The Long Goodbye
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Movie Reviews of The Long Goodbye
Movie Review: The scattershot magic of Robert Altman
Summary: 5 Stars
There are so many good ideas and concepts at work in this film. Here are a few: 1: In the DVD Special Features, Director Robert Altman talks about his overall concept for this film. His problem was how does a filmaker take a character that is so much from a different era and place him in modern times? Altman came up with a conceptual framework: look at the film as though Philip Marlowe, Chandler's ace detective from the 1940's, has been sleeping for thirty years and wakes up in the 1970's. Altman called it his "Rip Van Marlowe" concept. He thought of the film this way because he wanted to place the classic 1940 Marlowe sense of integrity and ethical code in the free-wheeling Seventies. This idea is ingenious and fits Eliott Gould's hip but outsider acting style to a tee.
2: Altman keeps the camera moving at all times. The lens does not jerk around in a mise en scene way, but more with long, smooth tracking and pan shots. This gives the movie a great feeling of constant action and forward movement, even when folks are just talking. The camera movement is done in such a smooth way, it seems very natural - as if you, the viewer, were really watching the action and simply turning your head to follow the flow of life.
3: The movie theme song is beautiful and was written by Johnny Mercer. It has a classic feel, and it dominates the sound of the film. Altman has put this haunting melody everywhere; in the sound of a doorbell, in the tune played in a Mexican funeral, in songs that come over half-heard radios - everywhere. It is the song the small time lounge piano player is trying to learn in the background of one scene, and it is the song that you will find yourself humming once the film is over. All this is almost done on a subliminal level, and it is brilliant.
4: The casting is tremendous and original. Elliott Guild is perfect as the man that seems out of place and almost lackadaisical on the surface, yet has a steel hard code of ethics that he lives by even - especially when - no one else does. Jim Bouton, the ex baseball star and writer of Foul Ball, is cast as Marlowe's friend, and he is a treat to watch - all smarmy smile and charm. Another Altman favorite, Henry Gibson of Laugh-In fame is around as the reptilian Dr. Verringer and Sterling Hayden booms through his tragic turn as the Hemingway-like writer Roger Wade. Everyone is very good. Watch for two cool cameos: David Carradine as a hip-talking anti-establishment inmate that Marlowe meets in a short stay in prison, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (that's right, governor Schwarzenneger) as a wordless muscle bound enforcer.
I really love this movie. As a director, Robert Altman gives actors more room than any other director in film history. He lets them, as he says in the DVD special features, "do what they became actors to do: be creative." This has its pluses and minuses, but it could, in some films, really make magic. There is a "lifelike" quality to the best of Altman's work, which is to say some of the best moviemaking ever done. I am thinking about Nashville and McCabe and Mrs. Miller, both films that linger and gain power in memory.
I will not give the end away, but it is worth waiting for and a real surprise. It is the moment in the film when the fairy-dust and dope smoke of the 70's is stripped away to reveal Gould/Marlowe's adamantine core; a center constructed around a very tight code of loyalty and integrity.
Do yourself a favor and buy it.
Movie Review: The New Marlow
Summary: 5 Stars
The thing that strikes you when you when you first sit down with this film is, "Elliot Gould as PHILLIP MARLOW?? Didn't Bogey nail that role so well that he owns it?"Well, he does and he doesn't. Gould is a brilliant casting-against-type, and Altman admits in the supplemental materials that it was this casting that finally drew him to the film.
Gould's Marlow is subtle, understated, and very casual. He spends most of the movie giving the impression that nothing gets to him, that he is above all the lunacy that goes on around him. Yet, in the end we see that his moral foundation runs very deep, and his sense of justice is stronger than his malaise.
Altman's direction is the true star of this film. As is said in other reviews, this film only works in widescreen. It's a stylistic triumph, and the camera work is particularly evocative. Viewing this film today, we might see these unsteady, roaming images as passe, but in 1973 this technique was groundbreaking. [It disturbed the critics so much that they didn't "get it" (of course, they didn't "get" 2001 either...).] Yet, Altman's treatment - so new in 1974 - is actually far more mature than most of what passes for modern cinematography today.
It will take you about 15 minutes to make peace with Gould's Marlow, but only one minute to realize you are in the presence of something very special. This is one of those buried jems waiting for your discovery.
Relish it.
