Woody Allen on The Long Goodbye

[@EazyJakeOven]

Every time I watch these, I forget to remember they're edited in a way that makes it sound like the subject is talking over people.

[@fritzidler9871]

Just like Robert Altman's style!

[@marcevan1141]

I absolutely love this film. It's one of Altman's best-and that's saying a lot.

[@joshcain4848]

Whatever he says is “not connecting” in the movie is probably the same quality that makes me go back to it over and over again.

[@honeychilerider]

Exactly.

[@AngryFknDog]

It's a script that is alternately good, great, bad, terrible.

[@waynedurning8717]

I saw the movie and thought it was ok but I’ll never watch it again. I watch it about every year. With a glass of whiskey.

[@tuanjim799]

"It's okay with me"

[@monotech20.14]

I can't picture Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe. It ruins the movie.

[@cabana85]

Woody on Pauline Kael: “she had everything a great critic should have … except taste.”

[@freedone.]

🤣

[@moonriverdiver]

​​@@freedone. Exactly - whether due to incomprehension or contrarian attention seeking unclear. Either way, her panning eg Hitchcock's Vertigo and Kubrick's Dr Strangelove misconceived.

[@tomchris60]

@cabana85 At the time, Kael was one of few critics to champion the film. Her insights enhanced my second viewing of The Long Goodbye.

[@delbongo]

Hilarious edit. Sounds like Kael couldn’t get a word in 😂

[@rayhill5767]

The Long Goodbye is one of my favorite films. And absolutely what I remember the 70s to look and feel like.

[@curiositytax9360]

The Long Goodbye is a film that I can watch over and over. It never ends. And I don’t rewatch many films. I like some of Allen’s films but I don’t really go back to them unless there is a big gap in between

[@monotech20.14]

I can't picture Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe. It ruins the movie.

[@barbamerica6611]

Definitely one of the three most flawless Hollywood films. I won't reveal the other two

[@rbrookswilliams1689]

Reveal the other two, please. We're waiting with bated breath.........................CITIZEN KANE and VERTIGO?

[@barbamerica6611]

@@rbrookswilliams1689 Citizen Kane certainly not, Welles was still at the very beginning, you can still feel the youthful fury. Vertigo may be technically flawless, but depressing in its immaturity. No, I won't give anything away, just the years they were made: 1952 and 1974

[@ralphus44]

@@barbamerica6611 You're referring, of course, to Singing in the Rain and The Godfather Part 2.

[@barbamerica6611]

@@ralphus44 🤣

[@barbamerica6611]

@@ralphus44 My favorite Coppola is The Conversation (1974), but maybe only because I am such an Antonioni worshipper

[@mrakl3]

I'm no one who knows more about making films than Woody Allen, but I don't agree with him on this one... when Marlowe shoots Terry at the end, it feels pretty satisfying.

[@letemroll7871]

No, it feels totally wrong. That´s more Mickey Spillane than Raymond Chandler.

[@tomchris60]

Marlowe killing Terry was so shocking that I left the theater thinking "Wait! What?"

[@mrakl3]

@@tomchris60 Yeah, I think you're supposed to think that.

[@curiositytax9360]

It’s a shocking ending. Made me jump in my seat when he shot him. Incredible film

[@tomchris60]

@mrakl3 Of course you are. But Altman leads the audience on a perception that Gould's Marlowe is a bumbling punching bag. The last moment while satisfying narratively- Terry deserved to be blown away- still leaves the audience bewildered. That said, I've seen the movie several times. It's good.

[@krisscanlon4051]

TLG looks like PT Anderson watched it nonstop for a decade then finally nailed the look of the 70s. Altman is Anderson

[@jon8004]

Anderson was a lot of people when he started. Altman, Scorsese, Kubrick, Melville. Then he matured and erased a lot of those explicit similarities. I suppose you can still see Altman still in something like "Inherent Vice", but Anderson today shoots a movie much, much differently than Altman did.

[@ianbauer4703]

Altman did Altman better

[@oilyshoes9969]

wrong. Anderson tries to be Altman. Don't screw that up

[@curiositytax9360]

@@jon8004did you not watch Licorice Pizza? Felt like a tribute to Altman at times. The Long Goodbye was evoked constantly

[@Able406]

Pauline Kael had a show?! 🤯

[@ianbauer4703]

Never knew

[@johnsilva9139]

Apparently on NPR in NYC I think. Found this out recently on youTube where she and Woody are discussing "Mean Streets" which they both loved. Didn't agree on "The Long Goodbye" I guess. Probably from the same broadcast in 1973. Very impressed with both of them articulating their views on movies.

