11 thoughts on “Robert Altman Thread”

1. Countdown (1967)
   Starring: James Caan, Robert Duvall, Joanna Moore, Barbara Baxley, Steve Ihnat, Charles Aidman, etc.
   55/100

   This movie feels like precursor to films like The Right Stuff and Apollo 11 even though it’s a work of fiction. In the movie, the Soviets are closer to landing a man on the moon than expected, so NASA hurries to beat them to it, although they are not really prepared. Charles “Chiz” Steward (Duvall) is the most qualified for what will be a one-man mission, but since he’s an Air Force officer, his piloting the flight would create the impression that the Space Race is a military endeavor for the U.S. Lee Stegler (Caan) is the next qualified and NASA chooses him.

   **
   I enjoyed the tense arguments that occurred in the film between Ross Duellan, the top NASA administrator and the various people under him. For example, Gus (Aidman) is the chief medical official, and he doesn’t think the mission is safe. Chiz, unsurprisingly, argues with Ross because he believes he should be piloting the mission. These arguments were intense and felt real. They also featured a little of the overlapping dialogue that Altman is known for. Interestingly, the studios eventually fired Altman because of this.

   ***
   The drama of the film was fairly effective and the film would have been decent if not for the totally ridiculous ending. (Stegler using a a toy mouse as a guide of “compass” to find the space station.) However, Altman’s ending, while far less silly, is also bleak in a way that is problematic. In his ending, Stegler walks to the left of the screen, while the camera slowly pulls back revealing the space station is to the right. That is, he never finds the station and dies alone on the moon.

   While this was made in 1967, Altman’s ending feels more like cynical, bleak films of the 70s, where the much bigger entities and forces–e.g., “the Man”–ultimately overcome the individual.

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2. That Cold Day in the Park (1969)
   Starring: Sandy Dennis (Frances Austen), Michael Burns (the Boy), etc.
   DP: László Kovács
   57/100

   I knew nothing about this film, and that’s the best way to watch it. If you need more, here’s a short description of the general premise: Frances, a well-to-do, 30-ish single woman, sees a young man sitting on a park bench across from her apartment. When it begins to rain, she runs over and invites him out of the rain. Eventually Frances offers to let the young man (who turns out to be mute) stay in her apartment if he has no place to stay.

   **
   If the movie were made today, Julianne Moore would have been the lead role. Dennis doesn’t really look like Moore, but she has the similar quality as Moore.

   ***
   Had I known what this was about, the film would have been less engaging, especially in the first half of the film. By now, I feel like premise is fairly well-worn or at least this film didn’t really offer any fresh take. To be fair, at the film’s release, other films like this may have been less common.

   The characters and performances could have elevated the film, but they did not, although the performances were not bad at all.

   Images (1973)
   Starring: Susannah York (Cathryn), Rene Auberjonois (Rene), Marcel Bozuffi (Marcel), Hugh Millais (Marcel), Cathryn Harrison (Susannah)
   DP: Vilmos Zsigmond
   Score: John Williams/sounds Stomu Yamashita
   67/100

   Again, it’s probably better to know as little as possible going into the film.

   Rene agrees to take his wife, Cathryn, back to her childhood home in the English countryside. There she is filled with doubts about Rene’s fidelity, while also thinking back to a previous fling she had.

   I hesitate to describe the genre of the film, as I think it gives away too much, but I’ll reveal this in the next section.

   **
   The film is essentially psychological character study that falls within a horror-lite category.

   ***
   The way the film depicts Cathryn’s schizophrenia is what I liked most about the film–e.g., the phone calls from the different voices in her head and the way the film shows some of the people who are speaking to her.

   I liked Yamashita’s sound effects, although at this point, maybe they’re too obvious (e.g., eerie wind chimes).

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3. Brewster McCloud (1972)
   Starring: Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, etc.

   Preliminary thoughts

   • Odd movie, and I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s in the ballpark of a Wes Anderson movie sans the dollhouse aesthetic.
   • The film is mostly a comedy. I feel like there may be a more serious point, but the film, overall, feels too sardonic for that.