Movie Review: they don't make 'em like this anymore
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best of Altman's anti-genre genre films, this is a picture that I did not completely understand on first viewing, but after six times, I'm only beginning to become aware of its incredible originality and beauty. (It's also a very funny film at times.)If you want plot details, check other reviews here, but what I appreciate most about this Marlowe parody is the presentation. When you get down to it, the plot has nothing to say, even though it will keep you guessing and surprise you at the end. This is a film that 21st-century Hollywood would never allow to see the light of day; it's too original and not dumbed-down enough.
There is much to admire here, and here are just a few things I love about "The Long Goodbye":
Vilmos Zsigmond's photography is nothing less than astounding. Flashing the film provides for many subtle shades of lighting and contrast; likewise, the restless camera never stops moving; there is not one stationary shot in this entire film. There is a shot of the Sterling Hayden character arguing with his wife, shot from *outside* the house through glass; in the glass we see the reflection of Elliot Gould, waiting on the beach. This is a great use of visuals, and would not be permissable in Hollywood today.
Mark Rydell, playing Marty Augustine, is hilarious. His delivery and gesturing are top-notch for a non-actor. Just look at the way he delivers the line "You're friend was a murderer; he murdered his wife."
Altman's style here has never been better used. Yes, there is the occasional overlapping dialogue, but it's held in restraint rather than overblown as in "M*A*S*H" or "McCabe" (even though those are both brilliant in their own way). The constant camera motion and zooming are done so subtly it draws the viewer in and doesn't for a second seem like a gimmick.
Those are just a few things to enjoy in this film. Watch it, then watch it again. The rewards are many, and more of them appear with each viewing. A true, original, and very sly masterpiece. They just don't make 'em like this anymore.
Movie Review: Altman's best film to date...
Summary: 5 Stars
Raymond Chandler's novel of the same name and the studio had no idea how to market the offbeat movie. It polarized critics and promptly disappeared from theatres. However, the film has survived on video and television, but only in a compromised pan and scan version that butchered Vilmos Zsigmond's superb 2.35:1 widescreen camerawork. Finally, The Long Goodbye receives a proper DVD treatment that it so richly deserves.The Long Goodbye is much more than a murder mystery. Taking Chandler's novel set in the 1940s and updating it to the 1970s, Altman is also interested in satirizing the superficiality of Los Angeles culture. Marlowe is surrounded by an odd cast of denizens that populate the city: his neighbours are a group of women who spend their time getting high and doing yoga, the security guard for the Wade's estate does impersonations of famous actors like Barbara Stanwyk and Jimmy Stewart, and a nasty gangster who is proud of his Jewish heritage.
The stand-out amongst the extras on this DVD is the "Rip Van Marlowe" featurette. It runs about 24-minute and is an excellent retrospective look at the movie. Robert Altman and Elliot Gould are interviewed and talk about how they got involved with the project. Both men provide all sorts of fascinating information and are refreshingly candid.
The Long Goodbye is one of the best examples of American cinema in the '70s and now it is finally available on DVD in its original aspect ratio. MGM has produced a top-notch transfer and a solid collection of supplemental material that should appeal to fans of the movie and newcomers who are looking for something a little different.
Movie Review: I wish I had seen it Sooner
Summary: 4 Stars
I was so surprise by this little known Robert Altmas film because I had read such varied things about it. I wouldn't have even bothered had I not read the Raymond Chandler book of the same name a few years ago. It was my favorite Philip Marlowe novel and the longest. The movie itself has traditions in the old noir and the contemporary 1970s. The novel itself was already 20 years old when they shot the film, and the screenwriter Leigh Brackett co-wrote the BIG SLEEP starring Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe. Here Marlowe is out of his time. He even drives a vintage 1940s car in 1970s Los Angeles.While other Marlowe films are pretty consistent with the novels, The Long Goodbye changes a number of things around. There characters are pretty much the same with some additions. There is still the same business with the $5,000 bill, but it is handled in a completely different way.
Elliot Gould is a strange but inspired choice for a 1970s Marlowe. He has no office in the world of Altman/Brackett, and he takes his messages and phone calls from a local bar. As in all these stories, there are two mysteries that really wrap into one big mystery. Jim Bouton, the ex-baseball player famous for his book Ball Four, plays Gould's Pal, Terry Lennox, the character the whole movie revolves around.
The DVD has two excellent documentaries. The first is a look back at the Long Goodbye with interviews from Altman and Gould. The second is a look at the cinematography of the Long Goodbye with conematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond. There is also a magazine article reprinted on the DVD about the look of the film, the theatrical trailer and some radio spots.
If anyone is a fan of Altman Gould or even Raymond Chandler, this is a much under rated film. I find Altman's output has varied from great to atrocious, but this is one of his best.