Easily one of Altman's best films and an early precursor to other films later in the decade by the director. The Long Goodbye is a fine transition in style to Altmans later films like "Nashville" and "A Wedding" Elliot Gould does an outstanding job portraying the outre detective Phillip Marlowe, using his mumbling, bumbling, smart ass speaking style, as a technique to keep the film under the illusion that everything is in motion, like the ocean waves in the film, Marlowe speaks in a sort of beatnik type "Daddy-O" style combined with a smooth talking private eye, and the result works perfectly. The film works like it is timed by a metronome, it rolls along, seamlessly in a way that only Altman can achieve, and like the rhythm of the waves and Marlowe's speech, the camera is constantly in motion as well. The roving camera does an excellent job of allowing the viewer to feel as though they are witnessing more action than actually exists on screen. Wade (Sterling Hayden) is a fantastic Hemingway-esque writer in the film. Hayden's size and booming voice, in conjunction with his alcoholism and potential brutality, lend an aroma of unpredictableness to his character. Wade's beautiful wife, who has a mysterious bruise on her face, is like a timid, loyal animal, subjected to the whims of her over bearing master. Henry Gibson, who plays Wade's doctor, is excellent as a sort of despotic mouse, who frightens an elephant into conforming to his will, this irony is one of the films intriguing, bizarre twists. This film works well as a character study, and is one of the best films of the seventies. A must see for every student of film. 9/10

There is nothing to recommend this movie. My wife watched it with me and concurs in that evaluation. I have not read the book on which it is based, so I judge it as a stand-alone effort. The plot is silly in concept and routine in execution (e.g., the PI's oh-so-cool and combative way of talking to the police), the characters are flat, the dialog is trite, the acting is uninspired, the incidentals are distracting (the topless girls, the chain smoking). Even the music is tedious. One description I saw before watching it said it is a "send-up" of the detective genre, implying humor. There is no humor anywhere. If it is intended as a spoof, it fails. A complete waste of two hours.

This film is a superb illustration of Altman's skills as a writer and director. Taking Chandler's Long Goodbye into the 1970's, he makes a film which is at the same time an homage to the novel, and a travesty of the film noir conventions. Gould's Marlowe, with his characteristic lazy phrasing (a lot of voice-over is used) intent on feeding his cat falls into a twisted case of missing money, adultery and murder - only it all takes place in Malibu, where everything is fake: the guard at the entrance keeps impersonating movie stars (from James Stewart to Walter Brennan), a nice reminder that the people to be met inside will not be who they pretend to be. Gould beautifully creates a private eye completely opposite to all the genre's clichés: not interested in seduction (either of the beautiful Nina Van Pallandt or in his pot-smoking naked neighbors), not particularly virile (he takes an awful lot of beating, is scared to death of a dog, while an other dog blocks his car, in a scene that sums up the character), not overly astute in facing the police or understanding the case, he nevertheless stands for certain values: the strength of humor and irony in the face of brutality, faithfulness to his idea of friendship - to the bitter end. While extremely funny, the film does have some violent reality checks: the psychopathic gangster in a brutal fit of anger smashes a coke bottle into his girlfriend's face, as shocking a scene as I've ever seen in a movie; the portrayal of local corruption in Mexico is humorous but filmed in an unusually realistic way. The photography, and above all the editing is superb throughout. The use of music in the film is stunning: a single musical theme (by John Williams) accompanies all scenes, in a different orchestration each time: as Mexican music, supermarket music, piano-jazz. This film was clearly an inspiration for the Coen bros' Big Lebowski: same laid-back, lazy, unprofessional investigator tying to figure out the odds an evens of a case that is evidently out of his reach, same ferocious portrayal of a 'beach community', same encounters with strange characters, mad artists (Roger Wade/Maude Lebowski), crooks, doctors, hapless policemen... Some scenes in Long G-B border on the burlesque, as when Marlowe in hospital receives a tiny harmonica as a present from a man all wrapped in bandages. In short, a masterpiece of irony, beautifully filmed and constructed.

Watching it recently crystallized my dislike of the Altman oeuvre. High-falutin', cutesy-wootsey, mumbling dialogue throughout with a storyline insufficient for a straight narrative. Three elements stand out as outright garbage: having the Marlowe character smoking a cigarette every single second he's on screen, the endless repetition by various performers of the theme song, and the half-naked girls-next-door. While Altman toned down some of his self-referential affectedness a bit in his later movies, they were always there and they always drove home his utter inability to tell a compelling story (yes, even the earlier "M*A*S*H" included.)