[@332mm]

For Raymond Chandler fans, I think Eliot Gould came closer to the spirit of Philip Marlow than Robert Mitchum. The humor was a bit heavy at times but there was a humanity to the character that Mitchum missed.

[@irish66]

nah.

[@tomchris60]

@332mm The Long Goodbye is a very subversive take on Chandler. Although today it's considered a cult movie, at the time "Raymond Chandler fans" rejected it. The fans and critics would later praise Mitchum's older, wearer Marlowe and make Farewell My Lovely a modest hit.

[@Mr.GuGuGaCucaSnooch]

The Long Goodbye was hilarious through absurdity and subtlety. It's a movie that if modernized would be akin to The Big Lebowski. It's definitely a matter of taste but The Long Goodbye for it's time set a beautiful standard for comedic movement through adventure contrasted by nihilism. Again, see The Big Lebowski to see this style of film realized to it's full potential.

[@AT-sd9qq]

If TLG is a modern day Big Lebowski then Woody is 100% right, it's not funny.

[@faustoferrari4303]

I saw the Long Goodbye when it came out In the UK in 1974 and believe me, no-one in the cinema was laughing. Now, of course, the film is filled with sly humour, but it's also as bleak as any Bergman movie, so it's obviously not 'funny' in any conventional cinematic sense. Other dark seventies movies had a strong comic quality (it was one of the things that made movies from that period so special) and did have audiences roaring with laughter: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Last Detail, Mean Streets and even Taxi Driver. I've never seen an Altman film that tries to make his audience laugh, maybe the Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni scene in Pret-a-Porter, but that's about it. Tanner vs Tanner is often humorous but is not looking for laughs I think.

[@TTM9691]

Hilarious you compare it to the hugely overrated Big Lebowski. As much as I find Long Goodbye one of Altman's weaker 70s films, I'll take it any day over that other piece of crap, lol. There are so many great 70s films, some of them by Altman, but "Long Goodbye" ain't one of 'em.

[@jodi2847]

@TTM9691 You're on an island there, pal.

[@douglasmennella4525]

The Big Lebowski is based on the Big Sleep, so perhaps no coincidence in making the analogy.

[@ddewittfulton]

I think it is the best time travel film ever made. Imagine putting Jake Gittes in the world of "Gone Baby Gone." Altman's films can be off-putting because he doesn't give the viewer easy cues for any emotion. For example, you don't know if a bit of slapstick was a mistake the character made.

[@OddHands]

I don’t think TLG is supposed to be a comedy, nor do I think it solely sets out to make people laugh. It’s a story about an eccentric detective, so laughs are inherent but not the full intention. I love many of Woody Allen’s films, but I have a strong feeling that this criticism stems from an internal realization that his cinematic range is clearly dwarfed by Robert Altman’s.

[@faustoferrari4303]

Don't agree. Some of Altman's films were very successful in experimenting with form and dissolving genre norms (as in The Long Goodbye), but his innovations became mannerisms that sometimes continued to work, but often didn't. Altman's films that don't work are almost unwatchable (Brewster McCloud, Quintet, Beyond Therapy). Woody's films also became mannerist, but those are mostly the films in the second half of a very long career. If we take the starting point as 1969 and stop with their films in 2000 (Gosford Park and Small Time Crooks) I think Woody has the superior batting average, both in terms of cinematic range and consistency. The commentary in this video is spliced together from a much longer interview with Pauline Kael in 1975 (I think) and it makes it seem he's being very rude, as if he's constantly interrupting her, but he wasn't. At that point in their careers Woody had yet to make Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan or Stardust Memories which saw him go beyond his very effective (classic) comedies of the early seventies, while Altman had just completed Nashville, an artistic high point that he got nowhere near equalling again for almost twenty years when he had a significant renaissance with The Player and Short Cuts.

