tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post2647914109510940655..comments2024-03-28T05:15:00.483-07:00Comments on Buddies in the Saddle: Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye (1953)Ron Scheerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357501069513854664noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-27198534181466148342014-05-17T23:51:09.284-07:002014-05-17T23:51:09.284-07:00Ron, if you get the chance, you should take a look...Ron, if you get the chance, you should take a look at James Crumley's masterful The Last Good Kiss. It pairs interestingly with The Long Goodbye. And it has this memorable opening: "When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16136968880607089219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-10213995501325568492014-05-17T09:13:43.906-07:002014-05-17T09:13:43.906-07:00Absolutely right and Powell played Marlowe on Clim...Absolutely right and Powell played Marlowe on Climax, live with Theresa Wright. The Long Goodbye. Memorable.barrylanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09507827607600595861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-70096158295464193902014-05-17T00:17:55.607-07:002014-05-17T00:17:55.607-07:00I found this to be an extremely poetic novel, very...I found this to be an extremely poetic novel, very moving in some of its descriptions:<br /><br />“The tragedy of life is not that the beautiful things die young, but that they grow old and mean.” <br /><br />An absolute favourite. Best of Chandler.<br />neerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986509319841061021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-69270159564442901502014-05-16T21:36:56.841-07:002014-05-16T21:36:56.841-07:00I read somewhere that Chandler preferred Dick Powe...I read somewhere that Chandler preferred Dick Powell as Marlowe.Ron Scheerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15357501069513854664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-71106231156629891842014-05-16T21:12:16.469-07:002014-05-16T21:12:16.469-07:00I like Elliott Gould, but he's all wrong as Ma...I like Elliott Gould, but he's all wrong as Marlowe. I didn't mind Garner at all. George Montgomery was pretty bad, but Robert Montgomery might've been worse. Mitchum was pretty good, if a little too old at the time his two films were made.<br /><br />Although "The Long Goodbye" has its admirers, which I suspect is because Robert Altman was a director who, because of some excellent movies, was venerated as one who could do no wrong, I remember reading an article in which he said he wanted to depict a character with a sensibility from a different era--Marlowe--having to confront life in the 1970s, and also spoof the hardboiled private eye story. The problem is, THE LONG GOODBYE is not a typical hardboiled P.I. novel. If Altman wanted to use a Chandler work as the basis for a spoof, he should have used an earlier one like FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, which as as quintessential an example of the genre as any. Leigh Brackett, a Chandler admirer (she co-wrote the Bogart "The Big Sleep") and author of some solid hardboiled fictions herself, wrote the screenplay. I can't help but wonder if her version was truer to the novel than what made it to the screen, whether Altman made major changes that resulted in the dreck that was the released film, or whether she shares the guilt for said dreck. Barry Erganghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04305184548497082776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-30077090679596979122014-05-16T11:42:06.566-07:002014-05-16T11:42:06.566-07:00I particularly dislike Elliott Gould in this pictu...I particularly dislike Elliott Gould in this picture, not that George Montgomery and James Garner weren't awful as well. No Bogart or Dick Powell, then no Marlowe.barrylanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09507827607600595861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-2001989478700974652014-05-16T07:07:23.932-07:002014-05-16T07:07:23.932-07:00A great novel--my all-time-favorite--and a miserab...A great novel--my all-time-favorite--and a miserable movie. Altman should've been run out of town on a rail.Barry Erganghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04305184548497082776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-88518430417021311382014-05-15T16:25:03.110-07:002014-05-15T16:25:03.110-07:00I had not read the novel until now but remembered ...I had not read the novel until now but remembered the movie, which threw me because it ends differently. I agree that the film does a nice job of capturing the cultural wasteland of the early 70s, but we lose Chandler's 50s, which are interesting in their own right.Ron Scheerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15357501069513854664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434602314756730550.post-10089646226340810712014-05-15T15:39:27.419-07:002014-05-15T15:39:27.419-07:00THE LONG GOODBYE is a classic private eye novel an...THE LONG GOODBYE is a classic private eye novel and one of my favorites. I've read it several times and highly recommend it. The Robert Altman film version created quite abit of controversy and is not a faithful adaptation of the novel. Still interesting but nothing to do with Raymond Chandler.Walker Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16089880902426182100noreply@blogger.com