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The Long Goodbye (1973)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
3/14
3/14:
The Long Goodbye is another one in the long line of Robert Altman's frustrating pictures.
Ever since M*A*S*H, he has been inconsistent and is more intent in letting promising films go tediously long and
then eventually nowhere. That's the case with The Long Goodbye although I like it from a cinematography point of view.
Yet I'm tired of the zoom shots. It's been an endless series of back and forth...back and forth...back and forth.
Hey Robert, how about focusing more on the pace? The mystery seems to solve on its own as the private eye is either visiting
somebody or is being visited. From start to finish, the story is linear and thus dull. The ending is at
best terrible and at worst contradictory.
I'm not sure what to make of Elliott Gould's rendition of Phillip Marlowe despite his interesting look. Despite
having played the role well, he has an annoying habit of chain-smoking, but the oft-repeated namesake song is a strong contender for knocking it out of
the park.
It's interesting to notice how Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is treated as a joke. Well, he can laugh because he went
on to become an icon unlike everybody else. I didn't realize it until now, after looking up the internet, that the guy who
played Terry Lennox was Jim Bouton. He wrote Ball Four which is a famous tell-all book about Major League Baseball.
All in all, The Long Goodbye needs more substance.