[@TTM9691]

what a hilariously idiotic thing to babble. Woody admires Altman but doesn't take to the (flawed and grossly overrated) "Long Goodbye" and so of course to a lower animal like yourself it;s got to be "oh, I'm jealous of Robert Altman". Allen's "cinematic range" is at least as wide as Altman's, and got way more accolades, both from the critics and from the paying audience, then Altman ever did. Even in 1972. I love Altman when he's at his best. "Long Goodbye" is b-list Altman, championed by dummies who can't tell the difference. (Like Pauline Kael!)

[@losttango]

​@@faustoferrari4303 Interesting take, though personally I loved "Brewster McCloud". If this interview was recorded before Allen diversified into more serious films I think the criticism above actually carries more weight. Either he didn't understand what Altman was getting at or it's just a matter of individual taste.

[@faustoferrari4303]

@@losttango Well, I see what you mean, but I think it's just a case that he quite liked the film overall, but had reservations about whether Altman was successful in some of the things he was trying to do. I wonder what directors of 70s films think about people like us discussing their films from 50 years ago? Altman's dead of course, and I think Woody couldn't care less. I also wonder what Elliot Gould can remember about his approach to the role?

[@barbamerica6611]

@@faustoferrari4303 I think Allen became significant not before 2000. Match point (2005), Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008) Midnight in Paris (2011), Coup de Chance (2022)

[@ThomasRoiloup]

I like how the editing of the clips in this make Woody sound like he's nuts.

[@johnfitzpatrick3094]

One of Altman's most underrated films.

[@walkerstark4564]

Best ending ever but wasn’t enough for Woody

[@Redditfanboy-v2s]

Great video bro

[@kbtken]

Woody is talking so fast because he knows if he breathes for a comma he will be interrupted by a parrot

[@JohnBowen-z2e]

Seriously, what is the point of having a discussion with anyone if all you do is talk over them?

[@TTM9691]

The parrot that's disagreeing with him? lol

[@adamp2029]

It’s edited because it’s supposed to be his thoughts on it. What she said was edited out. He’s not just cutting her off.

[@frankmachin5438]

@adamp2029 yes you’re right of course - i would’ve thought that was obvious but evidently it was not.

[@Bacalao2929]

It’s one of my favorites

[@spazzriff_appreciator]

i love that movie 50% because of the main theme. that gets stuck in my head all the time.

[@krisscanlon4051]

Jack Sheldon

[@straightfacts5352]

Song's available on youtube, and you can convert to a music file using a _youtube to MP3_ converter available free online.

[@mierezsaturday1452]

Woody Allen was spot on. Respectfully.

[@shimtest]

Altman wasn't a comedic genius but he was a genius director

[@michaelrhudak]

I think this about almost every Wes Anderson movie.

[@AngryFknDog]

To me, his movies have all the artistic worth of shaking a snow globe.

[@adamcee7251]

He just does not want to let Pauline Kael talk ... and I wanted to know what she was going to say : / (

[@yournamehere6002]

It's a much longer interview

[@faustoferrari4303]

It's edited. You can find the full conversation on KZbin. I know it sounds he's monopolising the discussion, but that's because of the splicing, the poster must have only been interested in Woody's thoughts. The full thing is really good.

[@neetknight9954]

I’m glad she doesn’t.🙉

[@kreegull]

Woodman joins QT in the He-Man Altman Haters Club-complains about sunny exteriors in LA (no shit), then has Gordon Willis do the same for Annie Hall in a few years.

[@TTM9691]

Wrong, you hilarious imbecile: he likes and respect Altman, he doesn't like THIS movie. And neither do I! NO ONE likes ALL of Altman's movies, what alternative reality have you been living in? PS: Wow, everything goes over your head! He's complaining about the sunny exteriors in LA.....then shoots it that way BECAUSE HE'S IN L.A. Didn't light the world on fire with that brain of yours, did you, Kree? What did you expect for Annie Hall? "Klute Part 2"?? LOL. ). (By the way, last I checked, QT sings the praises of M*A*S*H* every chance he gets!) (PS: "California Split" wipes the floor with "Long Goodbye". "3 Women" even moreso. )

[@RamZar50]

Woody is trying hard to box it in and instead of going along with a great and unique movie.

[@OddHands]

Totally agree, he says it has no payoff, but it ends with Marlowe’s abrupt revenge and then he happily disappears with his harmonica. I think Woody wants to be Phillip Marlowe.

