History Film / TheLongGoodbye

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: This version of Phillip Marlowe is a deconstruction of noir detectives and his typical film portrayal. The movie shows that an old school detective like Marlowe is simply a powerless man out of the past who doesn't always know what is going on despite his competent skills as a detective. Thus, the world seems to be moving on without him while he stays in the past. As [[spoiler: Terry says to Marlowe at the end of the film "You'll never learn, you're a born loser."]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Phillip Marlowe may be a DeadpanSnarker but he's a mostly moral and decent guy...[[spoiler: but he does shoot Terry dead at the end of the film after being manipulated by him to cover his tracks]].

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: This version of Phillip Marlowe is a deconstruction of noir detectives and his typical film portrayal. The movie shows that an old school detective like Marlowe is simply a powerless man out of the past who doesn't always know what is going on despite his competent skills as a detective. Thus, the world seems to be moving on without him while he seems to stay in the past. As [[spoiler: Terry says to Marlowe at the end of the film "You'll never learn, you're a born loser."]]

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: This version of Phillip Marlowe is a deconstruction of noir detectives and his typical film portrayal. The movie shows that an old school detective like Marlowe is simply a powerless man out of the past who doesn't always know what is going on despite his competent skills as a detective. Thus, the world seems to be moving on without him while he seems to stay in the past.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Phillip Marlowe this time is a deconstruction of noir detectives and his usual portrayal in movies. The movie shows that an old school detective like Marlowe is simply a powerless man out of the past who doesn't always know what is going on despite his competent skills as a detective and thus the world seems to be moving on without him while he seems to stay in the past.

Marlowe's old friend Terry Lennox comes by in some sort of trouble, asking for a ride to Tijuana, which Marlowe provides. This winds up getting Marlowe in hot water with the LAPD, when it turns out that Lennox's wife Susan was murdered and Terry is the prime suspect. Meanwhile, Eileen Wade (Nina van Pallandt) hires Marlowe to find her missing husband, the noted author Roger Wade (Creator/SterlingHayden)--and it turns out that the Wades' Malibu home is right down the beach from the Lennoxes'. Things get even more complicated when crime boss Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell) comes to Marlowe's apartment demanding $355,000 that Lennox was supposed to deliver but instead has absconded with.

** The gangsters, represented by Marty Augustine, are the colorful minor villains who show up in many Noir movies, being LaughablyEvil and even representing a QuirkyMinibossSquad. However, the film emphasizes that these minor thugs and delinquents are incredibly powerful and dangerous to be around. The shrink Dr. Verringer is an unctous intimidating doctor who can humiliate and blackmail the burly and gregarious Roger Wade, and Marty Augustine is a brutal thug who could have killed and cut up Marlowe had he not been so lucky in getting out of spots quickly.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film is generally a parody of the FilmNoir genre, with many of the characters being archetypes of the kind of characters who show up in those films:
** The gangsters, represented by Marty Augustine, are the colourful minor villains who show up in many Noir movies, being LaughablyEvil and even representing a QuirkyMinibossSquad. However, the film emphasizes that these minor thugs and delinquents are incredibly powerful and dangerous to be around. The shrink Dr. Verringer is an unctous intimidating doctor who can humiliate and blackmail the burly and gregarious Roger Wade, and Marty Augustine is a brutal thug who could have killed and cut up Marlowe had he not been so lucky in getting out of spots quickly.

** Moreover, Marlowe's general sentimentality about being a "tarnished knight" is called into question. He puts on a mask of aloof cool and enjoys taunting and being a wiseacre, but this is often shown to be unwise. Likewise, [[spoiler:Terry Lennox uses Marlowe's sentiment towards friendship to manipulate him and at the end, he even points out that his brutal murder of the wife is of no real social consequence, that the cops have dropped the case, and that he's willing to share retirement with Marlowe. Marlowe, in response, decides to take the law into his own hands]].

** Moreover Marlowe's general sentimentality about being a "tarnished knight" is called into question. He puts on a mask of aloof cool and enjoys taunting and being a wiseacre but this is often shown to be unwise. Likewise, [[spoiler:Terry Lennox uses Marlowe's sentiment towards friendship to manipulate him and at the end, he even points out that his brutal murder of the wife is of no real social consequence, that the cops have dropped the case and that he's willing to share retirement with Marlowe. Marlowe in response, decides to take the law into his own hands]].

