Not sure how many people here are familiar with the Cowboy Bebop anime, but Gould's portrayal of Marlowe in this movie is strikingly similar to Spike Spiegel, the main character in Cowboy Bebop. Lazy, laid back, chain-smoking, broke, unlucky loner that's somehow effortlessly cool. I haven't heard anybody bring up the comparison anywhere else, so I thought I'd mention it.
shareI just posted a thread about this. I agree. While watching this movie thats all I was thinking.
shareSpike Spiegel is obviously (partly) modeled after Marlowe. Too mutch resemblance to be coincidental.
shareah, good call! i didnt notice that one!
shareWow. Absolutely. I didn't even clue into this but yeah that's a perfect omparison. Even the way Spike dresses is quite similar. I would say Gould's Marlowe (not Marlowe himself) is a definate inspiration
shareTotally. Can't say I thought of that but I agree 100%. Thanks for pointing it out.
And with a really top lawyer, I might sue for damages.- Bob
IMO it's not a direct influence,
because Shinichirô Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop
explicitly said Spike was modeled on Shunsaku Kudou,
a private eye in Japanese TV show "Tantei Monogatari" (Detective Story),
played by Yuusaku Matsuda (Black Rain).
Here's its opening & end titles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYPGhUdHzTI
(I hate the songs, BTW.)
This show has been very popular in Japan, and one of the best known works of Matsuda.
However, Tantei Monogatari itself might be influenced by The Long Goodbye.
First of all, the show was made in 1979, several yaers after the movie's release in Japan.
Secondly, one of the key creators of the show was Nobumitsu Kodaka,
a famous writer and translator of hardboiled detective novels.
His translation works include Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, to name a few.
(He didn't translated Chandler's The Long Goodbye, though.)
I'd be surprised if he hadn't seen Altman's The Long Goodbye.
But IMO Gould's Marlowe, Matsuda's Kudou, and Spike,
are very different from each other, despite some similarities.
(I like them all.)
[deleted]