05/20/10 - The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (1973, 112 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070334/

In what could very well be my last Weird Wednesday in quite some time, the cinema decided to show the appropriately titled The Long Goodbye. Coming in with high praise and a 7.0+ on IMDb I didn't know really what to expect since frequently a high rating for one of these movies led only to disappointment.

The film mainly follows Elliot Gould as the detective Philip Marlowe. He ends up entangled in a case between his former friend and his friend's friend and a complicated love relationship. Playing one of the main foils to Marlowe is the writer Roger Wade (also known as Billy Joe Smith) played by Sterling Hayden. Eventually Marlowe unravels the entire mystery but only a split second before the ending credits roll.

First, this movie was great. Really, this film had no place being in this standard lineup. Looking back on what was shown so far this month we have Stingray and Moonlighting Wives which were a 4/10 and a 3/10 respectively. The Long Goodbye is not in this same league. The only thing they have in common is the quality of the print. Our film was noticeably scratched and looked like it had been through a lot since 1973. But besides this, these films didn't share much.

Here, in The Long Goodbye we have cool characters that are well written and well acted. Gould is the highlight. He constantly mumbles to himself, he's unflappable and completely nonchalant, and yet still manages to keep up with this twisting and turning mystery. He's cool and calm as he handles the pressure while also maintaining (somehow) a quick and sharp wit. The thing I loved the most here is how Marlowe interacts with other characters. He constantly chats with everybody and when people are done talking to him he just walks away and mumbles something to himself which is hilarious. He's most frequently hung up on the loss of his cat which is what constitutes the entirety of the film for the first ten or so minutes. The main other character is the writer figure of Wade played by Hayden. Really, Hayden completely commands this role and makes it his own. It's hard to imagine someone else taking this role which is ironic because the original decision for the character died right before they began work on getting everything started and it almost completely halted the film from getting any further off the ground. Obviously after watching this film, the thing I'll most remember about Hayden's performance is just his overall look and demeanor as he looks just like Hemingway. However, from an acting standpoint the thing I'll remember is the one scene where he just walks out into the ocean in a drunken state, thus ending his life. Through a frantic shot, we are thrown into the completely swirling chaos that Marlowe is now thrust into and it's just handled really well. It fits exactly the mood that is needed for this plot twist.

Another thing about The Long Goodbye that really isn't seen in typical Weird Wednesdays is the amazing camerawork. There were a couple of scenes where windows were used to create a really cool contrast (this was actually used in the above referenced scene for Wade's suicide). I read on IMDb that the camera never stops moving and while something like this really isn't noticeable on a watch, when I look back on the movie I realize how it did add to this unease that was constantly present.

Next, The Long Goodbye reminded me a lot of Chinatown. We have a mystery set in Los Angeles and seen through a gritty and real lens in both cases. From a quick Google search it seems like Chinatown (which came out one year later) and The Long Goodbye were frequently compared upon their release. Another similarity is that the mystery and the plot of Chinatown and this were both really convoluted and hard to follow for me on my first view. I imagine on a second view a lot would make more sense to me (since now I know how it all ends). Anyway, while this could be looked at as a negative, for movies of this sort I feel it's more a positive as it gives them a high rewatch factor.

The only negative with The Long Goodbye that I really feel like pointing out is the lack of an ominous villain. I mean, I know I just watched Star Wars a few days ago and I don't mean someone like Darth Vader should be running around the city, but the bad guy here (Marty Augustine played by Mark Rydell) just doesn't provide as big a threat as he could have. Sure, he attacks some people and comes off as intimidating (or tries) but it just never works. This could partly be due to how calm Marlowe is on every front, but maybe this should have been taken into account as the villain was constructed.

Overall, I gave this film an 8/10. It falls just short of Chinatown in my opinion and the real reason for this is the lack of a real threatening villain. However, on most other fronts, it compares really well.