Altman. It’s an incredible filmography. Altman has 16 archiveable films, 6 top 500 films, and 9 top 100 films of their respective decade. His 1970’s decade was incredible—a whopping 9 films in the archives and 6 in the top 100 of the 1970’s (a considerable decade in film). He might not be Scorsese behind the camera but he’s a stylish director in his own right. I think the problem is my drop-off after Nashville is pretty substantial. Atlman only has one film in my top 200 and at this level (and higher) that’s pretty rare.
Best film: Nashville is just a giant masterpiece (#61 of all-time and completely emblematic of Altman’s visual and narrative stylishness). Simply put, it’s one of the best films of the 1970’s. Affecting, hilarious, well-acted, and of course, Altman at the height of his aesthetic and storytelling powers as a director.
total archiveable films: 16
top 100 films: 1
– dp Vilmos Zsigmond
top 500 films: 6 (Nashville, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, MASH, Gosford Park, The Long Goodbye, The Player)
top 100 films of the decade: 9 (Nashville, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split, 3 Women, The Player ,Short Cuts, Gosford Park)
most overrated: Short Cuts chimes in at #485 on the TSPDT consensus list and I couldn’t quite find a spot for it in my top 500 but I appreciate the greatness of the film.
most underrated: MASH is #247 for me and #891 all-time on the TSPDT list. No way in hell there are 890 better movies. MASH has some of Gould and Sutherland’s best work right off the bat in the 70’s Altman is firing with overlapping dialogue, zooming all over the place, and a big middle-finger at the establishment. I’m guessing the slapstick football ending is what isn’t aging well for some viewers… I mean it’s very good slapstick- if people don’t like slapstick that is a taste preference. It’s certainly in step with the film’s form, that genre’s great history (winking at everyone from Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman to the Marx brothers’ Horse Feathers) and the greater point and criticism Altman is trying to get across (the absurdity of all of this).
gem I want to spotlight: The Player. Robert Altman’s The Player was a major comeback for the artist who was right there on the Mount Rushmore of the American new wave of cinema in the 1970’s with Coppola and Scorsese. I’ve seen the film at least a half dozen times. It’s a solid top 10 film of 1992 even if it falls short of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, Eastwood’s Unforgiven and maybe even Reservoir Dogs, The Last of the Mohicans and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. What struck me most about this most recent viewing of The Player is the opening long take which is, deservingly, quite famous. It’s a wonderful long take that pays tribute to other famous long takes with the characters dialogue (mainly Fred Ward) during the scene. It’s both breathtaking and damn funny. What stuck out to me while watching it this time was how Altmanesque this long-take is. There’s overlapping dialogue (another Altman trait), satire (of course), and tons of camera zooms. It’s not fluid like Ophuls and it doesn’t frame faces at fantastic angles like Iñárritu (which you could argue he got from Kalatozov). It really shows that not all “oners” or long-takes are the same. Compare this one with Welles’ Touch of Evil (which Altman mentions in the text as an overt homage), Cuaron in Children of Men. or Bela Tarr, Joe Wright, De Palma, Godard (Weekend), Antonioni’s Passenger, Scorsese, Hitch or Kubrick…..They are all subtly different and I take great satisfaction in seeing that Altman can pay tribute to Welles but still make this shot his own. His long take isn’t beautiful like many of the others—it’s pure Altman—which really is better.
