The Long Goodbye
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Movie Reviews of The Long Goodbye
Movie Review: Post-War Heroism Meets 1970s Los Angeles -With Cynical Results.
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Long Goodbye" is based on Raymond Chandler's novel of the same name, reconceived by screenwriter Leigh Brackett and director Robert Altman, who displace the post-war P.I. Philip Marlowe to 1973, as if he had woken up from a 20-year sleep and found himself among the sun-kissed sybarites of then-modern Los Angeles. Terry Lennox (Jim Burton) implores his old friend Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould) for a ride to Tijuana in the middle of the night. Terry's in some kind of trouble, so Marlowe obliges. Marlowe is arrested the next day on a trumped up charge by some cops who are sure he must know that Terry bludgeoned his wife to death. Marlowe is then hired by a Mrs. Eileen Wade (Nina von Pallandt), who lives in the same gated beachfront community as the Lennox's did, to find her eccentric alcoholic husband. And Marlowe is threatened by megalomaniac mobster Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell), whose $350,000 Terry made off with.
Marlowe can't escape the mystery of Terry Lennox. The case is pursuing him more than he is inclined to pursue it. Everyone thinks that Marlowe knows something about Terry that he doesn't. That sets the tone for "The Long Goodbye". In contrast to the conventional detective role, Philip Marlowe is the pursued, not the pursuer. He has no control, gets no respect, and has little choice but to investigate his friend's death. To add insult to injury, we're watching. Vilmos Zsigmond's constantly moving camera makes it creepily clear that we are voyeurs of Marlowe's troubles. That onus is a little uncomfortable at times. Robert Altman's focus on behavior adds detail and texture without overwhelming the story. His signature overlapping dialogue serves the chaotic moral climate well. Elliot Gould is fantastic man out of time, smoking and wearing dark suits in the Southern California heat. "The Long Goodbye" is a great neo-noir from that decade of emasculated noir protagonists, the 1970s, when private detectives became anachronisms.
The DVD (MGM 2002): There are 2 featurettes, a theatrical trailer (2 1/2 min), 5 radio ad spots (3 1/2 min, audio), and "'American Cinematographer' Reprint of 1973 Article" (text) by Edward Lipnick, from the March 1973 magazine. This long article is about the use of "post-flashing" to reduce contrast in beach scenes and to increase shadow detail in night scenes. "Rip Van Marlowe" (25 min) features interviews from 2002 with Robert Altman and Elliot Gould. They talk about how the film came to be made, themes, casting, camera movement, directing the actors, and stopping the release of the film to change misleading advertising. "Vilmos Zsigmond Flashes The Long Goodbye" (14 min) is a 2002 interview with cinematographer Zsigmond in which he discusses creating the visual aspect of the film with the production designer and Altman, night shooting, camera movement and "flashing" the film to achieve the desired effects. Subtitles are available for the film in English, French, Spanish. Dubbing available in French.
Movie Review: Quirky, Atmospheric, Unique Altman Spin to Chandler!
Summary: 5 Stars
I admit, when I first viewed "The Long Goodbye", in 1973, I didn't like the film; the signature Altman touches (rambling storyline, cartoonish characters, dialog that fades in and out) seemed ill-suited to a hard-boiled detective movie, and Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe? No WAY! Bogie had been perfect, Dick Powell, nearly as good, but "M.A.S.H.'s" 'Trapper John'? Too ethnic, too 'hip', too 'Altman'!
Well, seeing it again, nearly 34 years later, I now realize I was totally wrong! The film is brilliant, a carefully-crafted color Noir, with Gould truly remarkable as a man of morals in a period (the 1970s) lacking morality. Perhaps it isn't Raymond Chandler, but I don't think he'd have minded Altman's 'spin', at all!
In the first sequence of the film, Marlowe's cat wakes him to be fed; out of cat food, the detective drives to an all-night grocery, only to discover the cat's favorite brand is out of stock, so he attempts to fool the cat, emptying another brand into an empty can of 'her' food. The cat isn't fooled by the deception, however, and runs away, for good...
A simple scene, one I thought was simply Altman quirkiness, in '73...but, in fact, it neatly foreshadows the major theme of the film: betrayal by a friend, and the price. As events unfold, Marlowe would uncover treachery, a multitude of lies, and self-serving, amoral characters attempting to 'fool' him...with his resolution decisive, abrupt, and totally unexpected!
The casting is first-rate. Elliott Gould, Altman's only choice as Marlowe, actually works extremely well, BECAUSE he is against 'type'. Mumbling, bemused, a cigarette eternally between his lips, he gives the detective a blue-collar integrity that plays beautifully off the snobbish Malibu 'suspects'. And what an array of characters they are! From a grandiosely 'over-the-top' alcoholic writer (Sterling Hayden, in a role intended for Dan Blocker, who passed away, before filming began), to his sophisticated, long-suffering wife (Nina Van Pallandt), to a thuggish Jewish gangster attempting to be genteel (Mark Rydell), to a smug health guru (Henry Gibson), to Marlowe's cocky childhood buddy (Jim Bouton)...everyone has an agenda, and the detective must plow through all the deception, to uncover the truth.
