The Long Goodbye

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Summary: Elliot Gould Did This and Now He's on Friends?
Review: This is a great noir and one of my favorite Altman films. What I really love about Altman is how amazingly accuratly he caputures the essence of each of the times and places that he creates in. It's a twisted fun flick and Gould was one hottie. Who knew?

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Summary: Dated, but Ball Four author Jim Bouton saves the movie
Review: This is a dated film, but in spite of that, it's very watchable and the performance of Elliott Gould is criminally underrated and sadly forgotten. The highlight of this movie is the screen debut of former Yankees pitcher and "Ball Four" author Jim Bouton. (Bouton wrote a what is rightly considered the most influential sports book of his time--one that literally changed how a generation of boys and young men looked at the world of sports. No small accomplishment, that.) His performance in "The Long Goodbye" is sublime and deserves a second look. Why Bouton never found added fame as an actor is hard to understand. Perhaps some young director will see this film and seek out Bouton for a long overdue acting role.

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Summary: A Great & Twisted Take On Marlowe
Review: What director, Robert Altman did with "The Long Goodbye" is what he does best. He takes either a subject or genre and turns it inside out, until it becomes something completely different. He has done this to everything from the myths of the old West ("McCabe & Mrs. Miller") to most recently, the old standbye of the English drawing room murder("Gosford Park").In "The Long Goodbye" Altman works his movie magic on Raymond Chandler's private eye, Phillipe Marlowe.In this film Altman plops the iconic 40's & 50's detective (masterfully played by Elliot Gould) right into the middle of 1970s, Southern California.The plot is the usual labyrinth, that you would expect a Chandler character to be in. Marlowe's good friend, Terry Lennox mysteriously drops by and asks the detective for a ride to Mexico. Days later he winds up dead from an apparent suicide.Meanwhile, Marlowe is hired by the wife of an alcholic writer, in a missing persons case.Is there some how a connection between all these events?Along the way the movie viewer gets the fun of following Marlowe, as he meets tough guy cops, psychotic gangsters,a quack doctor, even a cult of naked yoga enthusiasts.Gould reinvents the character and plays him as a figure who is an anachronism, a man lost in time. He wanders the landscape in a haze, mumbling smart remarks and nonsequiturs.He is a man who is preplexed by the antics and lifestyles of the modern world.Everytime he is confronted by 1970s California weirdness, he responds with the mantra "its O.K. by me".Not only is his cheap suit and car decades old, but so are his values and that famous moral code that he lives by.But in the twisted surprise ending of the film, it is those values and moral codes that he sticks by.This is a really great film, that humourously turns the Marlowe legend upside down.Gould really shows us his acting chops and gives a great performance.He is backed up with a wonderful supporting cast(Henry Gibson, Nina Van Pallandt, Mark Rydell, Jim Bouton) that gives us some amazingly crazy characters.Especially good is veteren actor, Sterling Hayden as the drunken, Hemingway-like author. Hayden gives a very vigorous and moving portrayle of a man at the end of his emotional rope.Finally a mention should be made of the movie's theme song. The Mercer/Williams tune is played throughout the film in many weird and different ways, that are too many to list.Keep an ear out for them.This is a simply great movie that will fascinate and entertain.What would Humphery Bogart think, if he saw all of this? I think Bogie would have had a good laugh...

