In my opinion, the reason so many Chandler fans hate the
film
"The Long Goodbye" has nothing to do with its semi-surreal
style or with its loose regard for the novel. Viewing it now
on DVD, you get the overall impression of a pretty
entertaining flick that doesn't show its age very much. The
wealthy are still above the law. L.A.'s supermarkets are
still big and bright and empty at night. There's still a hint
of hippy-dip in the air: the half-naked blissninny neighbors
nibbling mind-altering brownies still do exist in the
Hollywood hills, though they now tend to go for something
with a harder hit that turns them considerably less
attractive. The big, perhaps the only problem for Chandler
heads is that mean-spirited ending. I doubt that it's
Brackett's. By having Marlowe dancing down the road to the
tune of Hooray for Hollywood at the fade, Altman was trying
to underline his main point with a thick pen, in case you
missed it. No real problem there. But the scene just before
that, involving Marlowe and Terry Lennox, does more than
merely mock the convention. It trashes Chandler's definition
of the kind of man Marlowe is supposed to be. And that's not
nice.
Dick Lochte
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