Serhan Demirhan Kubrick famously asked Altman how he knew the shot of McCabe lighting his cigar in the snow was the right one; this 1973 film has many moments like those: not just the beautiful flash of the match being struck, but movements to which the camera has a perfect affinity: yoga contortions, squinting eyeballs, violent projections, cat walks. It'd be 5 stars silent, something more with those signature sound experiments.

rdoyle29 Altman's take on Chandler seems increasingly influential as the years go by. His film takes the form of a detective story, but the story doesn't really go anywhere ... or more precisely, goes a whole lot of places just to end up back where it started. The pleasure here isn't in the mechanics of the story so much as having these characters interact in laid back 1970's California and have something like a plot emerge from their interactions. The seeds of "The Big Lebowski" and (especially) "Inherent Vice" lie right here. People tend to play up the "1950's Marlowe adrift in 1970's L.A." angle, but I've never really felt that angle comes through to clearly. Since you can't really get more quintessentially early 70's than Elliott Gould, I have never felt that he seems out of step here.

Predrag "The Long Goodbye" is vintage Altman. It ranks not only as one of his best works, but one of the best films of the 1970's. Ignore the negative comments, this is supposed to be an updating of Chandlers character Philip Marlowe to a more contemporary setting which was the whole point and Altman does it very cleverly in the most unexpected ways. Elliot Gould truly shines in his interesting interpretation of Marlowe. Seemingly lacking the confidence and self assurance of Humphrey Bogart. The problem, unfortunately, is that Altman doesn't understand what motivates Marlowe. He doesn't understand Marlowe's sense of friendship or honor. He does understand cruelty, which is why Marty is such a great invention. He also understands betrayal, which is why Eileen Wade is still a superb femme fatale. To some degree, he understands Roger Wade's whiny depression. But he doesn't get Marlowe at all, so he turns Chandler's meditation on lost friendship into a simplistic revenge story.You could say that Altman's treatment of Marlowe is "ironic," but that just confirms that he is out of his depth. There is nothing ironic about Chandler, and there shouldn't be. Marlowe's defining qualities are his ability to see through lies and his profound moral disgust for betrayal and dishonesty. He is not a vigilante in a bat suit. Marlowe illustrates the idea that, even if you are powerless to change the course of events, you can still maintain an unbreakable judgment of them. The whole point of Marlowe is that sometimes what you do has real consequences and determines who you are, and you have no way to ironically dance away from your actions. However clever, a parody isn't the equal of an original mystery novel. This movie is too serious to be a comedy, and too funny for a murder mystery. I suspect this confusion made it a commercial failure. The movie runs on too long. I did enjoy the cinematography (shots of Malibu and Mexico particularly) and being reminded of the goofiness of the early 70's, from the bad clothes to the bad haircuts,for both men and women. But all in all, not much to do with the original Marlowe. An Altman melange that does not quite amount to anything.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

adonis98-743-186503 Starring Elliott Gould The Long Goodbye is about Detective Philip Marlowe who tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife. And by that you except something good right but no this is a movie that feels and looks like it was made in the 70's and the only interesting thing in it was Arnold Schwarzenegger's cameo and even tho he didn't speak a word he looked menacing because he's the freaking Terminator and he has a mustache in this one another cameo from a famous actor is the late David Carradine known from the movies Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2. In the end The Long Goodbye tries to be many things but the leading actor and a very fun cameo by The Terminator is what might keep the audience asleep. (Rating: 7/10) (By Percent: 70%)