When I first saw the film it was after I've read Chandler's book and I was disappointed, because it was not the same Marlowe and not the same story. Now, after seeing this film many times I can say without hesitation that this is a masterpiece an Altman is a master of his craft.I think, that if it was made according to the book, it would be long forgotten. The film is all about masks, misleading and misinterpretation.These are the bases of P.I. s' movies, and as Marlowe says all over the film "That's alright with me", but when it gets to Marlow's inner circle and ruins its basic beliefs its not "alright" anymore. The cynical mask Marlowe wore in the relatively "naive" 40', so he could cope with the harsh reality then, isnt enough for the "sober" 70',and he had to change it to an indifferent clown mask. He think he could get away with this mask, but the treacherous reality gets to him at last. Eliot Gould is terrific in this role Unlike many reviewers, I think the real Chandler's Marlow without the masks is revealed in the finale scene with Terry. Nina Van Planndat who played Eileen Wade was known as the misstress of a well-known hoaxer at the time, and that contributed to her enigmatic role.She plays the fragile beaten woman (The blond femme fatale). Sterling Hyden is great as full of rage and bad manners Roger Wade.These impressions are of course all masks, but Marlowe fails to interpret them right, until its too late. The only one who doesn't wear mask is augustine (Mark Rydel in a real horrific performance)and he is the key for solving the mystery. Dont expect a Marlowe regular. this film reflects the mood of one of the worst eras in US recent history, and its dark soul is masked by colors and brilliant directing and performance.

This movie is really atrocious. Robert Altman has stated in interviews that he didn't even bother to finish *reading* the book on which the movie is nominally inspired, which makes you wish that he had chosen a different book to adapt. Marlowe is cool and this movie stinks. It is full of bad haircuts that are supposed to look good, lots of mumbling, and has nothing to do with what makes Chandler noir or even good updated film noir (see Chinatown) really great. This movie is definitely the very bottom of the barrel, and I'd be surprised if anyone post-1973 would bother to sit through the whole thing except maybe just to *witness* how bad it really is which what I felt obliged to do.

Much like the 30's jazz music that opens the movie, The Long Goodbye appears on the surface to take its cue from classic film noir. No surprise here, it is based after all on the Raymond Chandler novel by the same name, Chandler as iconic a figure in the noir realm as you're likely to get and responsible for some of the most distinctly classic moments of the genre (Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, also Strangers on a Train for Hitchcock). But instead of rehashing styles and themes from a bygone era of film-making, Altman instead takes Chandler's film noir of wandering, and hangs on it his own unique take. Elliot Gould is Phillip Marlowe. Scruffy, sardonic and alienated private dick with a smart mouth and a cigarette eternally glued to his lips. Altman's twist? He's cool but not the suave kind that would impress dames in the 40's, the Bogart kind. He seems constantly out of place, a bit phased, doomed to observe and comment in his witty repartee on what's going on around him or just let the chips fall where they may. And they do. Chandler's story is one of his very best. All the staples of noir are present, simultaneously fulfilling the promise of a Phillip Marlowe film and in the same time preparing the ground for Altman's take on it; murder, missing money, unhappy marriages, a private eye hired to investigate. The works. Sprawling and convoluted like the best of noirs usually are. The dialogue crackling with inventiveness, shedding tough guy lingo for a sense of playfulness, rolling in and out of the picture in a stream-of-consciousness way. Some of the twists and characters seem to carry a sense of seething malice, a fleeting glimpse on the seamy underbelly of the Great American Beast, the scars and ugliness of Hollywood showing behind a faded facade of glamour, an escalating creepiness factor that recalls the later works of David Lynch, predating him by a good number of years as it does. The mousey Dr. Verringe and the whole clinic subplot reminded me of Lost Highway for example. What really elevates The Long Goodbye in another level is Altman's direction and he has Vilmos Zsigmond with him. This is only my second Altman picture (after McCabe and Mrs. Miller) but 2 hours in his presence were enough to leave an indelible sense that I'm watching the work of a master on top of his craft. Altman's camera is always on the move, slowly panning and floating in and out of the frame, picking up details, guiding the eye but never getting in the middle of the story or screaming for attention. The whole thing has a natural, subdued feel to it, what with the unobtrusive lighting and bleached-out, hazy look; no glitz or glamour here. Only the faded, long-gone impression of it. This is a world we are enmeshed in that surrounds from all sides with hazy reflection. The Long Goodbye is both a fantastic and somewhat hidden gem of 70's crime cinema and also one of the missing links in the evolution of noir, all the way from Sunset Blvd. to Mullholland Drive. You must visit at some point.

