dave,
Re your comments below:
> "If you don't go in expecting Chandler or a straight
detective
yarn,
> you may well fall madly in love with this oddball
Long Goodbye. Not
> Altman's "best" or most ambitiously original work,
but definitely
my
> favorite."
>
> A corollary to this statement I guess would be if
you go in
expecting
> Chandler you may well madly hate this
film...
And I do. Not only because I was expecting Chandler, but
because I thought, and think, that I had every right to
expect Chandler, and that Altman had NO right to shit all
over this perfectly just expectation.
> Like Terrill, I don't necessary take Altman thinking
of Marlowe as
> a loser as a negative or an indication that Altman
was trying to
> disparage Chandler's work. Hell, Rockford Files,
which I always saw
> as the heir apparent to Marlowe, had Jimbo pretty
much as a loser
> also, but in a sympathetic way, somewhat endearing
way.
Altman disparaged Chandler treatment of the character, and,
whether or not Altman finds losers sympathetic isn't the
point. The point is Marlowe is NOT a loser.
And, while you're right about Jim being an heir apparent to
Marlowe, it's not Gould's Marlowe he's heir to, but Garner's
own turn as the character in the film version of THE LITTLE
SISTER, and infinitely better movie than TLG, for all that
it's much less ambitious.
And you misread Rockford if you see him as a loser. He
triumphs much more often than he loses. He's handy with
dukes. He's handy with his gun. He's fast-talking and
fast-thinking. And he's really damned good at basic detective
work. Sure he takes his lumps, but he bounces back. He lives
life on his own terms and is basically happy. Finally,
speaking as one who was blessed with a great dad, no one who
has a father like Rocky is a loser. And no one who can go
through the experience of being convicted of a crime he
didn't commit and emerge with as positive an attitude as
Rockford does is a loser.
Gould's Marlowe, by way of sharp contrast, is none of these
things. He's just an ineffectual nebbish who spends most of
the movie getting pushed around while muttering that, "It's
OK with me."
JIM DOHERTY
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