The Long Goodbye (1973)

[Dementeleus]

Discuss.

[Dementeleus]

Robert Altman deconstructs classic noir with his updated and revised take on Raymond Chandler. Elliot Gould is surprisingly awesome as the ratty, sarcastic, and bleary Phillip Marlowe, Sterling Hayden does a wild, booming Hemingway-esque turn as a reclusive writer, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up as a bodyguard/thug (so random!). The whole thing is sort of loose and meandering and more about the offbeat, weird, and trippy nature of L.A. in the early '70s, but it sticks with you, and there are a few scenes that are surprisingly tense (involving a Jewish gangster).

 

Think of it as the weird older brother to THE BIG LEBOWSKI (since it clearly inspired the Coens).

 

B+/A-