[@pikebishop8516]

​Despite his appearance, he was one the most competitive director of his generation. On the bonus dvd of 2001 the space odyssey, he was dragging around a long time about the greatness of the film, until... he admitted that, yes, it's probably a masterpiece.

[@CorbCorbin]

@@OddHands He just doesn’t thinks that Altman can do a better movie. I like The Long Goodbye, and its type of noir has influenced a lot. Parts of Under the Silver Lake does some of it, in between the more absurd things.

[@TTM9691]

Wrong, you need to hear it in the context of the full interview. Also, Woody is 100% correct, it's not Altman's best, contrary to the hilarious "Long Goodbye" fetishists. Watch "California Split", 50 times better movie. ("3 Women", 7000 times better movie, lol). Even "Buffalo Bill" is a much better movie.

[@RamZar50]

@ I responded to just the video clip in this thread. Robert Altman had some of his greatest movies in the early 1970s (the other 3 below are better than The Long Goodbye): - M*A*S*H (1970) - McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) - The Long Goodbye (1973) - Nashville (1975)

[@zachgates7491]

Mitchum was a better Philip Marlow, especially in Farewell My Lovely

[@HG-pi3qp]

James, if you see this, I would love to interview you. All the best and keep making these edits.

[@tuanjim799]

I love the movie, it's one of those great "hangout" movies for me. I come back again and again just to bask in that stoned, kooky world. Just a cool-ass vibe. Also super mellow in a cozy way (despite some very dark subject matter in the mix). As far as it being funny, I mean there's definitely humor in it, but it's just low-key, very arch and wry/ironic, not big, loud, in-your-face kinda humor. It's a humor that makes me smile real big rather than belly laugh.

[@oilyshoes9969]

give me a break. LOVE ALTMAN, love Allen, but The Long Goodbye is classic!

[@zmani4379]

Altman's Long Goodbye was IMO his response to Hawks' Big Sleep, and also an elegy to a passing era - in my ideal world we'd see John Wayne playing the Sterling Hayden role (tho Hayden was superb) - other films offering the same lament include Kaufmann's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and others here have mentioned Anderson's Pynchon adap, Inherent Vice - I haven't read the book, but Anderson's film certainly strikes me as a loving homage to Long Goodbye - I think Gould here is Altman's version of Hawks' Bogie, and the whole movie IMO is Altman doing a sort of extended jazz riff off of Big Sleep -

[@AngryFknDog]

The era didn't pass... the writers did.

[@zmani4379]

@@AngryFknDog Long Goodbye is showing a world in transition - Altman's Philip Marlowe is depicted as a relic of a different time, in the same way as Phoenix in Inherent Vice

[@jefmay3053]

The Woodman hates Los Angeles, he just will never understand it.

[@TTM9691]

And yet he nailed it 100% in ten minutes, in "Annie Hall", lol.

[@thomasparker2447]

Sounds like Woody's complaint is that this is Altman's Long Goodbye instead of Chandler's.

[@mellisaaamell]

considering reuploading with kael's respones, love your vids regardless

[@mellisaaamell]

terrible english sorry youtube will not me edit, i meant to say consider reuploading video with pauline's responses, because it would enrich the discussion. love you videos and i know this takes a lot of work

[@philbarber9738]

Allen's made classics but nothing that eclipses Goodbye. I'm surprised he's out in left field regarding the acerbic humor which I found biting and brilliant but perhaps too subtle for Woody. As a former investigator myself I could relate to the inside joke of being out of place in situations that Altman further emphasized in the wheels (Lincoln) of an anachronistic character like Marlowe from the 40s waking up in the 70s feeling out of place but willing to roll with it in dead pan fashion. I believe it is a cynically a neo-noir masterpiece that Allen approaches in Match Point and Crimes and Misdemeanors but does not surpass.

[@lynnturman8157]

The first time I saw it I hated it. But I wanted to watch it again and so the 2nd time I saw it I loved it. It's a strange movie. Just the fact that the director who hated story & plot would take on a genre that is all about story & plot.

[@WorkingPoorFilms]

I find Woody is struggling to get a grasp on an unusual film, which he does say plenty of positive things about. He’s right, it is unique. I just find it funny and satisfying too.

