Product Description

Elliott Gould gives one of his best performances (Esquire) as a quirky, mischievous PhilipMarlowe in Robert Altman's fascinating and original (Newsweek) send-up of Raymond Chandler's classic detective story. Co-starring Nina Van Pallandt and Sterling Hayden and written by Leigh Brackett (The Big Sleep) The Long Goodbye is a gloriously inspired tribute to Hollywood (The Hollywood Reporter) with an ending that's as controversial as it is provocative (Los Angeles Times)! Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe (Gould) faces the most bizarre case of his life, when a friend's apparent suicide turns into a double murder involving a sexy blonde, a disturbed gangster and a suitcase full of drug money. But as Marlowe stumbles toward the truth, hesoon finds himself lost in a maze of sex and deceitonly to discover that in L.A., if love is dangerous friendship is murder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10325 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Raymond Chandler's cynically idealistic hero, Philip Marlowe, has been played by everyone from Humphrey Bogart to James Garner--but no one gives him the kind of weirdly affect-less spin that Elliott Gould does in this terrific Robert Altman reimagining of Chandler's penultimate novel. Altman recasts Marlowe as an early '70s L.A. habitué, who gets involved in a couple of cases at once. The most interesting involves a suicidal writer (Sterling Hayden in a larger-than-life performance) whom Marlowe is supposed to keep away from malevolent New-Ageish guru Henry Gibson. A variety of wonderfully odd characters pop up, played by everyone from model Nina Van Pallandt to director Mark Rydell to ex-baseballer Jim Bouton. And yes, that is Arnold Schwarzenegger (in only his second movie) popping up as (what else?) a muscleman. Listen for the title song: It shows up in the strangest places. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

A poor translation of an interesting book
There's no doubt that Raymond Chandler is a wonderful writer. But this film version of The Long Goodbye does not do the book any justice. It throws out the 1930's historical context and sets the book in the 1960's. This does not work. Elliot Gould is totally miscast as Philip Marlowe, Chandler's famous private eye. Gould lacks the toughness and wit of Chandler's Marlowe as well as the mannerisms and philosophy. Not surprising, The Long Goodbye is a complete flop. Don't waste your time and money on this film even if you love Chandler, Marlowe and film noir. Thomas Lee.

not bad, not bad at all, its worth watching,
HELLO, THIS IS QUIET A GOOD MOVIE FROM 1973, ITS WORTH WATCHING, REMEMBER ALL THE GREAT , GREAT MOVIES, WERE MADE IN THE 1970, TIES THANKS AGAIN TAKE CARE.

Amazing Film, Decent DVD
Another bare bones classic Altman film. This is a unique look at LA in the 70s, sort of like an ironic Chinatown doused in cocaine rather than alcohol.