There are a couple of notable cameos; Arnold Schwarzenegger, in only his second film, displays his massive physique, as a silent, mustached henchman; and David Carradine plays a philosophical cellmate, after Marlowe 'cracks wise' to the cops.
The film was a failure when released; Altman blamed poor marketing, with the studio promoting it as a 'traditional' detective flick, and audiences (including me) expecting a Bogart-like Marlowe. Time has, however, allowed the movie to succeed on it's own merits, and it is, today, considered a classic.
So please give the film a second look...You may discover a new favorite, in an old film!
Movie Review: $50 Per Day Plus Expenses
Summary: 4 Stars
A youthful Elliot Gould at the top of his form makes for an easy-going yet no nonsense Phillip Marlowe in this contemporized (1973) adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel of the same name. Directed by Robert Altman from Leigh Brackett's screenplay, Gould's Marlowe is an irreverent and "laid-back-until-pushed-too-hard" private detective who goes to the aid of a friend only to become immersed in a mystery of deceit, drug money and double murder. Gould's chain-smoking and cat-loving Marlowe is surrounded with typical 70s-circa Hollywood/Malibu characters including uninhibited hippie-chick neighbors, an assortment of thugs both criminal and badged, a controlling sanitarium administrator, and an alcohol-abusive novelist played by 50s star Sterling Hayden (Asphalt Jungle, Dr.Strangelove). A very cool John Williams/Johnny Mercer musical score helps establish and sustain the film's mood which ends with a scene that's both controversial as well as provocative. - DMMovie Review: Better Luck Next Time, Mr. Chandler
Summary: 3 Stars
Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye," released in 1973, based on Raymond Chandler's penultimate novel, is generally considered a film noir classic. It follows Chandler's convoluted plot, kinda sorta, and is, of course, filmed in color: there's a school that says that movies based in Los Angeles, as this one is, may succeed as films noir despite being filmed in color.
Chandler's book was adapted for the screen by Leigh Brackett, who also did the honors for the 1946 Warner Brothers' Humphrey Bogart adaptation of the author's "The Big Sleep." Here, the action is moved from Chandler's L.A. of the 1940's to the city's 1979's, mean, drug-addled. After the murders committed by Charlie Manson's crew, and the motorcycling Hell's Angels at the Rolling Stones" Altamont concert. The city has begun to awake from its long dream of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. The film's cinematography, by the talented Hungarian refugee Vilmos Zsigmond, who also did Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," captures the look of the city frozen at that time. Harsh sun, bleached colors, threatening pastels. And Altman's camera moves constantly. The many times honored John T. Williams did the sound track, and a witty one it is, too. That theme song pops up all over the place, from supermarket Musack to Mexican, party singalong to piano jazz.
The story concerns Philip Marlowe's decision to help a friend. Marlowe, here played by Elliott Gould, helps Terry Lennox (played by Jim Bouton) to get to Mexico. Lennox will be accused of killing his wife and stealing a large sum of mob money. For his trouble, Marlowe is beaten up, and jailed for several days. Then, what is apparently another job takes him to a guarded, ritzy Malibu beach community, that is, in fact, the site of the murder of Lennox's wife. The gatekeeper does movie star impersonations, nobody is actually the person he/she presents to the world, and several residents have taken screen star type names. His clients on this job are Sterling Hayden, as an alcoholic, Hemingwayesque famous writer, Roger Wade, born Billy Joe Smith. And Nina Van Pallandt, former model, and mistress to that most famous of 1970's hoaxers, author Clifford Irving (he counterfeited a Howard Hughes autobiography). She plays Wade's downtrodden wife Eileen.
Altman was an offbeat kind of guy, and his casting of this movie is, too. Most of the lead parts are played by non-actors: Van Pallandt; Jim Bouton, former New York Yankees star pitcher as Lennox, born Lenny Potts; Mark Rydell, producer-director, as psychotic gangster-gambler Marty Augustine. Henry Gibson,stand-up comic from Rowan and Martin's television show "Laugh In," as the oily Dr.Verringer. Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder then, in an unbilled, hardly speaking part. These people evidently do as they were directed to do, and deliver their lines, as does David Carradine in a bit, unbilled part as Marlowe's jail roommate. But the leads, Elliott Gould and Sterling Hayden, must have been encouraged to improvise. They talk constantly, and, in the Altman way, frequently at cross-purposes, to deliver what must surely have been the least disciplined performances of their careers.
Frankly, to watch the film again after a hiatus of several years, you can't help noticing that it's virtually two hours long. And that these self-indulgent, undisciplined performances are annoying and tedious, two things a movie of a Raymond Chandler novel should never be. Well, many Chandler books have been filmed more than once, so, with regrets, here's hoping Chandler has better luck next time.
Movie Review: Only Altman Could Have Made This Movie
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Long Goodbye" is director Robert Altman's take on the hardboiled crime fiction of Raymond Chandler and his most accomplished screenwriter, Leigh Brackett. It was an odd film when first released, the conceit being Philip Marlowe's taking a big sleep in the 1940s, only to awaken in Southern California in the 1970s. It's now an even odder film, since the 70s are long gone and make for a certain kind of period picture. But if you're willing to be carried along by Altman and his merry band of players, led by Elliott Gould, you'll probably enjoy the ride.