The Long Goodbye: 1973 movie

"The Long Goodbye" starring Elliot Gould as Phillip Marlough the 1940s private detective sleuth brought into then 1973 Los Angeles.

There is a realism in this movie that I find lacking in most of today's movies. In today's movies the police are always depicted as more or less perfect citizens which they never were. You see in many ways in this movie the way things were in 1973 and in some ways how they still are today. There was a realism found in late 1960s through the 1970s movies that you just don't see today. Movies of today remind me more of movies made during the late 1930s in comparison. Though much is revealed today much is hidden. If you watch an uncut version of this movie the music in the background, the scenes depicting life as it was then, the ways people act all take me back to a time and a philosophy that I greatly miss. In 1973 I was 25 and living in San Diego and going to college. This was my world. I wasn't a private eye. I never was arrested for anything. The worst thing that happened to me around police was to be pulled out of a street racer and thrown up against a car and frisked. After that, I decided I didn't want to experience anything like that ever again in 1964 when I was 16. So I didn't.

But, this movie makes me long for the early 1970s once again. A time when America was still rich and someone could still at 17 drop out of high school and support 5 people (3 of them through college with one 8 hour a day job as a carpenter, garbage man or whatever). Now such a person would be lucky to be able to do that with 3 jobs working 60 to 80 hours a week instead of 40. I long for simpler richer times for everyone. Unfortunately, 50,000 of us then died in Viet Nam and 250,000 of us were wounded there too. And beyond that many of the men my age still wander the streets today with severe PTSD or worse talking to themselves even though the Viet Nam war ended after 10 years or more in 1974.

But, I still miss the good things about the 1970s when I was still young and in my 20s.


Note: This movie demonstrates some of the craziness of the 1970s. People were more confused and unsure of themselves in an entirely different way than now. The Phillip Marlowe character created by Raymond Chandler typifies in this movie the uncertainty of the times caused by many things like: "The assassination of Kennedy and his brother, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the Viet Nam War which confused not only everyone in the U.S. but also the whole world and made the world more afraid of the U.S. as a result of this 10 year or more war. In 1973 it hadn't ended yet when this movie was made and Nixon hadn't resigned yet or been pardoned by his Vice President who became President next, President Ford.

Another interesting thing is (if your copy hasn't been edited too much) you will see Arnold Schwarzenegger  as a member of a gang is the best way to put this with a mustache. Likely it was his Venice phase of his life at Muscle Beach on the Beach there in the Los Angeles Area.

Also,  if you see this movie the end is completely unexpected on multiple fronts if you haven't seen it yet.