The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)

My previous investigation of the 70's Altman movies has already led me to McCabe and Mrs. Miller, a movie that can be classified as anti-western (as in the western movie genre). Two years later Altman made what is known to be his view on film noir called The Long Goodbye, from Raymond Chandler’s novel and again with protagonist Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould). Our private eye hero had a bit of a transformation and unlike the cool and hard-boiled Philip Marlowe we know from for instance Howard Hawks his The Big Sleep, this one is a bit different.

The movie kicks off with Marlowe trying to feed his cat. He even goes to the supermarket in the middle of the night to get the right brand of cat food. When it turns out to be out of stock he tries to trick the little creature by replacing the food with a different brand. Unfortunately for him the cat doesn’t buy it and runs off. This scene, which is quite funny, is typical for the Philip Marlowe of the seventies and Altman’s universe. When I tell you that he is more interested in the wellbeing of his cat than the four topless neighbour girls practising yoga on their balcony you’ll get the idea.

The main story revolves around two interwoven plotlines. Firstly and old friend who is in trouble shows up on Marlowe’s door and asks him to give him a lift to Mexico. No questions asked Marlowe helps him. When he returns home the cops are waiting for him and he spends a couple of nights in jail and he finds out his friend apparently killed his wife and committed suicide in Mexico. Secondly a woman, living next to his friend, hires Marlowe to find her husband, a writer who has some mental- and drinking issues.

Just like the 1946 adaptation of the Marlowe story The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart, The Long Goodbye has quite a complex story, but this is about the only common element it has with the classic noir film. Philip Marlowe is portrayed by Altman as someone who still lives in the 50’s, he smokes, wears a suit and tries some wisecrack remarks on cops and crooks, but somehow they don’t have the desired impact (anymore). Furthermore there seems to be no interest in women and the private detective cannot even manage to trick and later find his own cat. All of this smells like another anti-genre movie from the director who did this before, as I mentioned, and would do it again in the nineties with The Player.

And again he does a great job. Forget about the plot, it is not at all why you should watch this one. This picture contains some memorable scenes that are alone worth it and are illustrative for the satirical tone Altman chose for. We see how Marlowe arrives at a party (in a suit) and gets chased out of the house by a dog, how he has to strip together with a group of criminals (including a silent Arnold Schwarzenegger!) and how almost every genre cliché is successfully reversed by Altman. A classic!

"Well, that's you Marlowe. You'll never learn, you're a born loser."

8.5/10