So how long was it that Elliott Gould was the coolest man in the world? Four years maybe? 1970 – 1974:
1970 M*A*S*H – Capt. “Trapper” John Francis Xavier McIntyre – A
1971 The Touch – David Kovac – A
1971 A Glimpse of Tiger – also producer (abandoned)
1971 Little Murders – Alfred Chamberlain – C
1972 The Special London Bridge Special – The Villain (didn’t see it)
1973 Who? – Sean Rogers (didn’t see it)
1973 The Long Goodbye – Philip Marlowe – A+
1974 California Split – Charlie Waters – A
Let’s see here: three with Robert Atlman and one with Ingmar Bergman so you gotta think, that is pretty awesome in its own rights. The Bergman is considered a major bummer but I loved it if only for the thoroughly stunning Bibi Andersson and Elliott so in contrast to the po-faced Swedes in the movie.
Of the three Altman movies… it is like choosing a favorite child but I would still go with “The Long Goodbye”. Again, Gould is the contrasting element. Everybody around him are in his LA haze of drugs and larceny with the 1960s finished but the 1970s not quite kicked in. A sorta hedonism but one which seems to be going nowhere fast. Unlike the 1960s there is no dream of a New Jerusalem at the end of the trial, there is just a moral vacuum to replace all the codes of honor that would inflict a Phillip Marlowe type character.
Essentially, “The Long Goodbye” is the same as the Raymond Chandler novel with a better ending. Marlowe gets a call from a buddy who needs a ride to the Mexico border. By the time Marlowe gets back the cops are busting him becomes his friends wife was beaten to death. Then a gangster is after Marlowe, trying to get back money the friend stole off the gangster. Next, the friend turns up dead and everybody is ready to drop the case, except for Marlowe who is out to provehis friends innocence.
But really it is like “The Code Of The Wooster” –a morality tale about never letting a friend down and then it becomes a different kind of morality tale: Altman called it Rip Van Marlowe, as though the chivalrous man with a code Marlowe fell asleep at the tale end of the 1940s and then tried to apply mid-20th century morals to the early 1970s. There is something of an innocence abroad about Marlowe: a faith in friendship, a faith in fair dealing, a fearlessness in the face of pressure. Elliott Gould slouches through the movie with a cigarette and a deadpan, “It’s alrght with me”. Except it isn’t , not really, not in the long run.
Marlowe expect people todo old fashioned things like being as good as their word and dealing right by other people. It is a Knights of the Round Table vision as to how to conducts one business: live and let live but only up to a point. Something’s are wrong, and somethings are worth figuring out and avenging.
Musically, the original Johnny Mercer and John Williams torch ballad “The Long Goodbye” is played over and over again in many different styles, a Mariachi band at one point, the sound of a doorbell another. It is a fun idea but it doesn’t really resonate and the song is like a pastiche of a torch song even though it isn’t.
Movie: A+
Music: B