The Long Goodbye

Rating:
Summary: Reinvention of Marlowe
Review: I really enjoyed the featurettes that came with the DVD, one with Altman and Elliott Gould, the other with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmund who discusses technical points that added to my apreciation of the movie. It's one of the few movies from the hippie era that hasn't aged badly because the naked girls doing yoga on the balcony are as perplexing to Marlowe as they are to the viewer of today. The female star, Nina Van Pallandt, who plays Eileen Wade is genius casting. In fact the actor who plays Roger Wade, Eileen's husband, is also beautifully cast--Sterling Hayden. One wonders what the film would have been like if Dan "Hoss from Bonanza" Blocker had played the part of Roger Wade. In the featurette Altman reveals he nearly abandoned making the picture after Blocker's death, and he is listed in the credits in a weird sort of way. But back to Hayden and Van Pallandt. He is a man mountain with a big Lord of the Rings style beard, he could have played the Tree thing in Fellowship of the Ring. he has a long monologue on the beach with a bottle of frozen aquavit that's fantastic as anything he did for Coppola or Kubrick. And Nina Van Pallandt--who had been a kind of Danish folk singer and then one of the principals in the Howard Hughes/Clifford Irving forgery scandal of Ibiza--looks utterly gorgeous in the film, always wearing some ethnic hippie gown with sixty yards of material, always looking Scandinavian, with bogs of great sorrow in her dark eyes. She should have won the Oscar--that's plain to see nowadays. She's also great in Altman's A WEDDING as the drug-addled Mom.

And how many cigarettes does Elliott Gould smoke in this movie? It's as if he has discovered a new brand of acting which involves expressing oneself solely through cigarettes. No wonder Sterling Hayden calls him "Marlboro Man."

And the theme song is terrific, the lyrics, by Johnny Mercer, among Mercer's best. Between Johnny Mercer'sa contribution and those of Sterling Hayden and Leigh Brackett, Altman garnered the best of the 1940s and brought it into the 1970s for a last hurrah.

Rating:
Summary: I wanna be semetic.
Review: Altman films really do tend to be subjective beasts,but there has to be no denying that this film has one of the greatest openings in all of 1970's American cinema.Altman's most nihilistic film to date, and perhaps justifiably so if you stop to consider that Altman's vision of a morally bankrupt and shallow California is now well on it's way to being validated by a certain Austrian meathead, who way back in 1973 presumably had neither the foresight nor the mental fortitude to grasp the sheer irony of the situation as his even then dopey Aryan persona was deftly being blasted off the screen by the then righteous Elliot Gould's impenetrable Jewish cool.I want to see a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: forget the book, enjoy the movie
Review: To enjoy this movie you have to forget about the book...Elliot Gould is miscast but it doesn't matter...he's fine in the role of 'marlboro man' and carries the film on his shaggy shoulders. The opening scene is one of Altmans best as Marlowe attempts to fool his cat by buying subpar cat food and disguising it as his cats favorite. The music for the film is a dozen or so different versions of "the Long Goodbye" everything from jazz to muzak to humming etc. Look for David Carradine and Arnold Schwarzenegger in bit roles. I wish the DVD had some extras though...no commentary, etc. It gets docked a star for that but otherwise a great 70's classic.

Rating:
Summary: 70s Altman favorite
Review: I, like every other self-respecting film buff, am a huge fan of Altman's films of the 1970s. This is not one of my favorites from that time period, although "good" Altman = "great" any other director. Update of Marlowe tale has Elliot (miscast) as private eye.
The film has a lot going for it, gorgeous cinematography, Gould isn't very good as Marlowe (he's too jokey), but a lot of the supporting roles are great (particular Sterling Hayden).

Regarding Altman's other films from the 70s, here go my votes:

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (4 stars) Altman's best ever. Unparalleled
Nashville (2 stars, don't shoot me film buffs!) Muddled and draggy though I love Carradine's song
Thieves Like Us (3 stars) Not as good as McCabe (not sturdy enough) but still great.
MASH (4 stars) A classic! Love it or leave!
California Split (4 stars) Best poker film ever. Great attention to detail

im out

Rating:
Summary: Oh Great! I'm Gonna Have That Song In My Head All Day!
Review: Robert Altman is notorious for having plenty of movement in all his films. This one is no exception. The transplantation to the 70's seems weird, but it's the story that really sets it apart. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe is played with such awkwardness by Gould. I loved his chain smoking, anywhere he can get the chance. Sterling Hayden should have been nominated for an Oscar for this performance. I also got a kick out of seeing Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger in a non-speaking role.