[@postmodernrecycler]

Altman turns out to be an American master beyond all the usual suspects. 3 Women, That Cold Day in the Park, Images--so many strange and inimitable movies. Long Goodbye doesn't hold up to Chinatown, but I find it more interesting.

[@TTM9691]

Images is great. California Split is great. 3 Women is great. Long Goodbye isn't great. (And Chinatown wipes the floor with it)

[@noodle123ify]

Pretty sure the idea of setting a dark, film noir in sunny LA was part of Altman's plan

[@JohnBowen-z2e]

Hardly the first time.

[@noodle123ify]

@@JohnBowen-z2e sure, plenty of film noir were set in LA, b&w, low lighting, high contrast. TLG is technically neo noir, meant to be a modern, hip, with warm LA colors. and a comedy mixed with violence which was sort of new for noir

[@stephenterranova8455]

Kael is usually such a buffoon...but she's right on this one.

[@WalterBurton]

👍👍👍

[@fritzidler9871]

If there is anything wrong with "The Long Goodby," it would be that Robert Altman's famous or unique documentary style, is not well suited to the detective genre. Which it is not. Yet it is this very out of place, or unsuitable style, that creates the kind of disconnect, the general theme of most detective fiction, that allowed the movie, in the long run, to stand the test of time. To this day, "The Long Goodby" remains a beautiful snapshot or portrait from another time and place. Somewhat like Quentin Tarantino's lament of lost innocence in the 1960s, in his "Once Upon A TIme in Hollywood." A movie director famous for an altogether different or unique style of his own. And who could probably rock the detective genre like nobody's business. After all, the detective genre is the original pulp fiction.

[@adinocc2042]

Okay. Let us move on to Capricorn I.

[@issadad]

Woody finds something missing, not fulfilling about The Long Goodbye. Agreed. In fact, I'd go further. I find something distracting, off-putting, at times repugnant. That thing is Elliott Gould. Like the difference between an actor playing drunk and being drunk, Gould carries his sarcastic indifference as Marlowe so far it becomes shtick, cliché -- too studied and self-aggrandizing a performance to buy into. Lots of people love him, but for me at least, Gould makes The Long Goodbye unwatchable.

[@stkittsdave1]

Sterling Hayden stole the show in The Long Goodbye.

[@OliverMarson]

far superior to anything that woody allen has ever done to be honest....

[@polyglot12]

"The Long Goodbye" is a movie I struggle with. I didn't think it was great but it's definitely interesting and bucks the genre. I never thought of it as a comedy. It has wit, but not a comedy. I'm surprised Woody didn't like it. Some aspects of Altman's movies and Allen's remind me of one another. The way characters often talk over one another yet seem to completely understand each other. The sort of unconventional stream-of-consciousness nature to their dialogue. Allen's structure is more dependent on the dialogue, and Altman's more to the mood and set up. And Allen's characters usually have a deeper history - maybe that's where the disconnect comes from. Allen has expressed appreciation of "Mean Streets" and how he was able to get into the characters, and Scorcese's characters in that film had great depth. Between Allen and Altman, both directors have their detractors and supporters, with the 2 sides widely separated - often you either love Altman or Allen, or you hate them.

[@gallery7596]

I had to watch this several times to figure out if he liked the movie or not- and part of it comes from Pauline Kael's attempts to inject her opinion which makes it hard to follow what Allen's saying.

[@Roadwarrior55]

The Big Lebowski and Inherent Vice both where influenced by The Long Goodbye.

[@faustoferrari4303]

Lebowski has been mentioned several times in this thread. The only way it links to The Long Goodbye is that both films play with film noir tropes and Chandleresque themes. You couldn't get two more disparate auteurist styles than Altman's and the Coen's. With the P. T. Anderson film I can see more of a link, especially between the protagonists played by Elliott Gould and Joaquim Phoenix respectively.

[@johnard611]

As was Trouble in Mind (directed by Altman protegee Alan Rudolph). It also had various interpretations of the theme song played throughout the movie.

[@ronbock8291]

I can’t believe I used to like Pauline Kael.

[@JohnBowen-z2e]

"Used to" indeed. At one point she really was the vanguard but when her ulterior motives (which were manifold) took over, her opinions (or what she claimed her opinions were) stopped being valid.

