10 Items or Less: "The Long Goodbye" (1973)

A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.  

Director Robert Altman's shaggy update to the noir genre The Long Goodbye dives headlong into the byzantine narratives, hardboiled personalities -- well, one of them anyway, in its protagonist -- and sharp dialogue that made the genre a classic staple of cinema. But he also gives it an unmistakable modern sensibility, more fitting for the 1970's. Elliott Gould as Phillip Marlowe is certainly a continuation of a long tradition of cynical detectives investigating an increasingly intricate and seedy case, but he's also a little less classically cut and a little more rough around the edges. Really this is another way to describe the film in general, which features a lot of Altman's roving camera -- including some zooms that occasionally get distracting -- and a narrative that's interested in weird quirks and digression. The Long Goodbye above all though is a really fun film with a great sense of character and dialogue and an engaging and surprising genre-bending story. There's a terrible and shocking scene that ends with the line: “Now that’s someone I love. Think what could happen to you.” And there's another unexpected moment at film's end that's a great, surprising capper. Altman wants to take what we know about this genre and shake it up.

Grade: 3.5/4★★★