The first time I saw this movie was back in the seventies and this was the film that won me over to Robert Altman's great works in the American cinema. Granted, at the time of the movie's release Raymond Chandler purists naturally didn't appreciate the transformation his knight errant private eye underwent. But nowadays, the viewer must see the film for its great direction, terrific performances, Leigh Brackett's excellent screenplay and the fine cinematography. Not to mention simply the challenge of understanding a truly baffling plot. As in all of Altman's works, this one is peppered with offbeat characters and subtle (and some not-so subtle) situations that positively take you by surprise. As a maverick figure in Hollywood, Altman made sure "iconoclast" was stamped all over this film, it's a true nose-thumbing at every institution that Hollywood reveres; idealistic movie heroes, neat happy-ever-after endings, big budget spectacles, dependable money-making conventions and all around ass-kissing. But the real treat here is, of course, Elliott Gould, and I don't believe that it's the best thing he's ever done on screen, as many think. He's certainly turned out even better performances than this one throughout the past 3 decades. But yet, in The Long Goodbye, Gould is just so much fun to watch, especially when he's being interrogated by the police or just muttering lines like, "He's got a girl, I got a cat" or "a melon convention" when he gives up trying to get his topless next-door neighbors' attention. An interesting thing to note at the end of the film - we see the back shot of Marlowe walking away and that to me, was the private eye's closing shot, but then we have a front shot of Elliott Gould who begins playing his harmonica and then continues on up the road doing his little number, dancing a jig, etc. And to me that shows where Marlowe left off and where Gould takes over. So they weren't one and the same after all. Once again, a statement to those who would be too quick to take the Marlowe myth seriously. The Long Goodbye is vintage Altman, a masterwork to be savoured forever.

It's true. You can't have mixed feelings about The Long Good-bye; you'll either love it or hate it. I started the movie with what I pretended was an open mind, but a secret hope that I'd be fully justified in hating it. In my defense, The Maltese Falcon is my favorite movie and Bogie is my favorite actor. Noir is my favorite film genre and I love Howard Hawk's The Big Sleep wihich had Bogart as the definitive Marlowe. Altman's take on Chandler's other book with private eye Marlowe, The Long Good-bye, updates the action to the 1970's. He introduces a very 70's theme song and finds as different an actor as he can from Bogart for the role of Marlowe. From the opening frame, Elliot Gould plays Marlowe like a push-over. He's a man who constantly mutters to himself, suffers nervous tics, can't even fool his cat, is afraid of dog's and seems to be the only man not attracted to his sexy hippie neighbors despite their friendliness towards him and obvious promiscuousness. However, Gould really creates a unique persona with the way he walks, talks, wise-cracks and operates. He becomes a believable person - which is why the uncharacteristic ending is so impacting. The photography, especially the night scenes, are beautifully filmed. The theme music plays everywhere - a Mexican funeral, a doorbell, a car radio etc and with different singers. There are other layers of flesh added to the telling that really work - like the compound security guards impressions of James Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and best of all Walter Brennan aka Stumpy from Rio Bravo. This movie worked great for me and the plot, intricate though it was, was understandable. I will not compare this Marlowe to Bogart's, but do find it admirable that Altman just stuck to the goal of making a good movie without trying to ape or make obvious references to the noir genre.

Apparently when The Long Goodbye was released, many critics thought it was a parody. Perhaps Altman should have set out to lampoon Marlowe, he couldn't have done any more damage to the reputation of Chandler's superb novel. Putting aside comparisons with the original work, as a film The Long Goodbye makes painful viewing. The casting is bizarre; Elliot Gould in no way conjures up Marlowe. The contemporary setting is incongruous; Marlowe's cynicism and barbs are very much tied to his age. As is his chain-smoking - Gould's constant lighting and relighting of his ciggies here just seems ludicrous. The seventies setting does allow Altman to throw in some topless co-ed neighbours, apparently for the titillation (no pun intended) of the crew. The production value is questionable. Gould mumbles his lines and a lot of it seems dubbed. Even then, you have to strain to hear the dialogue much of the time. The film has a cheesy, made-for-TV look that is not all down to being made in the 1970s. All great directors have their flops, and Altman is no exception. Peter Biskind cites rumours that Altman was drunk much of the time on set. I can only assume he was out of his skull shooting this one.