Strong and Moving!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Altman's take on Chandler seems increasingly influential as the years go by. His film takes the form of a detective story, but the story doesn't really go anywhere ... or more precisely, goes a whole lot of places just to end up back where it started. The pleasure here isn't in the mechanics of the story so much as having these characters interact in laid back 1970's California and have something like a plot emerge from their interactions. The seeds of "The Big Lebowski" and (especially) "Inherent Vice" lie right here. People tend to play up the "1950's Marlowe adrift in 1970's L.A." angle, but I've never really felt that angle comes through to clearly. Since you can't really get more quintessentially early 70's than Elliott Gould, I have never felt that he seems out of step here.

Marlowe is a private eye and one heck of a nice guy. At 3 AM he furnishes a party of half-naked women with boxes of brownie mix, goes to lengths to find his choosy cat's favorite brand of cat food, and even drives his buddy to Tijuana.There's that saying, the one about nice guys finishing last. Well, Marlowe gets himself in a little pickle because of the car trip down to Mexico with his old pal Larry Potts, aka Terry Lennox. Terry was wrapped up in something nasty, and when it's reported that Terry's wife was murdered and Terry committed suicide, Marlowe has a hunch that the papers just ain't singin' the truth.Instead of pursuing that thought, Marlowe starts booking other clients. Still, it doesn't take long for Terry's goings-on prior to the deaths to catch up to the private eye. Marlowe's in a few jams, and has to crack the case from Adam's apple to ankle or risk his own neck.This one has some shocking and disturbing violence. The kind of stuff that is haunting because it captures bad men doing things lovingly. Like other Altman flicks, music figures heavily into the structure and connects people and places across the action.I mean, what can I say? This is another ridiculously superb movie by a guy who does it all.

Dear Robert Altman, I have not read The Long Goodbye. But I have read a couple of other novels with the Philip Marlowe character. Elliot Gould's portrayal of Marlowe was not what I expected. But it is OK, it was an interesting interpretation of the character. I enjoyed your film. It really isn't a crime film. If I were to make a crime film, I would never make it the way you made The Long Goodbye. Your film is laid-back (the constant sound of waves) and also quite shocking. It has one of the most violent scenes ever captured on film. It is a film of place. You obviously did not care about the plot or the actual crime. Like Thieves Like Us, you seem to be concerned with invoking nostalgia for a certain era and a way of life or a place. The film is full of eccentric characters like the writer played by Sterling Hayden and the nude yoga enthusiasts. The Coens might have been inspired by this film when they made The Big Lebowski. Fans of that film might want to check out The Long Goodbye. After all, both films feature a laid back protagonist who hilariously breezes through tricky situations. Though I guess Marlowe might be a lot more motivated than Lebowski. Best Regards, Pimpin.(7/10)

This is hard to review. If you were born after 1980, this might not hold your attention. It doesn't have either the best production values or the best acting, but if you are a bit older, you might enjoy it for the nostalgia, as I did.I like movies from the '60s through the '80s, as they tended to be plot-driven, unlike more modern films, which are often built around their special effects. I liked how this film captured the times, l liked the cars, and I liked some of the other material objects in the film, even if they were in questionable taste, because it all brings back an innocence I can still vaguely remember. Some of the acting was a bit painful. In particular, Sterling Hayden was pretty awful. In his mind, I'm certain that he felt that he was actually playing himself--a misunderstood noble creature, a man's man fighting against the encroaching darkness, etc., so much more than the self- absorbed, crashing bore he appears to others, but which he no doubt actually really was. Every time he was gobbling up the screen, I couldn't wait for him to get off. Quite a few other performances were weak or hammy also. Still the plot was solid, and the attempt to drop the classic noir detective into that particular time period was interesting, if nothing else. In the end, the positives of a good plot and, for me, a hearty shot of nostalgia, significantly outweighed the drawbacks of mediocre acting and production values. So, I liked it a lot, but if you are a member of one of the ADHD generations, I'm not sure this film is for you, although it certainly wouldn't hurt to give it a try. It's not totally old-fashioned-- there's some modern swearing, a bit of disturbing violence, while no actual sex, a few scenes with some topless women, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger flexing his way through a brief, early, non-speaking role (at least, I didn't notice him saying anything, but the same thing happens when he actually talks, so I'm not totally sure). For what it's worth, that's my very personal take.