Detective Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.
At first I was a bit turned off by the theme song, especially the thought that I was going to hear it a dozen times. But only the opening had a version I disliked and it grew on me from there.
Oddly, the film at first received negative critical feedback. Jay Cocks wrote, "Altman's lazy, haphazard putdown is without affection or understanding, a nose-thumb not only at the idea of Philip Marlowe but at the genre that his tough-guy-soft-heart character epitomized. It is a curious spectacle to see Altman mocking a level of achievement to which, at his best, he could only aspire".
This turned around when Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert came to its defense... and I am not really sure where Cocks was coming from. Sure, I am looking at the film forty years later (2013), but to me it comes across as something of a masterpiece. Some think Altman's best work is "Nashville", but I will take this one any day.
At first I was a bit turned off by the theme song, especially the thought that I was going to hear it a dozen times. But only the opening had a version I disliked and it grew on me from there.
Oddly, the film at first received negative critical feedback. Jay Cocks wrote, "Altman's lazy, haphazard putdown is without affection or understanding, a nose-thumb not only at the idea of Philip Marlowe but at the genre that his tough-guy-soft-heart character epitomized. It is a curious spectacle to see Altman mocking a level of achievement to which, at his best, he could only aspire".
This turned around when Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert came to its defense... and I am not really sure where Cocks was coming from. Sure, I am looking at the film forty years later (2013), but to me it comes across as something of a masterpiece. Some think Altman's best work is "Nashville", but I will take this one any day.