The Long Goodbye

I need to watch The Long Goodbye again. That's a good thing, by the way. I remember thinking that the first half of the film was fantastic. That Marlowe goes to such lengths to feed his cat - brilliant - is so indicative of the kinds of risks that American filmmakers were starting to take in the 1970s. The second half of the film - I say half, but that's not really a hard and fast percentage - seemed to me somewhat disjointed. Being fairly familiar with the director, Robert Altman's work, I suspect that this perception is due to certain subtleties that I might not have adequately appreciated on the first viewing. Of course, I could just as easily lay the blame on Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose brief appearance might well have stuck out like a sore thumb even in 1973, as a relative unknown. I have to admit that I was taken by surprise when Marlowe - SPOILER ALERT - murders his friend. At the time, it did not seem to make a whole lot of sense, but the more I think about it the incident reveals an aspect of Marlowe's character that may be less evident earlier in the film but may have - arguably - been present the whole time. It is the definitive bit of evidence that, beneath Marlowe's facade of cool disinterest, the man is all business. Another factor in the confusing nature of the ending is likely due to - and we ought to applaud the filmmakers for it - the fact that every detail of Marlowe's investigation was not spelled out with the kind of detailed clarity that today's filmmakers often butcher their stories and their characters trying to include.

On a vaguely related note... One of my favorite films is The Big Lebowski. I have made an extensive study of the Coen brothers' classic; but thanks to my recent viewing of The Long Goodbye I have seen The Dude in a whole new light. I now think that quite of bit of The Dude's detective persona is influenced by Philip Marlowe.