The Long Goodbye (1973)
Neo Noir directed by Robert Altman, based on a Raymond Chandler potboiler. Long Goodbye follows the misadventures of LA private eye Philip Marlowe investigating a tangled mystery around his friend Gary Lennox who, one night, shows up at his apartment, asking him to drive him to the Mexican border. A day later, it turns out Lennox may or may not have killer his wife, Marlowe gets arrested because he may or may not be an accomplice and released after Lennox may or may not have been found dead in Mexico. Long Goodbye is very much the grandfather of that hazy kind of Californian mystery, exemplified by something like Under the Silver Lake or Inherent Vice and parodied by something like Big Lebowski. Long Goodbye never drift into the outright psychedelic sensibilities of those movies but it has a very similarly nonchalant attitude towards its underlying murder mystery.
Straight up, Altman sets up what could very easily be the premise of a classic hard boiled noir, there's the detective, there's a large supporting cast, almost all of whom have something to hide, there's lost money, mysterious blondes, corrupt doctors, mobsters... Altman, however, seems much more interested in the stories personalities than he is in its criminal machinations. Arguably the most striking of these personalities being Marlowe himself, portrayed by Elliot Gould. Marlowe projects a casual coolness that makes him probably one of the most memorable protagonists of the genre. There is a zen like nonchalance to the lanky, chain smoking PI that sets him apart, from the hard boiled macho investigators of more traditional noir fare while not quite reaching Big Lebowski's Dude's slacker ambivalence or Inherent Vice's Doc Sportello's stoned bumbling. Marlowe cares, he's just not the type to get excited. His investigation has him bounce off a variety of other colourful characters, among them an alcoholic writer, his wife and an eccentric and truly nasty crime boss who comes off a bit like a less foul mouthed version of Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth from Blue Velvet. Marlowe, and by extension the movie, follows its central mystery, albeit at a slow, meandering pace, eventually even solves it, even if, at that point, you might have very well have forgotten what it was even about, exactly. Long Goodbye is not by any means plotless, nor does it ever demonstratively withhold answers the way Inherent Vice or Under the Silver Lake do, it just treats the actual criminal investigation side of things as strictly secondary to investigating a time, a place, and its people. Despite all that, there are definitely moments of genuine tension in Long Goodbye, most of them involving the aforementioned mob boss who, despite being somewhat goofy, makes for a genuinely threatening and unambiguously dangerous presence.
In addition to that is also the ending which briefly, but very effectively, puts the personal story of betrayal that had been simmering in the background for the course of the entire movie into focus and is all the more shocking for it. As much as Philipp Marlowe's world weary calmness is played up for most of the story, it's these rare moments that characterize him as more than just a too cool for school proto hipster.
Carried by a stellar performance from its lead actor depicting what has to be one of the most memorable detective characters in cinematic history, an equally strong supporting cast of memorable characters played by some amazing performers and a mystery that serves as a pretext to have one bounce off the other, Long Goodbye is a very enjoyable movie. It bends the format of the classic detective story to frame a place, a time, a lifestyle and most importantly a small handful of people and make them come to life vividly. Long Goodbye is a lazy noir that's serves not only as a precursor to an entire genre of movies, but as a lively and engaging watch all on its own.
