Line #7 Film/TheLongGoodbye


1	%%
2	%%
3	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
4	%%
5	%%
6	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_long_goodbye_1973_poster.jpeg]]
7
8	''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 1953 novel of the same name]] by Creator/LeighBrackett (who had earlier co-written the most famous film version of Chandler's ''Film/TheBigSleep'').
9
10	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 (Creator/MarkRydell) comes to Marlowe's apartment demanding $355,000 that Lennox was supposed to deliver but instead has absconded with.
11
12	A pre-stardom Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger has a non-speaking part as a {{Mook}}. The role of Terry Lennox is played by Jim Bouton, a former Major League Baseball pitcher far better known for his famous baseball memoir, ''Ball Four''.
13
14	----
15	!!This film has examples of:
16
17	* AdaptationalHeroism: Eileen Wade is ''not'' the FemmeFatale she is in the book.
18	* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler:Terry Lennox ''is'' the murderer, after all! While the novel didn't exactly have this character come across as particularly clean by the end, lying to your friend and letting him deal with the consequences still isn't as bad as murder...]]
19	* AdaptedOut: Most blatantly, Linda Loring--the classy yet [[DeadpanSnarker just-as-snarky-as-Marlowe]] lady who Marlowe meets during his investigation in the novel. 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 novel'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.
20	* TheAlcoholic: Roger Wade
21	* AmbulanceCut: Marlowe runs into the street, gets hit by a car, and we cut to the ambulance.
22	* AngryGuardDog: The Wades' dog is never violent, but it is always barking angrily whenever Marlowe is around.
23	* AppealToWorseProblems: A variation of the "starving children in Africa" argument: when the cat doesn't want to eat, he says, "What about all the tigers in India they're killing because they don't got enough to eat?"
24	* AuthorAvatar: Roger Wade is made into one for Raymond Chandler in the film. Indeed, Altman said that he was far more inspired by Chandler's letters and diaries in making this film than the original novel.
25	* BadassInANiceSuit: Marlowe is a professional -- he's always got that suit.
26	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Phillip Marlowe may be a DeadpanSnarker but he's a mostly moral and decent guy...[[spoiler: however he does shoot Terry dead at the end of the film after he manipulates him by making Marlowe take the fall for his actions]].
27	* {{Blackface}}: Marlowe does an impromptu Creator/AlJolson impression using fingerprint ink.
28	* BookEnds: The song "Hooray for Hollywood" plays at the beginning and the end of the film.
29	* [[BornInTheWrongCentury Born in the Wrong Decade]]: Marlowe is man holding onto [[TheForties 1940s]] or [[TheFifties '50s]] values, trying to survive in a much more cynical [[TheSeventies '70s]] L.A.
30	* ButtMonkey: Marlowe, as part of the film's deconstruction of the private eye genre. He lacks a FriendOnTheForce, as the police have no idea who he is. He's 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.]]
31	* CatchPhrase: "It's OK with me."
32	* ChandlersLaw: Some people complained about the film changing the ending of the novel, even though the new ending invoked the law named after Raymond Chandler in the first place.
33	* ClusterFBomb: A few.
34	* CoolCar: Marlowe's 1948 Lincoln Continental convertible.
35	* CoversAlwaysLie: The DVD cover shows Marlowe holding a Beretta 92SB, even though it didn't even exist when the film was made, and a poster has him holding a Colt Detective Special with the TagLine "Nothing says goodbye like a bullet", a line from an early script that was never incorperated into the final movie, yet he uses a Smith and Wesson Model 10 at the end.
36	* CreatorCameo: If you blink during the scene where Marlowe gets taken to the hospital, you'll miss Robert Altman as the guy sitting in the passenger seat of the ambulance.
37	* CutHimselfShaving: Marlowe notices a bruise on Eileen's cheek, and says it doesn't look like she walked into a door. She says that she didn't. She fell out of bed.
38	* DeadpanSnarker: Practically everything Marlowe says is a snark.
39	* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:Terry Lennox. "Yeah, I even lost my cat."]]
