There is no surface on Earth that Elliott Gould can't use to light a match.

[Me, generally enjoying a film but feeling vaguely as if I don’t fully grasp whatever subtext or characterizations Altman has woven into it as I know both he and Raymond Chandler are generally more thoughtful than to make something to be viewed on a purely surface level, but also having nothing more to say about it besides recognizing how strongly it influenced Under the Silver Lake and laughing at Philip Marlowe’s constant oral fixation] It’s okay with me!

elliot gould feeding his cat in The Long Goodbye vs. brad pitt feeding his dog in OUATIH. battle of the charming-but-lonely new hollywood rogues

the tragedy (and hilarity) of being a cat, aimlessly wandering a ruthless, dog-eat-dog world

Guy trying to feed his cat in cool apartment. One made-up jazz standard with infinite different versions being the only score. Love this weird movie!

Just finished Neon Genesis: Evangelion yesterday. Play Animal Crossing every day and pick up sticks and fruit with no goal in sight. Between this (movie), that (television show) and the other thing (video game), I am proud to be forgetting about "plot" and only rocking "mood"!

I want Elliott Gould to breathe on my face

A pretty good movie, a pretty bad adaptation of a great book

Does ‘Marlboro’ find his cat?
Does he clear Terry’s name?
Does he court Mrs. Wade?
Does Roger Wade ever find his lost gourd?

Obligatory dishonorable mention for the surfaces on which Elliot Gould cannot strike a match.. which may exist on earth but not in 70’s LA county (or Mexico). 

Marlowe also doesn’t take off his tie unless it’s life or death. Ended up being the death of the rudderless Roger Wade in what was an unforgettable scene.

My dad tried ruining this by pointing out Elliot Gould isn’t inhaling his cigarettes. Still think he’s on John Travolta in “Michael” levels of darts snaked.

"Nobody cares but me."

I care Marlowe, I care

this guy just really gets cats

I heard this was a classic, and I love all the Humphrey Sam Spade and Phillip Marlow movies starring Humphrey Bogart.  This is not any of those things.

Parting is such meandering sorrow.

This is one of those "classics" that does almost nothing for me. All the reasons I hated Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice are pretty much the same for this. This thing meanders so goddamn much that I could not have given less of a fuck about what was going on.

Elliott Gould has some flashes of greatness in this movie. If not for parts of his performance I would've hated this much more. He makes smoking look really cool. He also does blackface in this movie, not nearly enough people mention that.

Young Arnold Schwarzenegger looking like a gorilla.

I'll be honest, people really love Robert Altman. A talented filmmaker no doubt, but for whatever reason I've never really been drawn to his films. That guy just did not make movies for me.

I also streamed this on what was VHS quality and it just reaffirmed why I still buy and collect blu rays.

Elliott Gould wouldn't be my first choice to play Phiiip Marlowe, not in a world where Humphrey Bogart has already made it his own, but then neither would I have asked Robert Altman to direct a Chandler remake set in the 70s, but it just goes to show that those who can think out of the box can really pull off a treat. This drips with 70s crime and cop atmosphere, like the best of Sidney Lumet or Martin Scorsese and Gould's laconic wisecracking is every bit as world weary as Bogie's ever was. It made me think a lot about Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, he must have been influenced by it.

(It is also the only Chandler adaptation that I know of which features a mute Arnold Schwartzeneger trying to look menancing with his trousers round his ankles and a pair of yellow y-fronts on.)

“So this is the part where I say ‘what’s going on here?’ And you say ‘I ask the questions here’”

this film is good a little. It checks off one quality box in each category; one good character, one good actor, one (and a half) good scene, one good musical piece. It’s insanely noir for having been made in the 70s, which isn’t at all bad, I actually quite liked that aspect. But I feel there’s just a bit too much going on and too much focus on things that don’t need to have as much focus. It’s love (?) story is good and dynamic but isn’t anything particularly special and it takes a lot of time away from the more interesting but quite confusing main plot. 

It certainly is a 1970s crime movie, but who hasn’t seen one of those.

What a great movie.
Everything about this is simply brilliant, the score, the narrative, the acting, and the atmosphere. One of the best neo-noir films that I've ever seen.

Holy hell this movie is good.

Sterling Hayden is tremendous.