This really much too Long Goodbye has moved me to dig out the
cassettes resulting from a sit-down with Altman back when the
film had just been released in Los Angeles to less than kind
reviews. His replies to two of my questions may be of some
interest. At what stage did he get involved in the project?
Altman: It was set up for Peter Bogdanovich to direct. He
wanted Bob Mitchum or Lee Marvin, somebody like that. But the
producer wanted Elliot. So Bogdonavich walked and they came
to me, probably because of Elliot's involvement. I had no
interest in doing it. No interest in directing a thriller. I
don't care whodoneit. So I started to explain why I wouldn't
direct the film, and the discussion went on for hours. And
while that was going on, I realized how I could do it without
it being just another thriller.
Do you feel the film demeans Chandler? God, I hope not. That
was not my intent at all. On the set our bible was 'Raymond
Chandler Speaking.' Not
'The Long Goodbye.' That was just the story. Leigh gave me
exactly what I asked for: an outline that would take us from
scene to scene, so we'd know the bases were all covered
regarding story and budget and who would be where. But I
don't think there's one line of Leigh's dialogue in the film.
The actors and I roughed that out as we went along. We were
all reading
'Raymond Chandler Speaking.' The letters. Getting the feel of
the man's words. His attitude. What I actually was trying to
do was to speak for Chandler, not demean him. I'd be proud to
show the film to Chandler.
I asked him specifically about the ending, if he thought
Chandler would approve of that. He shrugged and said it was
the only way he felt it could end in the Seventies. In
discussing Brewster McCloud, he pointed out that nearly all
of his films were about loner eccentrics who are considered
insane by a social order of people who behave with real
insanity and that nearly all of the films end with death.
That may explain Gould's interpretation of Marlowe as well as
the ending.
I personally would have liked to have seen the Bogdanovich
version. I don't feel that Altman's has much to do with
either Chandler or Marlowe, but I like it. I'm just tired of
it being beaten to death by by three or four people who
apparently would be happy to argue its worth until this list
drifts off into the DorothyL zone.
Dick Lochte
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