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The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
"We've got a script but we don't follow it closely." Robert Altman
"We've got a script but we don't follow it closely." Robert Altman
The Long Goodbye, a fun watch at times thanks to Elliot Gould's 'I don't care' attitude that he in-vibes into the often portrayed Philip Marlowe. But it's the 'let's party' Robert Altman's directorial style that takes a would be noir and turns it into a big budget version of a student film.
One can't call Elliot Gould's performance as acting in the traditional sense. Though there's no denying he has enough anti-establishment air about him to make his wise cracking lines be the highlight of the film.
Perhaps if Altman wasn't so relaxed about his movie making duties as a director he wouldn't have allowed so many improvised scenes. Those improvisations sometimes work to the film's advantage. But other times like the third scene where veteran actor Sterling Hayden plays a drunk, by actually being drunk and stoned, we get a sloppy performance where a stupor Sterling constantly forgets his cues and blows his lines. It would be wrong to blame Mr Hayden for that mess, the credit albeit a dour one goes to the director who likes to shoot film stock but has a hard time buckling down in the editing room and keeping to a vision.
That lack of directorial vision shows up in the wild tonal shifts that plaque the production. The acting ranges from ecliptic but suitable (Gould) to downright horrible. Much of the time the movie felt like an old TV episode of Starsky and Hutch complete with cool detectives, a cool car and zany over the top bad guys all set in a cartoon caper.
And what's with the women in this so called noir? All the younger woman act like brainless manikins. The would-be femme fatale (Nina van Pallandt) can't act and is played as a helpless character who can't find her way out of a paper bag. And do I really need to mention Bambi and her 3 friends who live across from Marlowe and are as clueless as the movie's plot is?
Like I said a fun watch, but I wish the film's director had staid more focused.
One can't call Elliot Gould's performance as acting in the traditional sense. Though there's no denying he has enough anti-establishment air about him to make his wise cracking lines be the highlight of the film.
Perhaps if Altman wasn't so relaxed about his movie making duties as a director he wouldn't have allowed so many improvised scenes. Those improvisations sometimes work to the film's advantage. But other times like the third scene where veteran actor Sterling Hayden plays a drunk, by actually being drunk and stoned, we get a sloppy performance where a stupor Sterling constantly forgets his cues and blows his lines. It would be wrong to blame Mr Hayden for that mess, the credit albeit a dour one goes to the director who likes to shoot film stock but has a hard time buckling down in the editing room and keeping to a vision.
That lack of directorial vision shows up in the wild tonal shifts that plaque the production. The acting ranges from ecliptic but suitable (Gould) to downright horrible. Much of the time the movie felt like an old TV episode of Starsky and Hutch complete with cool detectives, a cool car and zany over the top bad guys all set in a cartoon caper.
And what's with the women in this so called noir? All the younger woman act like brainless manikins. The would-be femme fatale (Nina van Pallandt) can't act and is played as a helpless character who can't find her way out of a paper bag. And do I really need to mention Bambi and her 3 friends who live across from Marlowe and are as clueless as the movie's plot is?
Like I said a fun watch, but I wish the film's director had staid more focused.