Chris replied to Jim D:
"Could one hazard a guess that Altman, Brackett & Co. hit
a raw nerve? Just possibly?
"Me, I'll claim that the
1973 "Long Goodbye" movie is a masterpiece . .
. It's a funny, sarcastic, chilling, first-rate
film."
But it ain't Chandler's Marlowe.
I'm sure I've told this story here before. but . . .
I was outraged when I first saw this film. I could not abide
the way it screwed with my favorite character in my favorite
book. I was especially incensed by the ending -- Chandler's
Marlowe would not have done that.
Some time later, my growing interest in Altman led me to give
it another chance, look at it on its own terms and not as a
Chandler adaptation. And now I agree with Chris, so much so
that I became outraged when it was shown on TV and the ending
was cut (freeze-framed) in such a way that the viewer was not
confronted by the non-Marlowe act.
I've seen it several times since and have come to think even
more of the film. As a matter of fact, I need to see it
again.
Still ain't Chandler's Marlowe, though.
Mark
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