40	* 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. As [[spoiler: Terry says to Marlowe at the end of the film "You'll never learn, you're a born loser."]]
41	* DeconstructiveParody: The film is a parody of the FilmNoir genre, with many of the characters being archetypes of the kind of characters who show up in those films:
42	** 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.
43	** 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]].
44	---> '''[[spoiler:Lennox]]:''' What the hell, nobody cares.\
45	'''Marlowe:''' Yeah. Nobody cares but me.\
46	'''[[spoiler:Lennox]]:''' Well, that's you, Marlowe. You'll never learn, you're a born loser.\
47	'''Marlowe:''' Yeah. I even lost my cat. [[spoiler:''(shoots Lennox dead)'']]
48	* DestroyTheProductPlacement: The hero is interrupted by a gangster who is accompanied by his goons and his lovely mistress. Said mistress interrupts the gangster's rant, by informing him that she’s thirsty and would like a Coke. One of his goons fetches an open bottle from the refrigerator. The gangster swigs from it, complains that it’s flat, and then swings it into the mistress’ face, causing it to break and leaving her in pain.
49	* TheDeterminator: Marlowe suffers all sorts of setbacks, but his gut sense that something is fishy about the whole affair keeps him going, and he ultimately solves the case and tracks down Lennox.
50	* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Taken to its logical extreme, thanks to the skilled hands of Music/JohnWilliams. With the exception of "Hooray for Hollywoood" in the opening and closing of the movie, the only song heard in the movie is various arrangements of the theme song, "The Long Goodbye", used diegetically. So when a character turns on the radio, that's the song that plays, when a character is at a bar there's a piano player singing that song, in the supermarket, a muzak version is playing on the overhead, and when the nudist, hippie, neighbors, are chanting, they're chanting the theme also. The lyrics even {{Lampshade}} this:
51	-->''Can you recognize the theme?''
52	* DistractedByTheSexy: Various visitors to Marlowe's apartment getting distracted by all the semi-naked women in the next apartment.
53	* DrivenToSuicide: Roger.
54	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Marty Augustine's thugs are genuinely shocked when he hits his girlfriend in the face with a Coke bottle.
55	* FakingTheDead: Lennox is still alive. [[spoiler:But not for long.]]
56	* FanserviceExtra: The hot women in the apartment next to Marlowe's, who never wear tops.
57	* FauxAffablyEvil: Marty Augustine is fairly personable in-between his bursts of brutality.
58	* TheFilmOfTheBook: Although it changes the time period and the identity of the killer in the end. And Marlowe's OneTrueLove in the book, Linda Loring, is [[AdaptedOut noticeably absent]]--apparently to make room for a more "fleshed-out" Mrs. Wade.
59	* FirstNameBasis: Mrs. Wade asks Marlowe to start calling her Eileen.
60	* GenreBusting: It's a neo-noir with a heavy dose of surrealism and {{black comedy}}.
61	* GenreSavvy: Marlowe, on the typical if-this-were-a-movie dialogue for interrogation scenes:
62	--> "[[ThisIsThePartWhere So, this is where I'm supposed to say]], 'What is all this about?'--and ''he'' says, uh, 'Shut up, ''I'' ask the questions'?"
63	--> "Yeah, yeah, that's right!"
64	** Perhaps surprisingly, this doesn't originate with the film but is actually taken from the original novel.
65	* GratuitousSpanish: The cat door has "El Porto del Gato" written on it. Also, Augustine talks to his Mexican {{mook}} in Spanish, even though the guy always answers in English.
66	* HappyDance: [[spoiler:Marlowe does this at the end after killing Lennox and walking past Ellen]].
67	* KickTheDog: Marty Augustine breaks a Coke bottle on his mistress's face immediately after telling her she's the most important person in his life just to prove to Marlowe that he means business. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even his hired goons think that went too far]].
68	* KosherNostra: Marty Augustine, who complains that Marlowe stopped him from going to the temple for Sabbath.
69	* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Harry. Augustine's incompetent goon who he assigns to follow Marlow.
70	* NeverSuicide: Although Wade really does kill himself, Terry Lennox [[FakingTheDead faked his death]].
