Blu ray review – The Long Goodbye (1973)

Director Robert Altman’s penchant for long takes and overlapping dialog might have reached its zenith with his 1970s neo-noir masterpiece The Long Goodbye. Elliot Gould plays a brooding, sardonic Phillip Marlowe who mutters through his role as a detective investigating a murder-suicide involving a friend. When the police think they have things wrapped up, Marlowe is dissatisfied with the results and investigates further.

Altman’s dark thriller is probably his best work. The Raymond Chandler source material was considered for a film adaption as early as 1965, and went through various hands before finally landing in the lap of female screenwriter Leigh Brackett who had penned the script for Chandler’s The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe. That film’s director, Howard Hawks, was offered The Long Goodbye, but turned it down. Peter Bogdanovich also passed, but suggested they bring it to Altman.

Elliot Gould’s career was at low ebb at the time, due to erratic and disruptive behavior on the set of his more recent films. He had not worked in two years, and even had to undergo a psychological examination before getting this role. Altman, who’d worked successfully with Gould on M*A*S*H a few years earlier, had wanted him to play Marlowe. It might be the actor's career-best performance.

Altman’s casting of Gould was inspiring but his filling of the other roles was genius. MLB pitcher Jim Boulton, the mistress of Clifford Irviing, notorious fake Howard Hughes autobiographer, Nina Van Pallandt, and Laugh-In comedian Henry Gibson play offbeat roles. All are excellent. Sadly, Altman’s choice of casting Dan Blocker was thwarted by the actor’s death. The movie is dedicated to him.

Sterling Hayden, a veteran actor, was perhaps the most dependable, as he was asked to pretty much ad lib his scenes with Gould. The two riffed effectively, talking over each other but still maintaining a rhythm and a clarity.

Press screenings of The Long Goodbye were met with borderline hostility by critics who couldn’t connect with its dark, brooding style and Altman’s offbeat casting choices. It went out in several markets as the bottom half of a double bill that was toplined by Woody Allen’s Sleeper. It flopped at the box office.

Over time, the right people with a more open-minded perspective have realized that The Long Goodbye is a consistently brilliant film and Altman’s offbeat ideas are part of the quirky noir’s success.

Kino Lorber’s blu ray is from a new 4K master and is filled with extras, including a new audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas, a featurette with Robert Altman and Elliott Gould, other featurettes with Vilmos Zsigmond, David Thompson, Tom Williams, and Maxim Jakubowski, an American Cinematographer 1973 article with animation. as well as trailers, TV and radio spots.

The blu ray can be purchased at this link: LONG GOODBYE