[@faustoferrari4303]

@@JohnBowen-z2e All of that doesn't matter, opinion is just opinion. the important thing is she could write, and get a discussion going.

[@loganperry5167]

You may find her suspect,or repugnant,but lady could write stirringly about cinema & what it's like to watch.Thanks

[@ronbock8291]

@@loganperry5167 oh I was a fan at the time. In retrospect, I see the flaws. Obviously, she was an outsized figure in the culture, and not by accident.

[@jhutchtalkstoomuch4796]

Allen is my favourite filmmaker but I do love The Long Goodbye. That said, I would agree, that it's not especially a hilarious movie. Remember that Woody was a comic, and this was not too long after he quit stand-up for good. His conception of comedy is a joke machine movie: Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Airplane, etc. And he loved the silent comedians too. The Long Goodbye, as great as it is, is not a movie like that at all, and so for Allen it naturally doesn't register as comedy.

[@YouSnoozeYouNooze]

Not great to interrupt your guest Pauline

[@markmcnulty7736]

My impression was that the conversation wasn't sync'd up correctly in this video. Like the contributions of Pauline and Woody had been re- or mis-edited half on top of each other.

[@ddewittfulton]

It was from a long form radio program. It would be virtually impossible to edit out Kael.

[@YouSnoozeYouNooze]

@@markmcnulty7736 ohhhh

[@CompoundNihilist]

Thankfully, he barrels through.

[@faustoferrari4303]

@@markmcnulty7736 You are right. You can get the whole conversation on KZbin, it's really interesting. I thought the way they've spliced it together here made Woody sound rude, as if he's not letting her get a word in, but that was not the case when you hear the whole conversation. The original comment in this thread indicates it was an interview, but it was really more of an open conversation. They talk about several other movies of the time, Woody seemed really at ease, which I was surprised at, as he later had his problems with La Kael.

[@writeralbertlanier3434]

The Long Goodbye is to an extent unique in that it is a subversion of the literary and filmic private eye genre. It barely fulfills the dictates of genre because it weaves instead of walks, jogs instead of runs, and neither zigs nor bags. It's a slyly funny film not purely overtly funny. Altman layers mood, atmosphere and unpredictability in terms of behavior and actions. In the end, it is a film that works extremely well but doesnt give an audience what it expects nor wants but what he wants..

[@jaketrevaskis12]

The editing here just sounds like Woody is talking over women the entire time

[@leamanc]

Never knew it was supposed to be a comedy. Of course, the deconstruction of Old Hollywood myths comes off a bit satirical and there's a few genuinely funny moments. But if you're expecting a comedy, you will be disappointed.

[@faustoferrari4303]

Agree 100%

[@jaybodnar9762]

I'm curious where this rambling somewhat jealous sounding commentary originated from.

[@ericslee1980]

Woody missed on this one. Perhaps Altman's finest.

[@ArlieTalksArt]

I think Woody’s a little jealous

[@andreiiancu2501]

Woody mogs altman

[@B_baldy]

@@andreiiancu2501Altman beats tf out of woody Allen predator ahh

[@andreiiancu2501]

🤓🤓🤓

[@betsyduane3461]

With his 4 Oscars with 2 for directing, a best picture and 20 more nominations? Altman has 0 Oscars and 7 nominations, no best pictures.

[@TTM9691]

Yeah, Woody who during the time of this interview was riding high while nobody went to see The Long Goodbye. And who was WAY more the critic's darling than Altman EVER was. Nice try, doofus! Altman's great. The Long Goodbye isn't, just to clue you in. Every single movie Woody did in the 70s wipes the floor with Long Goodbye, what alternative reality are you living in?

[@GhostofGomezDawkins]

Woody knew this movie was released?

[@robertwilson-lq1lr]

Chandler was a great artist of language, something Altman had no interest in, or even held in contempt. Also Marlowe believed in only two things, honor and dignity, and that's not Gould.

[@faustoferrari4303]

I agree with you that Altman was trying to do something that was almost perverse. However, I found the inversion of what Chandler represented an interesting attempt to highlight the societal changes that the US was going through. As for Gould, I find his performance simultaneously grating and fascinating. It seems so much of its time (early 70s) that I often wonder what subsequent generations of movie fans think about it. It always surprise me that younger people seem quite oblivious to the massive societal changes that affected the way moviemakers approached the handling of themes in their films in the New Hollywood (I'm not saying this is you, obviously, but I think it would it would affect how they view Gould's Marlowe).

