Review: Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye on Special Edition Kino Blu-ray

Robert Altman’s 1973 adaptation of pulp legend Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel The Long Goodbye is simultaneously an act of revisionism as well as a parody of the then-nascent neo-noir revival. It’s also, perhaps, the director’s most audacious act of genre deconstruction in a career filled with contenders, most of which are accompanied by ampersands: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, O.C. & Stiggs, and Vincent & Theo.

There’s no “and” to pair off with Elliot Gould’s take on Philip Marlowe. Though the film opens on a note of camaraderie and trust between Marlowe and his friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton), who appears to be in a major pinch but who Marlowe whisks to Tijuana with no questions asked, the rest of the film punctuates the complete dislocation of traditional noir masculinity from the cultural snooze button that was post-’60s California.

In Chandler’s seven novels, Marlowe’s composure in rat-a-tat-tat surroundings was cool and disarming. But in Altman’s Los Angeles of Hemingway wannabes, thousand-dollar-a-day psychiatric playground retreats, Barbara Stanwyck-impersonating parking attendants, cats with gourmet tastes, and aficionados of naked yoga with a penchant for pot brownies, Marlowe’s persona isn’t only a relic, it’s practically uncool.

Altman’s “Rip Van Marlowe” is said to reveal just how much had changed in the two decades between Chandler’s novel and Altman’s film, and the casting of Gould (over producers Jerry Bick and Elliott Kastner’s preferred choice of Robert Mitchum) works in spite of the notion that a Jewish Marlowe might seem as much a sign of the times as one seedy character’s reference to then Governor Ronald Reagan. (Bick and Kastner would have the chance to go back to their original intentions when they cast Mitchum in 1975’s Farewell, My Lovely.)

The screenplay by Leigh Brackett, who also scripted Howard Hawks’s adaptation of Chandler’s The Big Sleep, streamlines a lot of detail out of what might be the author’s densest tome, and not only the material that would draw attention away from the anachronism of a ’70s Marlowe. Gone are subplots and minor characters and, in fact, the story’s mystery ends up a great deal simpler in the film version. It’s all to make room for Gould’s funny, free-associative performance. He mumbles wildly just like Beatty in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, essentially negating what was one of Chandler’s most enduring traits: his icy, precise verbiage.

Still, for all the film’s revisionism, one tenet of the noir genre remains a holdover, existing in Altman’s film without revision or irony. For a man to be betrayed by another man when the two held a previously honorable agreement is a moral crime, punishable by death. However, when a man is betrayed by a woman—in Marlowe’s case, when he’s played for a patsy by the woman he thought was as sweet and soft as the dried apricots she served him—it’s so taken for granted and upsets his worldview so little, it’s hardly worth a whistling tune on the harmonica.

Image/Sound

Kino Lorber presents The Long Goodbye in a new 4K restoration that looks phenomenal. Colors are richer and deeper. Fine details of costume and décor really stand out now, black levels are solid and uncrushed, and grain resolves itself in a pleasing manner. The Master Audio two-channel mono is a reliable workhorse, cleanly delineating dialogue, as well as the protean iterations of John Williams and Johnny Mercer’s theme song.

Extras

In another thoroughly researched commentary track, film historian Tim Lucas gives a detailed accounting of the differences between Raymond Chandler’s source novel, Leigh Brackett’s screenplay, and the improvisatory finished film. He has a lot of information to convey about the careers of cast and crew, previous cinematic incarnations of the Phillip Marlowe character (here’s looking at you Humphrey Bogart), and even the pleasures of drinking aquavit.

One of five featurettes included on this release, “Rip Van Marlowe” finds Robert Altman and Elliott Gould discussing the script, the cast, the director’s filming style, the uncomprehending reception of the film, and more. On “Vilmos Zsigmond Flashes The Long Goodbye,” the famed cinematographer talks about first working with Altman on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, the process of flashing the film, and Altman’s preference for a roving camera and a zoom lens.

Elsewhere, critic David Thompson goes into Altman’s start in industrial films and TV, as well as his early features, before covering The Long Goodbye in some detail, including a novel reading of its last act. Biographer Tom Williams covers Chandler’s upbringing, venture into pulp fiction, screenwriting work on Double Indemnity, and his vision of L.A. as a corrupting influence. And editor and writer Maxim Jakubowski does a deep dive into the interrelated history of noir, hardboiled and pulp fiction, Brackett’s career, and expresses the view that Gould’s Marlowe is closer to the books than Bogart or Dick Powell’s portrayals.

The extras are rounded out by an animated reproduction of a 1973 American Cinematographer article on Zsigmond, an episode of the web series Trailers from Hell with screenwriter and podcaster Josh Olson, TV and radio spots, two trailers, and a reversible cover with Jack Davis’s wonderful poster art on one side and the more Dirty Harry-ish artwork on the other.

Overall

Robert Altman’s subversive, unsentimental adaptation of The Long Goodbye gets a fabulous 4K transfer from Kino Lorber that’s a major improvement over the studio’s 2014 Blu-ray.