   M*A*S*H (1970)
   Starring: Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, Eliot Gould, Roger Bowman, Rene Auberjonois, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, etc.
   66/100

   Preliminary notes/reaction

   • I didn’t remember liking this a lot on my first viewing, so my expectations were low on this recent viewing. To my surprise, the film started well for me. I liked interactions between Sutherland and Skerritt, and Bowen’s glasses and way of speaking made him an amusing character, particularly the schtick with Radar expressing Blake’s thoughts before Blake expresses. I would say I like Bown between than McClain Stevenson.
   • The film started going downhill when Duvall’s Frank Burns exits, and Eliot Gould’s Trapper John enters, replacing Duke as Hawkeye’s buddy. The The dynamics really shift and the movie goes downhill from there in my view. By the time, Hawkeye and Trapper go to Japan and the subsequent football game, which wasn’t very interesting or funny,
   • The movie feels like Animal House, a National Lampoon goes to the army. It’s as if Otter, Boon, and D-Day actually became good surgeons and got shipped off to the Korean War. For me, this is not a good thing as that type of humor doesn’t really appeal to me.
   • I’m going to sound even more like a prude, but there was a level of sexism and cruelty that bothered me a little. I’m thinking specifically of the shower scene with Major Houlihan. The scene might have worked if the film did more to establish that she deserved that treatment. Maybe. But it didn’t in my view.
   • “Suicide is Painless,” sung with acoustic guitar accompaniment, sounded good. I don’t know about the lyrics, but I like the tune.

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   1. The shower scene is terrible. I think M*A*S*H the film is a black comedy, ‘though it’s not very black for a black comedy, and if seen this way, the scene can be forgivable as commentary on sexual harassment in the military, or something. I dislike it, so I’m disinclined to overthinking it. The heroes (or antiheros) pull the prank, and held up against their other actions, the shower prank as black comedy doesn’t work. Or maybe it does. I’m just not interested enough to go there.

      Radar saying Blake’s thoughts before Blake says them is partially how he got his nickname, and it’s a recurring bit in the TV series.

      The lyrics were written by Altman’s 14-year-old son, so there’s that. I like the lyrics but the instrumental version of the song is a lot better.

      I saw this last year after 20 years since the first time and I liked it a lot better. It was much easier to separate the film from the series this time.

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   2. The notion that the film is a black comedy never occurred to me. (If the “black” part of the comedy is understated or mild, is it really a black comedy?) And the protagonists target Houlihan and Burns because of their self-righteousness–in addition to Burns’s ineptitude and cruelty. In other words, this justifies the pranks and meanness behind them. (But in shower scene, it really didn’t for me.) As far as I can tell that’s not black comedy.

      I like the lyrics but the instrumental version of the song is a lot better.

      I don’t think I like the actual lyrics, but the vocals behind it, with the acoustic guitar accompaniment. I think I prefer that over the TV version.

      I wondered if your love for the TV show would interfere with your enjoyment of the film.

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4. The Long Goodbye (1973)
   Starring: Eilot Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Henry Gibson, Jim Bouton, etc.
   73/100

   Preliminary thoughts

   • John Williams composed the music and Johnny Mandel wrote the lyrics for “The Long Goodbye,” the titular song. I’m assuming the composed the song specifically for the movie, as Williams is a film composer. Anyway, the song plays throughout the film in different iterations and means–e.g., at a piano bar, on the radio, by young musicians, in a Mexican/Latin style when the main character goes to Tijuana, etc.
   • The filmmakers’ version of Philip Marlowe is certainly novel, primarily because they cast Eliot Gould for the role. Gould is not the typical leading man, although a strangely effective one, and he just doesn’t fit the hard-boiled detective persona. I appreciate the bold, fresh approach, but I’m ambivalent if he fully works. On one hand, I find Gould compelling and likable, and he could work as a detective. On the other hand, he has a world-weary detachment that makes believing he real deep convictions–for example, genuine loyalty to his good friends.
   • Some interesting updates on film-noir: Gould’s mumbling and grumbling to himself about feeding his cat replaces the typical, hard-boiled first person voice-over narration. Instead of New York City-like urban jungle, with characters moving in the shadows, the film takes place in 70’s California, with female cult-members as Marlow’s neighbors and excursions to a beach house; Gould’s Marlow conspicously dresses in a suit, although sans a fedora, and drives a 1930’s or 40’s car.
   • I still don’t know how the story of the Wades connects to the main mystery in the film. Why does the film spend so much time on H

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5. What the heck. I had no idea Jim Bouton was in movies. How was he as an actor?