71	* TheNicknamer: Roger Wade has nicknames for almost everybody.
72	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Roger Wade's heavy beard, heavier drinking, braggadoccio, and suicidal tendencies all paint him as a late-period Creator/ErnestHemingway.
73	* OnlySaneMan: Marlowe sees himself as this, and the film mostly does agree. Elliot Gould gets comedy gold by playing the straight man to every bizarre figure he comes across.
74	* PoliceAreUseless: The police harass Marlowe, but otherwise seem to just accept what anyone tells them about the Lennox case without question. Ultimately Marlowe agrees [[spoiler:and he decides to perform a VigilanteExecution on Terry Lennox after he's gotten away scott-free]].
75	* PreMortemOneLiner: [[spoiler: '''Marlowe''': Yeah, I even lost my cat.]]
76	* PrivateDetective: Perhaps the most famous one of all time...
77	* RecurringRiff: Every piece of music, [[OverlyLongGag even a doorbell ring,]] is the tune of the title song.
78	* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: In the interrogation room.
79	--> '''Cop:''' Are you crazy?
80	--> '''Marlowe:''' [[BluntYes Yes]].
81	* RunningGag: The music, which is all diegetic, is all repetitions of the title song. Including when it's a doorbell ring and when it's being performed by a mariachi band in a funeral procession.
82	* SettingUpdate: One of the reasons the film was considered daring for its time. It brought Marlowe to TheSeventies and it cast a very young actor, who was known for comic parts, as Marlowe rather than an actor like Creator/RobertMitchum (who played Marlowe in two films in TheSeventies). Altman wanted to make Marlowe a man out of his time even coining the nickname "Rip van Marlowe" and alluding it by starting the film with Marlowe waking up from sleep, implying that he was stuck in a forties time-warp.
83	* ShoutOut: To all kinds of private-eye movies and stories.
84	** While being fingerprinted by the police, Marlowe smears ink on his face and starts imitating Creator/AlJolson in ''Film/TheJazzSinger''. This also references a scene in Creator/JeanLucGodard's ''Film/PierrotLeFou'' where Jean-Paul Belmondo paints his face blue.
85	** Several allusions to ''Film/TheThirdMan''. Marlowe, Terry and Eileen have similarities to that film's main characters, some of the plot points are the same, a cat figures into both stories, both films have scores based on variations of one song, and ultimately [[spoiler:the ending where Marlowe walks past Eileen parodies and inverts the famous final scene of ''The Third Man''. Here, TheHero walks past and ignores the FemmeFatale and rather than being melancholy and serious, Marlowe is in a good mood]].
86	* SmokingIsCool: Marlowe smokes cigarettes incessantly and in nearly every scene.
87	* SpiritualSuccessor: Being noted fans of Creator/RobertAltman, Creator/TheCoenBrothers (''Film/TheBigLebowski'') and Creator/PaulThomasAnderson (''Film/InherentVice'') made their own loose remakes of this film.
88	* ThisIsThePartWhere: When Philip Marlowe is first questioned by Sergeant Green and Detective Dayton, he says "This is where I say, 'What's this all about?' and you say, 'We ask the questions.'"
89	* TitleDrop: The theme song is sung in-universe by a character.
90	* TitleThemeTune: [[{{Leitmotif}} Played throughout]].
91	* UnresolvedSexualTension: Marlowe gets it bad for Ellen. [[spoiler:Unfortunately she is using him and in the end he pretty much gets over her and is happy with being a CelibateHero.]]
92	* VanityLicensePlate: Mrs. Wade's says "Lov You."
93	* VigilanteExecution: Marlowe blows Terry Lennox away after discovering he murdered his wife and betrayed his best friend. This is a change from the novel, where Lennox didn't kill his wife, but still faked his death and left his friend with the mess...and gets away with it scot-free.
94	* WoundedGazelleGambit: While they're questioning Marlowe, one detective pushes him into the other so they can run him in for assaulting an officer.
95	* WritersBlock: Roger Wade suffers from this.

Context Film / TheLongGoodbye