Get Your Reps In: “The Long Goodbye” Is a ’70s Shaggy Noir

What to see at Portland’s repertory theaters.

The Long Goodbye (IMDB)
By Chance Solem-Pfeifer

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Every generation gets the Los Angeles snoop it deserves.

In The Long Goodbye (1973), Elliott Gould plays Philip Marlowe—the noir detective originated by Dick Powell and immortalized on screen by Humphrey Bogart—as five-o’clock shadow personified. From the moment we meet Marlowe, he’s exhausted, suit rumpled, jaded by free love, cigarette dangling from his bottom lip for minutes at a time.

But even when The Long Goodbye is ’70s shaggy, director Robert Altman (at the height of his powers) maintains a core tension within Marlowe’s wild goose chase. That’s thanks to constant tracking shots, characters moving briskly in sync with the scanning camera and Gould’s brow growing increasingly furled as his cases connect and spiral.

All these choices create a sense of genuinely unsettling energy that many of the L.A. detective comedies inspired by this movie (Inherent Vice, The Big Lebowski, The Nice Guys) leave behind in their quest to extrapolate the vibes.

The Long Goodbye plays April 18–24 at the Academy Theater, fittingly running the same week as The Big Sleep (1946), Bogart’s iconic turn as detective Marlowe.

Also Playing:

5th Avenue: Atonement (2007), April 18–20. Academy: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), April 18–24. Cinema 21: The Fly (1986), April 18 and 19. Miller’s Crossing (1990), April 19. Cinemagic: Days of Being Wild (1990), April 16. In the Mood for Love (2000), April 16. 2046 (2004), April 17. Chungking Express (1994), April 17. Redline (2009), April 18, 19 and 22. Weathering With You (2019), April 19, 20 and 22. Ghost in the Shell (1995), April 19 and 20. Miami Connection (1987), April 18 and 21. Clinton: Bubble Bath (1979), April 16. Purple Rain (1984), April 18. Robin Hood (1973), April 19. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), April 19. Phantom of the Opera (1925) with live score, April 20. The Tune (1992), April 22. Hollywood: The Circus (1928), April 19. RRR (2022), April 21. L.A. Story (1991), April 21. Tomorrow: Dazed and Confused (1993), April 20.

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