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Summary: DON'T PASS ON THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: As a confirmed Raymond Chandler addict, I highly recommend this film if you're interested in more than trite, superficial fiction or literal interpretations. Now a purist might not be so fond of this film, but if you want to see what sort of ... results from a literal interpretation of a Marlowe novel brought into present day, then go watch the Bob Mitchum starring version of The Big Sleep. Conversely, if you want to see a good interpretation, then go watch the Mitchum starring Farewell, My Lovely, which wasn't stupid enough to bring the character into present day but left the more or less "literal" incarnation of this famous detective in the past (30's/40's) where he belongs. Altman's version of The Long Goodbye shows what sort of impossibility it is to imagine a real Philip Marlowe in (then) present day by updating the character into a fairly aimless, lost soul with not much to do and no place to belong (just as Chandler's moral though not quite shining knight would be if he were transported to more modern times). Now, The Long Goodbye itself is dated, almost as far back in the past relative to today as Chandler's world was to the day of Goodbye's making. Much can be learned here about what form values take in the modern environment, becoming confused, selfish to a degree, and darn near psychopathic (witness the final scene of this film to find out what sort of nihilistic twist the story takes compared to the original book). Much of the original novel is here, however, mainly the weary, sentimental, sad tone and the theme of friendship among men, one not so "bad," the other not so "good". Eliot Gould puts out one of the great acting jobs of the 1970's in this film, in my honest opinion. And far from being populated by "weirdos," this version of Chandler's classic novel is populated by characters that, more or less, are accurate portrayls of the kind of people who inhabited the beach communities of southern CA in the 1970's. In fact, not only do these people STILL exist in this area, but they existed in Chandler's day, as anyone who has actually read his novels will attest If you want a fun double feature, watch this film with The Big Lebowski, an even more "modern" take on the Marlowe mystique, though without Marlowe himself. If you want an educational triple header, throw in the Bogart/Bacall/Hawks version of The Big Sleep (the ultimate of all ultimate Marlowe films). If you really wanna have fun and have the free time & stamina, throw in the (1974?) version of Farewell, My Lovely, in my opinion an underrated 70's gem. If you want something to REALLY pass on, ignore the ... Mel Gibson film Payback, which is only a ... of the Lee Marvin Classic, Point Blank.

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Summary: Excellent film
Review: I think this is Altman at his best and Elliot Gould at his Best. Very Funny.

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Summary: Pass on this
Review: This is the story of a man whose friend commits a serious crime and then uses him to cover it up. Sounds like a good story for a movie, right? Not this movie. The story stays in the background. In the foreground we have the usual 70's mix of pointless nudity and pointless gangster patter and violence. The scenes involving the latter never seem to end and you have to wonder if they're filler. The movie is also full of what some unkind people would call weirdos. [I'm not unkind so I'll just call them odd people.] From the grocery store clerks to brownie eating yoga devotees to the doctor with the God complex to the stripping gangster who can't keep his mouth shut-you see a whole lot of them and very little of Marlowe-the main character. But the person who made this movie has let us know that it's the atmosphere that is important, not the main character. Maybe the 70's is best looked at from a distance and maybe it's not the best place to interpret Raymond Chandler from. If you agree, you might want to pass on this and buy Mel Gibson's Payback. Or read Chandler himself.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I've read Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" and thoroughly enjoyed it. What makes Philip Marlowe such an appealing character is that underneath his cynical exterior is a man who is a romantic. He's a nice man caught up in a sleazy, amoral world.

Unfortunately, Robert Altman completely misses the point of Marlowe's character in this film. While I can respect wanting to take a new approach to a well-worn genre, Altman's sneering contempt for Chandler's detective ruins what could have been a truly great movie. Elliott Gould too often comes across as a goofy smart-... who seems to think he is too cool for the role he is playing.

Unlike the genre-busting "M*A*S*H" and "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", Altman completely strips the characters in this film of any humanity. There is not one character in this film that is even remotely likeable.

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Summary: One of the Best Movies of the 1970s
Review: 'The Long Goodbye' is one of Robert Altman's best films- it's right up there with 'McCabe' and a few others. It's one of the best American movies of the 1970s. When it comes to movies based on Raymond Chandler's books, this and Bogart/Hawks' "The Big Sleep" really can't be topped.

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Summary: It's Okay With Me.......
Review: Robert Altman takes the detective genre and turns it inside out with a real cynical 70's take and a lot of good humor. Instead of the crisp, crackling Maltese Falcon, Big Sleep, Lady in the Lake dialogue & snappy pace, we get a laid-back, slouching, rumpled Elliot Gould as Marlowe, a private detective in the modern world, with no glamor and no cachet. No dames are falling over this guy. He isn't pals with the cops. He isn't a dark knight patrolling the mean city streets. He's a informal slob doing shlock work in a world that doesn't give a damn.

