The Long Goodbye (1973)

Elliot Gould is such a different take on Phillip Marlowe from the iconic Humphrey Bogart portrail, but I thought it worked. Off beat adaptation of the 1953 Raymond Chandler novel updates things to a burnt out 1973. Lots of seemingly counter intuitive decisions by director Robert Altman as to casting (this is now my second favorite Sterling Hayden performance, and I usually don't care for him), pacing, and various digressions (a subplot concerning Marlowe's cat takes up an astonishing amount of screen time). I found the picture just fascinating and very odd. Not entirely sure what Altman was going for beyound proving the flexabilty of filmic adaptions, but that is more then enough. ***1/2