The Long Goodbye (1973)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Powerful

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Private investigator Philip Marlowe is approached by a friend, Terry Lennox, who is in a bit of a jam. Marlowe helps him get to Mexico but the next day his friend's wife turns up dead. The police hold Marlowe but then release him once Terry Lennox is found dead in Mexico - suicide. To the cops it is an open-and-shut case of murder-suicide but Marlowe doesn't believe that to be the case. Marlowe then is hired by the wife of wealthy author Roger Wade to find her husband. The Wades were neighbours of the Lennoxes. A powerful mob boss also leans on him to find the large sum of money Terry Lennox was transporting for him. Could all these events be connected? Robert Altman directs a movie based on a Raymond Chandler novel, and it's a mixed bag. Starts off very well with some humorous scenes and dialogue and a fair amount of intrigue. The middle-to-end sections lack focus, however, and, while it is never dull, the movie feels like it is drifting to a lacklustre conclusion. The intrigue just seems to get sucked out of the movie in that segment. In addition, the theme song gets played in just about every situation and in various forms - it gets very irritating, very quickly.Ends well though, with a good twist and a powerful conclusion.A new take on Philip Marlowe from Elliott Gould - he is hardly Humphrey Bogart and he's not trying to be. Altman's Philip Marlowe is the dishevelled, anti-social chain-smoking anti-hero rather than the suave, confident hero that Bogart portrayed. For the most part, it works, though at times I wished for the coolness and wise-cracks of Bogie. Supporting cast are fine. Sterling Hayden is great as the larger-than-life, Ernest Hemingway/John Huston-esque Roger Wade. Not the Philip Marlowe of the Bogart movies, but it'll do.

Watching this once more, this time on blu-ray, I am reminded just how very good a film it is. McCabe and Mrs Miller has always been my favourite Altman film but I think this might just be a little better and a little more enjoyable. Ironic, of course, to watch this on the sharper medium when so much effort went into 'flashing' the film stock so as to partially degrade it and take that ultra bright look out. Altman himself wonders whether he went too far and there are one or two spots where there might be concern particularly in the darker corners but overall he has effectively altered the look so as to make the film more timeless. Sure there are the naked yoga ladies across the way to constantly remind one this is a seventies film but Gould (in a sensationally laid back performance) seems to wander in and out of this time and place quite effortlessly. Enthralling and believable with great dialogue, this is a joy to watch.

When I first saw this film back in the 70's, I thought it was just too quirky like many movies made at the time. However, 40 years later, I can appreciate it more and I'm glad I gave it another look.Private eye Philip Marlow lives in Los Angeles with his cat. When a friend asks to be driven to Mexico, it leads into a story of suicide, murder, a scheming woman, a setup, a frame-up, a dodgy doctor and a psychotic gangster.To be honest, the plot is a bit ordinary as was the story in the original novel, but just as it was on the printed page, the power of the movie was in the telling.Years ago, I read Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels and if the plots weren't overly convoluted, they were implausible. The success was in the character Chandler created and the way he described his world. Altman got it; the film is different to the novel, but it's all about Marlowe and the way he reacts to what is happening around him.Altman didn't set his film in the late 40's as depicted in the novel, otherwise it would have been more like "Farewell My Lovely" with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe made a couple of years later.Altman places Marlowe in 1970's Los Angeles. Bogart and Mitchum gave us classic Marlowe, but Elliott Gould gives us something different. He's a man who sticks to a personal set of principles despite seeming out of place. Elliott Gould plays him as pretty chilled-out, and the film captures a sense of disillusionment with just about everything – it was the 70's after all.Arnold Schwarzenegger has a non-speaking part as a heavy, and an aging Sterling Hayden plays an author with issues. Perfect casting really as the imposing Hayden was apparently drunk or stoned most of the time on this film.The movie has a different ending to the novel and it's not a totally satisfying one; the final scene even pays a little homage to the final scene in "The Third Man". One thing the film does is highlight the unique vision of Robert Altman who gave a new twist to an almost dead genre.

Raymond Chandler's Detective Philip Marlowe fell Asleep and is Awakened 20 Years Later in the now Smogged Hazed Los Angeles and seems OK with it although He is undoubtedly Dazed and Confused.That's the Premise and You are Asked to Give In to that Premise in No Uncertain Terms and Go with the Flow. Marlowe Sure Does. He Stumbles and Mumbles barely trying to regain His sense of Place and Time. He still Smokes continuously and retains a Cynical Humor about the People that still Populate the "City of Angels".A Conglomerate of Artistic Displays are on hand in Altmanesque Fashion. The peppering Overlapping Dialog, a Fluid and Attentive Constantly Moving Camera, and a remarkable Ensemble Supporting Cast. Henry Gibson, Sterling Hayden, Director Mark Rydell, Nina Van Pallandt, and Baseball Pitcher Jim Bouton all Stamp the Film with Indelible Quirky Characters.The Film is an Homage to Hollywood and Chandler. Altman takes a Bite out of Tinseltown but is Kinder to Marlowe, Chandler, and Film-Noir. The Director is at His most Playful here and most of it Works although Loud and Angry Outbursts from Purists and Traditionalists say otherwise.It's Odd, Offbeat, and Obscure, Against the Grain of the Seventies Neo-Noir Realism and was Dismissed and Booed upon its Initial Release.Others saw a Singular Filmmaking Artist at Work and the Movie has Gained Elevated Status over the Years and has become sort of a Cult Movie or Novel Curiosity. Elliott Gould as Marlowe and Altman have Weathered the Controversy, and the Film Emerges as a Seventies Highlight.