The Long Goodbye

Name: The Long Goodbye
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Comedy, Crime
Released: March 7, 1973
Duration: 112 min
Rating: 87
Cast: David Arkin, Elliott Gould, Henry Gibson, Jim Bouton, Jo Ann Brody

1973

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Ratings

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The Long Goodbye

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Movie Details & Credits

United Artists | Release Date: March 7, 1973 | R

Starring: David Arkin, Elliott Gould, Henry Gibson, Jim Bouton, Jo Ann Brody, Mark Rydell, Nina van Pallandt, Stephen Coit, Sterling Hayden, Warren Berlinger

Summary: Private investigator Philip Marlowe helps a friend out of a jam then gets implicated in his wife's murder.

Director: Robert Altman

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Comedy, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 112 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye attacks film noir with three of his most cherished tools: Whimsy, spontaneity and narrative perversity. Read full review

100

Empire Kim Newman

A subtle criqiue of the main character that contains some astonishing set pieces. Read full review

Alan R. Howard

A gloriously inspired tribute to Hollywood that never loses sight of what Los Angeles has become. Read full review

Dave Kehr

The film is so inventive in its situations and humor that its shortcomings—the blunt ideas at its core—don't become apparent before several viewings. Read full review

Noel Murray

Sometimes important plot-points unfold through windows, too, and The Long Goodbye as a whole peels back the surfaces of private-eye stories, paying special attention to their macho bluster and abused women. Read full review

Pauline Kael

Altman gracefully kisses off the private-eye form in soft, mellow color and volatile images; the cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond is responsible for the offhand visual pyrotechnics (the imagery has great vitality). Gould gives a loose and woolly, strikingly original performance. Read full review

Andrew Sarris

The Long Goodbye rides off furiously in too many different directions with too many gratuitously Godardian camera movements to make even one good movie. [29 Nov 1973, p.84]

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User Reviews

tonyGreen

Feb 8, 2021

Just an incredibly good film. Altman takes a classic noir novel, and transforms it into something somehow even better.

The performances feel incredibly naturalistic and totally unrehearsed, at times to being quite jagged. But the cinematography is beautiful and exacting. Gould captures myJust an incredibly good film. Altman takes a classic noir novel, and transforms it into something somehow even better.

The performances feel incredibly naturalistic and totally unrehearsed, at times to being quite jagged. But the cinematography is beautiful and exacting. Gould captures my idea of Marlowe's essential nature - cynical, knowing, determined, and guided by empathy and moral conviction. And at the same time he rides above depravity of the circles he mixes in with an attitude of detached humour. And Gould's wonderfully slovenly and goofy Marlowe just enriches the character.

Standout supporting roles include Henry Gibson as the creepy Dr Verringer, and Mark Rydell as the vicious and pathetic Augustine. But I particularly liked Sterling Hayden as the alcoholic writer Roger Wade - equal parts terrifying and heartbreaking.… Expand

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