Or is he? Marlowe is smarter than anyone gives him credit, and in the end, he does seem to give a damn about an ultimate justice.

Along the way he meets a maniacal, funny, and frightening Mark Rydell as Marty Augustine, the gangster. Jim Boughton, an erstwhile friend and typical Malibu hanger-on hustler. An indelible Sterling Hayden as an alcoholic writer very close to the man he really was at the end (an alcoholic novelist). Nina Van Pallandt the femme fatale. And assorted characters & creeps, topless neighbors & sinister shrinks all done in the controlled improvisational style of the best of Altman. Take note too, that the camera is constantly in motion in nearly every shot.

There is some nice dialogue, an unforgettale scene when Rydell gives his mistress a Coke (!), and a sweetly sardonic updated ending that fits the modern world better than Chandler's did. I really give it 4-1/2, knocking off the 1/2 star because the repeating of the song everywhere throughout the movie was just too cute. Really worth seeing.

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Summary: California Noir
Review: Very strange, very early 70's, very unusual blend of the sensually oversaturated and morally burned out wealthy bohemes of southern California and the anachronistic wise-cracking of (Elliot Gould's) Marlowe. The jaded icon Marlowe stood out in the 40's for his extra hard and impenetrable shell which of course defended an incorruptible center but next to the hedonistic elite who occupy the lazy pleasure palaces of Malibu he just seems hopelessly out of place and hopelessly ineffective. His wisecracks are often mumbled under his breath and to himself because the Californians he is surrounded by do not get irony. Altman's use of the Marlowe character has annoyed some Chandler purists because Altman's Marlowe acts like a seventies drop out despite the cheap suit and tie and all the clever come ons and put downs. That part of his character that is incorruptible only shows up late when he gets drunk with Nina and shows he actually cares what has happened. The weird thing is that so much of it is played for laughs and so sincerity looks out of place in the movie. It is unclear just what Altman wants to get across, is he just being super hip and taking glib shots at square material or is he using the detective with a moral center to make a moral judgement on all those criminally characterless Californians. The hedonism and moral paucity looks good on the outside(Nina Van Pallandt!, Marlowe's lesbian neighbors doing topless yoga on their front porch, beat hippie intellectual gatherings on the beach)but on the inside these people have hearts of darkness. There is a murder and of course Marlowe gets called in to sort out the mess and of course it becomes more complicated than that. I'll leave the plot alone because it is a mystery and it shouldn't be spoiled, but nothing is what you think it is and no one is who or what they first appear to be and some aspects of this mystery remain unsolved(the strange fantasy island clinic/ cult and its Dr./guru remains an unpenetrated, though very sunny, darkness). An incredible beach side bungalow(Altmans own house) is the center of most of the action which involves Van Pallandt and her husband, a drunken and brilliant but spent writer, played by a grey bearded Sterling Hayden who does a real turn with the role(sort of part John Huston, part Nick Nolte). These two characters are infinitely watchable and their undefined situation very intriguing. Next to them Marlowe simply seems a very declasse and bumbling loafer and he never really gets the upper hand as the classic Marlowe would have. The truth remains hidden from him and what portion of the truth he does uncover is just that portion which affects him personally.
Altman is the master at allowing a film to aquire its own organic shape and flow and letting actors invent and while this film does that it also has to keep coming back to the Chandler material which creates a kind of compromised predicament where perhaps everything is compromised.
Altman films either hit big or miss big though a few of them do a bit of both and this is one of those. The already uneasy relationship between Altman and the Chandler novel really reaches a breaking point by the end of the picture. The ending is the ultimate subversion of the Marlowe myth. Altman wants you to be shocked and you are. However you feel about the films strange blending of dark and light material there is some kind of strange seductive magic in certain moments like those great shots of Marlowe and the ocean reflected on the glass door and that beautiful Nina with her long blonde mane and blue eyes and European accent and long white Moroccan dresses who will seduce anyone who watches this film. I think Altman likes California and Californians more than he likes Noir.