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The Long Goodbye Movie Review

The Long Goodbye is a 1973 neo-noir thriller film directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliot Gould. It’s not the best thriller, but it has its peculiar singularities.

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“It’s a minor crime, to kill your wife.

The major crime is that he stole my money“

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Detective Philip Marlowe helps his friend Terry Lennox get to the Mexican border late one night. When he makes his way back home, he finds police waiting for Terry who has murdered his own wife. This was a different Philip Marlowe movie from the famous adaptations of the forties and the character himself is different for better and for worse.

As for the latter, I liked the change quite a bit. Marlowe is by far the highlight of the entire picture as his cynicism and downer attitude made him different and quite memorable and amusing as well. I have to commend Elliot Gould on this performance. I am usually not that big of a fan of his, I even find him boring and subpar to be honest. But here a different story emerged and he gave one of his best works as he is very believable and confident in the role.

But others are all very forgettable with only Sterling Hayden being memorable at any capacity. The female characters are utterly underdeveloped and sexualized in a typical 70s fashion. And that brings me to the former difference and that is in the tone and feel itself.

I did not like it. The seventies is the worst era in recent history, especially for America, so the nudity, sex and drugs did not appeal to me here. I get that they wanted to do a contemporary adaptation, but they made it overly timely for its time, and thus dated now.

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The Long Goodbye is also not well realized in plot as it is as convoluted as you’d expect from this series. It’s not particularly involving nor is it especially thrilling. The atmosphere is excellent, but the action and thrills are lacking. I did like the score, that was excellent and quite striking, while the cinematography and editing are also quite good. But Robert Altman has made better movies than this one at the end of the day.

The Long Goodbye is particularly memorable for the different Phillip Marlowe that it portrayed. The character is changed and quite memorable while the performance from Elliot Gould is one of his better works. The score and the cinematography are also terrific. Still, the movie is overly contemporary and the plot is as convoluted as you’d expect from this series, so it’s not especially involving to watch.

My Rating – 3.5