I understand that adapting a book to film means making concessions, but I don't think there is a single line of dialogue from the book in this film. If you like Chandler then you know it's his dialog that makes him such an outstanding writer and more than just a pulp-fiction hack.

I can also understand changing the plot, but this movie removes so much of the original and changes not only the storyline, but the characters and motivations that it becomes incoherent. I mean why make Mexican gangsters in the book into Jewish ones in the film? It takes away from the reasoning of Lennox's flight to Mexico. There is never any real understanding of why or how Lennox and Marlowe met or became friends. There are a whole group of characters left out which gave meaning to story. Without any understanding of the characters, the plot doesn't make sense, and the changes take away from the understanding and make the motivations weak.

Although the story was "updated" to the 1970's, the look and feel is more of an early 1960's film. It wasn't avant-garde, but already outdated when it came out.

Some people like the soundtrack, but I find the one song, in it's numerous variations very insipid. Hearing each version over and over again only point out how awful a song it is. It comes off as a cheap trick.

So even on its own terms this movie is very weak and frustrating and as Chandler film it will make aficionados cringe.

The Long Goodbye fmovies. Phillip Marlowe is out getting food for his cat at 3am when friend Terry Lennox pops over and asks for a lift to Mexico. Marlowe obliges but returns to his home to find the police waiting for him with stories of Terry murdering his wife and Marlowe being an accessory. Three days later he is released from a holding cell whereupon he learns the news of his friend's suicide and all charges are dropped. Determined to get to the bottom of this open and shut case, Marlowe finds himself involved in the stormy marriage of Roger and Eileen Wade and the criminal activities of Marty Augustine.

Hailed as a classic, this film is actually a bit of hard work crossed with cool style in a plot that gets somewhere but seems to take a long time and a million back roads to get there. It won't be to everyone's tastes as a result because, even though I quite liked it, I must confess that the narrative is hard to follow and hard to particularly care much about. The wit of it is watching Marlowe updated – a device that will annoy as many as it pleases. In Gould's laidback and shabby detective we have the opposite of the tough and snappy detectives of the genre, but it sits well within the modern setting of the modern generation (as was) with its hedonism and fads. This is interesting but not the same as a good detective story, which sadly this isn't. If you're not won over by the overall approach then it is unlikely that you will find a lot more to fill the time.

Altman's direction is focused on the style and, although he is fairly respectful to the material in regards what happens, he doesn't go out of his way to make it engaging. Gould fits the role well and enjoys his character. I would have liked more of the complexity underneath to come through to contrast with this surface. He is the film but he is well supported by a hammy show from Sterling and solid turns from Rydell, Pallandt, Gibson and Bouton.

Overall then a difficult film to really like. It has enough of its own style to be interesting but not enough of a hook in the narrative to please a mass audience. Altman's hands are all over the film and I understand why some viewers don't like it for that reason. Not one for those looking for a gripping detective story, but still interesting.

The first time I saw this movie was back in the seventies and this was the film that won me over to Robert Altman's great works in the American cinema.

Granted, at the time of the movie's release Raymond Chandler purists naturally didn't appreciate the transformation his knight errant private eye underwent. But nowadays, the viewer must see the film for its great direction, terrific performances, Leigh Brackett's excellent screenplay and the fine cinematography. Not to mention simply the challenge of understanding a truly baffling plot. As in all of Altman's works, this one is peppered with offbeat characters and subtle (and some not-so subtle) situations that positively take you by surprise. As a maverick figure in Hollywood, Altman made sure "iconoclast" was stamped all over this film, it's a true nose-thumbing at every institution that Hollywood reveres; idealistic movie heroes, neat happy-ever-after endings, big budget spectacles, dependable money-making conventions and all around ass-kissing.

But the real treat here is, of course, Elliott Gould, and I don't believe that it's the best thing he's ever done on screen, as many think. He's certainly turned out even better performances than this one throughout the past 3 decades. But yet, in The Long Goodbye, Gould is just so much fun to watch, especially when he's being interrogated by the police or just muttering lines like, "He's got a girl, I got a cat" or "a melon convention" when he gives up trying to get his topless next-door neighbors' attention.

An interesting thing to note at the end of the film - we see the back shot of Marlowe walking away and that to me, was the private eye's closing shot, but then we have a front shot of Elliott Gould who begins playing his harmonica and then continues on up the road doing his little number, dancing a jig, etc. And to me that shows where Marlowe left off and where Gould takes over. So they weren't one and the same after all. Once again, a statement to those who would be too quick to take the Marlowe myth seriously.

The Long Goodbye is vintage Altman, a masterwork to be savoured forever.

Easily one of Altman's best films and an early precursor to other films later in the decade by the director. The Long Goodbye is a fine transition in style to Altmans later films like "Nashville" and "A Wedding" Elliot Gould does an outstanding job portraying the outre detective Phillip Marlowe, using his mumbling, bumbling, smart ass speaking style, as a technique to keep the film under the illusion that everything is in motion, like the ocean waves in the film, Marlowe speaks in a sort of beatnik type "Daddy-O" style combined with a smooth talking private eye, and the result works perfectly. The film works like it is timed by a metronome, it rolls along, seamlessly in a way that only Altman can achieve, and like the rhythm of the waves and Marlowe's speech, the camera is constantly in motion as well. The roving camera does an excellent job of allowing the viewer to feel as though they are witnessing more action than actually exists on screen.

Wade (Sterling Hayden) is a fantastic Hemingway-esque writer in the film. Hayden's size and booming voice, in conjunction with his alcoholism and potential brutality, lend an aroma of unpredictableness to his character. Wade's beautiful wife, who has a mysterious bruise on her face, is like a timid, loyal animal, subjected to the whims of her over bearing master. Henry Gibson, who plays Wade's doctor, is excellent as a sort of despotic mouse, who frightens an elephant into conforming to his will, this irony is one of the films intriguing, bizarre twists.

This film works well as a character study, and is one of the best films of the seventies. A must see for every student of film. 9/10