[@owenmcgee8496]

@@faustoferrari4303 I'm not sure Marlowe is a character that can be placed in another time. I see comments here that compare the film to Big Lebowski, portraying a pathetic and doomed dropout (that's in the "TLG" film certainly, including in the murder ending, and I don't find either film funny), but that's not what Marlowe is supposed to be. He is educated. That is his defense. But how does one portray that outside of his observations of 1940s Los Angeles? I don't know. James Garner's Marlowe was set in the swinging sixties, and it may be that his character is supposed to be observing things in a detached way, but instead he just seems completely detached, so much so that even Garner isn't able to deliver wisecracks. I wasn't alive when any of these films were done, but if there's a film where the wisecracking, yet "not quite a chip on his shoulder", Marlowe came to life on screen, I think it was Bogart. World weary but wise. He conveyed that, and that's why I think Chandler liked Bogart's performance even though the film was not at all like the novel he wrote.

[@charlesmendias1062]

I 💕 Woody Allen's work but he is dead wrong. The Long Goodbye is brutal and shocking and there is a comeuppance in the end. It's one of those L.A. movies where there is darkness beneath the sunny skies.

[@j0rundur]

Woody Allen revealing his limitations as an artist

[@faustoferrari4303]

Bollox

[@TTM9691]

No, Woody Allen correctly assessing a weak movie by a great director. it looks like YOU'RE revealing your limitations as a person who can process this interview clip!

[@j0rundur]

The Long Goodbye is one of the greatest film ever made - I´m not interested in views that fail to grasp its greatness - just go and watch it again

[@yournamehere6002]

@@j0rundur I love Woody but he didn't even like Some Like It Hot, so I take his opinions with a grain of salt

[@fmellish71]

@@TTM9691 On a crusade, I see

[@BLUEDELUCA]

I love many of Altman’s films but i get what Allen is saying. Not about The Long Goodbye but about Altman, he is just below great in my opinion.

[@cody8804]

I agree with him. And I felt the same way about Images, 3 women, Nashville, McCabe and Mrs miller. I feel like there’s something I’m not getting and unlike coen brothers or pt anderson where I feel like there’s something I’m not quite grasping but I keep wanting to return to the movies to try to understand, with Altman I just don’t care. Don’t get it. Not for me.

[@faustoferrari4303]

Maybe, those films you mention have dated, I saw all of them on first release (except for Images) and part of their interest lied in their unique form (multiple storylines, overlapping dialogue, undermining genre expectations, minimal use of close-ups) that seemed very innovative at the time. Perhaps a younger generation of filmgoers wouldn't be as impressed due to these techniques having become widespread. Anyway, I'm a bit surprised at how many comments are saying Woody didn't like the film. What I heard was that he liked it, but had reservations. This is a reaction that most people have to films that they like.

[@cody8804]

Could be. I’ve gotten in arguments about beloved older movies that i beleive most people only pretend to love bc they heard someone else say it’s great. There’s a difference between a movie being the first to do something vs it completely holding up spectacularly as a whole in today’s times. I can respect that caves were the first places humans dwelled but I don’t think they hold up to living in a house no need to pretend otherwise just respect its place in history

[@ianbauer4703]

Who's the woman that keeps overlapping Woody's conversation? Just like an Altman film.

[@yournamehere6002]

Pauline Kael

[@ronbock8291]

And yet… it’s a movie that influenced so many others.

[@davidb9531]

The long goodbye is not really a comedy is it woody, neo noir masterpiece though

[@SerpentinePictures]

Damn he just can't let her get a word out huh

[@yournamehere6002]

Well, she's interviewing him

[@basehead617]

they're editing out her parts of the audio

[@TTM9691]

Agree 100% with Woody on this one. Of all the 70s movies that Altman did, I'd take "3 Women", "California Split", "Images" or even "Buffalo Bill" over "Long Goodbye" any day of the week. (I'd take them over "Nashville" also!). In general I find Eliot Gould one of the most overrated and annoying actors of that whole era.

[@c.a.t.732]

That the lead character pretty much always has a cigarette in his mouth was too stupid for me. Maybe it was an in joke, or meant to be ironic, but it put me off the entire film.

