Film: The Long Goodbye

Director: Robert Altman
Genre: Drama? Comedy? Crime?
Source: USA (1973)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Streaming
Grade: B+

This is one of those films that the more I think about it, the more I like it. I will admit that I got a bit distracted and lost focus on the film for a little while in the middle, but I think that was my fault a lot more than the movies. (A good reminder to not multitask when watching movies!)

Because what I liked was excellent. Elliott Gould is a perfect 70s take on Philip Marlowe, one of noir film/lit's greatest detectives. He walks through this early 70s Los Angeles in a bit of a stupor, not quite fitting in with the hippies, moneymen, gangsters, and Hollywood types who surround him. Instead he mumbles his commentary to nobody and searches for food for his cat with a sense of humor that the rest of the world seems to lack. His commentary, blandly running under everything to the point that you can almost tune it out if you're not careful, seems to point out the absurdity of the world around him the same way Altman's camera does at times. For example, a shot of Marlowe walking in a small Mexico time ends with Marlowe walking out of frame and the camera zooming in on two dogs humping each other, then snapping at each other. What a metaphor for Marlowe's world, yet it feels almost incidental and spur of the moment. Altman puts it out there, but we have to decide whether to pay attention or let it slip into the background. 

The mystery at the film's heart has to do with a the murder of his best friend's wife, for which his best friend is accused, and the best friend's suicide that follows. Marlowe is sure it's all too pat and easy, so he takes it on himself to investigate, and along the way gets distracted by the problems of his other friends (including an alcoholic writer who seems to have disappeared). The film takes these bits as a starting point, and then wanders off wherever it feels like, and you just have to go along for the ride. 

It's not a perfect film, but it's an interesting one, and one I think I'd like to watch again sometime in the near future, giving it my full attention this time.

Alternate Film Title: "Hope Those Girls Fed the Cat"