   Johnny Mandel also wrote the M*A*S*H theme, so two film composers.

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   1. To me, he did well. Had I not known who he was, I would have believed he was a professional actor. (In some ways, he was good for the part and not good. But I can’t really explain this without giving away too much.)

      Yeah, I recalled that Mandel also wrote the M*A*S*H theme. It’s a nice tune, although I don’t know if I feel that way because I heard it so many times.

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6. Nashville (1975)
   Starring: Michael Murphy, Ned Beatty, and many more!
   95/100

   

   Preliminary thoughts

   • Really analyzing this film is such a daunting task, as there is so many different characters–and they’re more like puzzle pieces–that need to be put together. I also feel like they represent certain types more than inhabit the film as individuals. At the same time, the performances, direction and editing making the characters more than ciphers–they are alive, real, and interesting.
   • If I had to recommend a film to a foreigner to help them understand America, this would definitely be on the list, and maybe close to the top. I felt that way as I re-watched the film, and felt that way afterward.
   • Why did I give it such a high score, and maybe it deserves a 100? The film feels unique–I struggle to find other films like it, especially when it was made. And the subsequent films that try to do something similar feel like Altman influenced movies while not being an Altman film, if that makes sense. They’re also not as good in my view. The film is also extremely ambitious and largely succeeds.
   • On this viewing, I wondered who or what Barbara Jean represented. She stands out as a central symbolic figure, and the the white dresses enhance this impression. Right now, I would say she represents American ideals, which in the end is senselessly destroyed. And that seems like precisely what happens in the 1970s.
   • What does Nashville represent? Nashville serves the role that Hollywood occupies in other films–the place where people–specifically woman–go to find their dreams of being a star (singer in this case). Why does Altman choose Nashville, though? Did he want a way to freshen up this story line? This is something I need to think about more.

   Did you guys see this movie?

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7. Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1975)
   Starring: Paul Newman (William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, “the Star”), Joel Grey (Nate Salsbury, “the Producer”), Kevin McCarthy (Maj. John Burke, “the Press Agent”), Harvey Keitel (Ed Goodman, “the Relative”), Geraldine Chaplin (Annie Oakley, “the Sure Shot”), John Considine (Frank Butler, the Sure Shot’s Manager), Frank Kaquitts (Sitting Bull, “the Indian”), William Sampson (William Halsey, “the Interpreter”), Robert DoQui (Oswald Dart, “the Wrangler”), etc.

   Preliminary thoughts

   • This is an example of the concept behind the film being better than the film itself. In this case, the concept involves satirizing Wild West heroes and legends, exposing them as fabrications, by using traveling Wild West show as the context for this. I think the context suggests Hollywood, specifically Westerns, as target as well.
   • In a way the film feels closely connected to both Nashville, the film that preceded this one, and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Hopefully, I can examine any parallels between McCabe and Bill Cody characters.
   • While this is an ensemble movie, the film doesn’t feature several narratives, taking episodes from each and braiding them all into a cinematic mosaic, like Nashville. Instead, it’s more other films that feature large ensembles.

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8. Popeye (1980)
   Starring: Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, etc.
   27/100

   In the late 70s and early 80s, I feel like a desire to revitalize and remake musicals was in the air. Films like Xanadu, One From the Heart, and Streets of Fire really tried to update the genre for the time it was made and/or just do something different (e.g., Streets of Fire was also an action film.) (The Wiz and Pennies From Heaven are some other examples, but I have not seen those.)

   Add Altman’s Popeye to the list. In this film, Altman seems to want to turn the bring to life the Popeye cartoon–literally the case for the characters. I believe Shelley Duvall succeeded the most with regard to this, and this was probably the biggest success of the movie for me. For many of the other characters, the translating to live action didn’t work for some reason. I feel like Altman would have been better off not trying to do a literal recreation of the characters in a live action setting.

   In terms of the music, Harry Nilsson composed the music, and Van Dyke Park arranged it, and it doesn’t sound anything like Broadway musicals, which I see as a positive. However, Honestly, the music, like most of the movie, was largely dull and lifeless.

   I should say that while the special effects weren’t all that good, I’m not sure if better special effects would have helped. I also don’t think this film would (or did) appeal to a lot of children.

   Addendum:

   The actor cast as Bluto wasn’t very effective in my view, and that did hurt the film.
   The overall story wasn’t all that interesting as well.

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