Review of The Long Goodbye

This film is a neo noir that gained popularity in the 1970's. Along with Point Blank and the biggest neo noir of the 70's Chinatown it shows the resurgence of the private eye film. The film isn't flawless. Philip Marlowe is the hero, but it's not a hero's journey film. He doesn't have a mentor and there aren't a whole lot of obstacles that he has to overcome to reach his goal which is to solve the murder. Instead it is more of a need to know film. It is more of a light who dun it with overtones of reflexivity and discourse on film history then a real thrilling pot boiler like Psycho or the aforementioned Chinatown. That being said I must admit that I did read the script before I watched the film. And the second time I watched the film everything became so obvious that I absorbed some more of the esoteric aspects of the film. Such as the security guard who does impressions of famous celebrities or the playing of hooray for Hollywood at the beginning and ending of the film.

The film is a lot of style with some substance. I did like Eliot Gould's performance. He does seem like an evolution in the private dick character. Of course there was Bogey, and now we have another incarnation of Philip Marlowe. This Marlowe is rather a smart ass. He leads the cops on, he can't find the right cat food, he talks to himself, and lives alone next to a group of yoga practicing women who want brownie mix for their hash. It's all very 1970's. And it works. I liked the world it was set in. But I couldn't get over how stupid the Marlowe character is presented. He is lied to by Terry Lennox about having killed his wife and he believes everything the Nina von Pallandt character tells him. It does seem plausible the first time around. But seems utterly unbelievable the second time through. How could he not see through them? Why is he such a smuck?

The film does incite some need to knows and that's the basis for thrillers. To create need to knows that keep the story moving along and the audience interested. There is a need to know who killed Terry Lennox's wife? Is Terry Lennox really dead? Was the famous writer having an affair with Terry Lennox's wife? And so on until the very end when Marlowe makes his journey to Mexico and satisfies all the need to knows that the film generates. Terry Lennox killed his wife, ran away with Augustine's money, and faked his own death. Finally it's revealed that Lennox was playing Marlowe as a fool. And Marlowe doesn't like to be played like a fool, so he shoots him dead. By the final ten minutes we know that Lennox and Pallandt were having an affair. We know they plan to run off together. And we know that Lennox faked his own death. It's wrapped up without any loose ends.

The film does have some great technical qualities that must be mentioned. The song The Long Goodbye is played over and over for about the first half hour of the film. It is a seductive song that brings you into the film melodically and stylistically. It creates an ambience of a jazz club or night club from the era of the 70's. It was written by John Williams who I think also did the music work for Star Wars. Another great aspect of the film was the cinematography. It was done by Vilmos Zsigmond who did a lot of work in the New Hollywood period of the 1970s. And of course the direction was well done by Robert Altman who is always mentioned as a quality director from the New Hollywood. I thought everything was sophisticated; the acting, the music, the cinematography, the editing. It all came together in a film that adds to the genre of the private eye film.