Weekend Viewing: The Long Goodbye

01

Image

—01. Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe.

Words

Regardless of era, the private eye genre has consistently produced entertaining films; be it The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown or The Big Lebowski, to name a few. Robert Altman's 1973 masterpiece, The Long Goodbye, which turns Raymond Chandler's source material on its ear, would have to be on that list as well. Highlights include Leigh Brackett's screenplay and Elliott Gould's performance in the lead role. It's the assured direction, however, that steals the show from the outset. The film's first ten minutes, not in the original script, read as the most accurate mediation on pet ownership ever committed to celluloid. This is Altman's film from start to finish, and undoubtedly one of his finest.

—Available from Netflix