THE LONG GOODBYE (Robert Altman, 1973) R

Reviewed: June 6, 2002

Robert Altman's amazing, playful revisionist noir flopped upon initial release. Critics smashed it. They had no idea what to make of a film that cast Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe -- the role Humphrey Bogart made iconic in The Big Sleep -- and turned him into an awkward, two-bit gumshoe. They were too dense to understand the brilliance behind Altman's graceful, anti-establishment vision.

Altman's like the best jazz musician as he riffs on a genre while simultaneously deconstructing it. A lot of his films have a satiric slant (The Long Goodbye fools around with Hollywood and LA culture), but more importantly they're alive. They're vibrant. The Long Goodbye's got style oozing from every orifice. It feels effortless and ironically, Elliott Gould gives cool a new meaning as Marlowe, unshaven, cigarette perpetually dangling from mouth. Smoking has never looked this hip on color film.

In the first few scenes of The Long Goodbye the title song (co-created by John Williams before he ever worked for Spielberg) is sung by a variety of artists, in many different styles (and over the rest of the film it's played at least six other ways). The effect is one of Altman telling us hey, get ready, cause I can also play film noir any which way I choose. I can mix things up, I can add comedy, I can make Marlowe ineffectual yet nonchalant, anachronistic, uninterested in women. I can and will do whatever the fuck I want and I will not remain faithful to Chandler's text. So lighten up.

Chandler's typical noir plot is taut and twisty as scripted by adapter Leigh Brackett, who interestingly, also co-adapted The Big Sleep. Whereas the film noir of the 40s was stylized, The Long Goodbye is gritty as hell (but beautifully gritty as photographed by the legendary Vilmos Zsigmond, who often double exposed to achieve a desired washed-out effect). There are moments of abrupt, brutal violence and a scene with a drunken Marlowe berating some cops that feels so real it becomes increasingly uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch.

Per Altman standards, the acting is magnificent straight around the broad. Not only is the casting of Gould a huge success, but there are muscular supporting turns from Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson and Nina Van Pallandt.

Keep in mind The Long Goodbye came out a year before Chinatown.

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