THE LONG GOODBYE

I'm a huge fan of Raymond Chandler's novels featuring private detective Philip Marlowe, and back in the 1970s director Robert Altman could do no wrong as far as I was concerned.  So naturally I loved his updating of what was maybe Chandler's masterpiece, notwithstanding that some fuddy-duddy critics (as I saw them then) felt that Eliot Gould's portrayal of Marlowe in a contemporary setting was so distant from the original as to be downright disrespectful.

I decided to treat myself by both rewatching the film and rereading the novel.

For most of the film's running time I had little trouble with Altman's Marlowe.  Sure he is a slovenly loser, shambling from one situation to the next.  But Chandler's Marlowe was an outsider too, who often invited ridicule for putting his principles before material gain.  And this Marlowe, despite the outward appearance of a clown, sticks by his friend Terry Lennox at some personal risk, and is no fool when it comes to judging situations and people.

Where the film goes a little off piste for me is when towards the end, after Roger Wade has committed suicide, Marlowe loses his cool with the police, to the extent of becoming  hysterical.  That is totally out of character.

And then we come to the shocking conclusion where Marlowe learns the truth about his friend Lennox, and shots him dead in cold blood.  It's certainly hard to reconcile this with the Marlowe of the written page but from a dramatic point-of-view it works within the context of the film, so I'll allow it. 

The film looks good, and the soundtrack is fun, featuring different versions of the title song, each designed to match the specific scene. 

And although a lot of liberties have been taken with the original plot, at least there is a plot to help focus the film, which wasn't always the case with Altman's films of this period.

And there's a great performance from Sterling Hayden.

Oh, and the source novel is well worth a read.

RATING: ✓✓ Catch It If You Can