[@monotech20.14]

I can't picture Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe. It ruins the movie.

[@felixbla7656]

So did he find this movie to be funny or not? He's so vague ..

[@Mr.GuGuGaCucaSnooch]

Woody Allen is a hater lol

[@anthonyscully2998]

Altmann was probably trying to make a quirky film rather than a funny film

[@HEADLINEZOO]

I love Altman’s films but I didn’t love this one or find it funny. No, Woody wasn’t jealous. At least not about this film.

[@waynedurning8717]

Oh I just………..yeah but……….if you…..

[@haroldbeck4351]

I could only listen to 10-20 seconds of this. All the talking-over was really annoying. Speaking of annoying, Pauline Kael's penchant for putting something she wants to say in the mouth of an imaginary nearby audience member was always super annoying. Woody hated to hear it, but it was true: he should have stuck to making comedies.

[@coolhand6656]

This film definatley had humour in it but it was sublte and dry. It's not exatcly a Michael Mann movie or standard film noir. "Oh, we're all out of that. Why don't you get this. All this shit is the same anyways. Philip Marlowe : You don't happen to have a cat by any chance? Supermarket clerk : What do I need a cat for, I've got a girl. Philip Marlowe : Ha, ha. He's got a girl, I got a cat. ---------------------------------------------------- Philip Marlowe : Listen Harry, in case you lose me in traffic, this is the address where I'm going. You look great. Harry : Thank you. Philip Marlowe : I'd straighten your tie a little bit. Harry, I'm proud to have you following me. __________________________________________________________________________ Marty Augustine : I didn't have any pubic hair until I was 15 years old. Philip Marlowe : Oh yeah, you must have looked like one of the Three Little Pigs. _____________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Verringer : I apologize for this intrusion, Mrs. Wade, but your husband dislikes paying his bills. I'm sorry; in future I must refuse to accept him as a patient. Philip Marlowe : Well we don't accept you as a doctor, quack. __________________________________________________________________ Detective : Listen - what are you here for, Marlowe? Philip Marlowe : [smearing fingerprint ink under his eyes] Well I'm here 'cause I'm gettin' ready for the big game Saturday. You know, we're playing Notre Dame and I hope I catch a touchdown pass. ____________________________________________________________________ Det. Dayton : Are you gainfully employed, Marlowe? Philip Marlowe : I don't know. ___________________________________________ Harry : You know those girls who live next door to you? You know what I think? I think they're a couple of lesbians. That's what I think. Philip Marlowe : What makes you say that? Harry : Well look at them up there, doing all those contortions together and with no clothes on. Philip Marlowe : Oh, they're just doing yoga. Harry : What? Philip Marlowe : I don't know what it is, but, it's yoga. ________________________________________________________ Philip Marlowe : Fifty grand. You must run into a lot of luck, Mr. Wade. Most guys lose their undies when they play for those kind of stakes. _______________________________________________

[@JeffersonMills]

Jesus, talk one at a time.

[@markmartinez2168]

Was that Woody Allen? I thought it was Jared from Subway

[@davidleedutton]

It's not a matter of Woody Allen versus Pauline Kael here. Between a person who makes movies and a person who just watches movies, whose opinion is more valid? I go with the former.

[@JSavo_]

It’s not a great movie. Woody makes good and bad points here. It does try to be too many things and fails at all of them. There are moments it makes me laugh but I never really cared for Marlowe in the movie at all. He isn’t interesting or anything to me. I get what they tried to do but I find it so boring.

[@LouiseJames-im7qo]

It’s better than any thing that hack made

[@faustoferrari4303]

Why are film fans ludicrously partisan?

[@LouiseJames-im7qo]

I get it Woody’s critique was ludicrous

[@nunyabizness6595]

Who keeps talking over him? What the actual hell???

[@likearollingstone007]

The long goodbye is a cool movie, not a great movie.

[@xtraspecialmango]

Dirty, Dirty Woody

[@alexpollock6932]

Is it supposed to be a comedy? It’s a detective movie with funny moments

[@RegisWilkins]

It's a pile of shat. Bottom line. Although I love the theme song.

[@adp023]

Woody's constantly talking over the woman here. They're not even debating and he won't let her complete a sentence. Dick move.

[@basehead617]

they're editing out her parts of the audio