Underplayed Gems

The Long Goodbye (1973)

The Long Goodbye poster
Directed by
Robert Altman
Genre
drama film, film noir, crime film, mystery film, neo-noir
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 52m
Rated
R
Rating
7.4 of 10 from 778 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A private detective in 1970s Los Angeles gets drawn into a missing person case that leads to betrayal and murder. He navigates a world where old codes of honor clash with new selfishness.

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What happens

The Long Goodbye is a 1973 American satirical neo-noir film directed by Robert Altman, adapted by Leigh Brackett from Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name. The film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe along with Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson, David Arkin, and Jim Bouton, and has an early, uncredited appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The story's setting was moved from the 1940s to 1970s Hollywood. The film has been called "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance ... and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless." United Artists released the film on March 7, 1973. It received mixed to positive reviews upon release, but its critical assessment has grown over time. In 2021, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.