--> '''[[spoiler:Lennox]]:''' What the hell, nobody cares.\\

* GenreBusting: It's a neo-noir with a heavy dose of surrealism and black comedy.

* GenreSavvy:
** Marlowe, on the typical if-this-were-a-movie dialogue for interrogation scenes:

** He actually says this in the book, too.

--> '''Philip Marlowe''': ''Nobody cares but me.''\\
'''[[spoiler:Terry Lennox]]''': Well that's you, Marlowe. You'll never learn, you're a born loser.

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:Terry Lennox. "Yeah. I lost my cat."]]

* DeathByAdaptation: Terry Lennox. "Yeah. I lost my cat."

* ButtMonkey: Marlowe, as part of the film's deconstruction of the private eye genre. He's a man who lacks a FriendOnTheForce, as the police have no idea who he is. He is no ladies' man, as the girls next door make fun of him. And the villains frequently get the better of him in fights. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking He also loses his cat.]]

* CoolCar: Marlowe's 1948 Lincoln Continental convertible

* ButtMonkey: Marlowe as part of the deconstruction of private eyes. He's a man who lacks a FriendOnTheForce as the police have no idea who he is. He is no ladies man, as the girls next door make fun of him and the villains frequently get the better of him in fights. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking He also loses his cat.]]

* [[BornInTheWrongCentury Born in the Wrong Decade]]: Marlowe is man holding [[TheForties 1940s]] or [[TheFifties '50s]] values, trying to survive in a much more cynical [[TheSeventies '70s]] L.A.

* [[BornInTheWrongCentury Born in the Wrong Decade]]: Marlowe is man holding [[TheForties 1940s]] or [[TheFifties '50s]] values, trying to survive in a cynical [[TheSeventies '70s]] L.A.

''The Long Goodbye'' is a 1973 film directed by Creator/RobertAltman and starring Creator/ElliottGould as detective Literature/PhilipMarlowe. It was adapted from Creator/RaymondChandler's [[Literature/TheLongGoodbye 1939 novel of the same name]] by Creator/LeighBrackett (who had earlier co-written the most famous film version of Chandler's ''Film/TheBigSleep'').

* [[BornInTheWrongCentury Born in the Wrong Decade]]: Marlowe is man holding [[TheForties 1940s]] values, trying to survive in a cynical [[TheSeventies 1970s]] L.A.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Terry Lennox IS the murderer, after all! While the book didn't exactly have this character come across as particularly clean by the end, still, lying to your friend and letting him deal with the consequences still isn't as bad as murder....
* AdaptedOut: Most blatantly, Linda Loring--the classy yet [[DeadpanSnarker just-as-snarky-as-Marlowe]] lady whom Marlowe meets in the book during his investigation. She's the sister of Terry's late wife, and shares Marlowe's doubts that Terry killed anyone--and thus, becomes Marlowe's ally and uneasy assistant in his investigation. Chandler's purpose for her was to be the "Princess In Sour Dress" to Marlowe's KnightInSourArmor--and their parting near the book's end forces the detective to begin questioning his once-firm love of isolation. In the movie, she's nowhere to be found, and instead Altman has Marlowe strike up a complicated relationship with Mrs. Wade--who, ironically, [[spoiler: was the murderer]] in the book.

* BookEnds: The song ''Hooray For Hollywood'' plays at the beginning and the end of the film.
* [[BornInTheWrongCentury Born in the Wrong Decade]]: Marlowe is man holding [[TheFifties fifties]] values, trying to survive in a cynical [[TheSeventies seventies]] L.A.

** The scene where Marlowe puts on {{blackface}} and imitates Creator/AlJolson is modeled on a scene in Creator/JeanLucGodard's ''Film/PierrotLeFou'' where Jean-Paul Belmondo paints his face blue.

** The scene where Marlowe puts on black face is modelled on a scene in Creator/JeanLucGodard's ''Pierrot le Fou'' where Jean-Paul Belmondo paints his face blue.

''The Long Goodbye'' is a 1973 film directed by Creator/RobertAltman and starring Creator/ElliottGould as detective Literature/PhilipMarlowe. It was adapted from Creator/RaymondChandler's [[Literature/TheLongGoodbye novel of the same name]] by Creator/LeighBrackett (who had earlier co-written the most famous film version of Chandler's ''Film/TheBigSleep'').

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