stylistic innovations/traits: Redoing genres (war film, western, gangster film (Thieves Like Us), noir/detective,) is a good start. Many of Altman’s films were sprawling ensemble narratives (Nashville, Gosford Park, Short Cuts). Visually he had those beautiful zoom shots that allowed him to pick and choose which characters from his ensembles to eavesdrop in on. Married to the zooms is the overlapping dialogue (or “cross talk”)– the multitrack sound has got to hurt his reputation abroad with non-English language critics. I’ve written about this before but on a list like TSPDT that is incorporating more and more lists from other continents typically overlooked (which I have mixed feelings about) I feel like Altman suffers (he’s rated 44th on TSPDT director list). I mean look at his films- they are so quintessentially American (obviously Gosford Park and Vincent and Theo are the exception). Many depict the nuance of a city (Nashville, Kansas City, Short Cuts) or the celebration (or satirizing of Americana itself (Prairie Home, Buffalo Bill). I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how much I appreciate Altman’s dedication to “middle-finger cinema” like Bunuel (takes the “last supper” shot from Viridiana for MASH) or Pasolini. Nashville, The Player, Buffalo Bill, McCabe, MASH (sometimes shockingly so), Thieves Like Us…all a big middle finger to the establishment, Hollywood, America, the church, politicians, etc. For the record, I don’t care what his (or Bunuel’s or anyone else’s stance is—I just like that he’s committed to it as an artist.
top 10
- Nashville
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller
- MASH
- Gosford Park
- The Long Goodbye
- The Player
- Short Cuts
- California Split
- 3 Women
- Buffalo Bill and the Indians
By year and grades
| 1970- Brewster McCloud | R |
| 1970- M.A.S.H. | MP |
| 1971- McCabe & Mrs. Miller | MP |
| 1973- The Long Goodbye | MS |
| 1974- California Split | HR |
| 1974- Thieves Like US | R |
| 1975- Nashville | MP |
| 1976- Buffalo Bill and the Indians | R |
| 1977- Three Women | HR |
| 1982- Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean | R |
| 1990- Vincent and Theo | R |
| 1992- The Player | HR/MS |
| 1993- Short Cuts | HR |
| 1999- Cookie’s Fortune | R |
| 2001- Gosford Park | MS |
| 2006- A Prairie Home Companion | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
My Ranking of his films that I’ve seen
1.Short Cuts (A Masterpiece imo and a top five film of the 90s and one of the best films ever Lemmon steals the show)
2.MASH
3.Cookies Fortune
4.Gosford Park
5. The Gingerbread Man
6.Quintet
7.Dr. T and the Woman
I might be forgetting something but this is my ranking so far. My favorite Director after PTA
I think what I love the most about Altman is how enjoyable, accessible (3 women could be a minor exception – a film which I love btw) and dedicated to some kind of satire he is, all at the same time. The shot of Tomlin in Nashville is just so iconic it gives you chills when thinking of it in context (plus, it is telling of his trademark style).
Most accessible Altman film to start an Altman study?
@Georg- thanks for sharing. Agreed all the way around (and on 3 Women)- I recently caught Images and it would be in the same camp– probably not for everyone but a great film. http://thecinemaarchives.com/2020/04/16/images-1972-altman/
@oz- Most accessible? Hmm. MASH or The Player would be my choice
Thanks for the recommendations. I will get into Altman now.
@Drake – wow great recommendation! Your notes on the film really got me hyped up about it – I loved the eerie atmosphere all over 3 women and Images seems to use it as well. I think it is very impressive how Altman was able to pull off tension and dread so well, all the while being so talented in comedy etc. Though I am really fond of the little glimpses of his dark edge in other films as well, Nashville notably.
As for how to begin a study, I am not sure about MASH. I haven’t caught the Player yet (hoping I soon will), but I found the slapstick in MASH a little hard to digest. Of course I admire the critique that is present in the movie and I can realize its importance, but I don’t think I ever really really liked it. I just understood why it was a seminal and objectively masterful film. To be honest, from what I’ve seen, I’d say Gosford Park is one of his more accessible movies, with everything in it, ensemble and criticism and zooms of course. It is not set in America though, which is pretty much a very prominent element of his 70’s run as I perceive it.
So, after a second watch, I’m here to talk about McCabe and Mrs Miller. It is a masterpiece. I think I will agree that besides Nashville, it is his best movie. My thoughts:
1) McCabe is one of the more interesting characters in film history. Warren Beatty is great, simply great and manages to get the audience on his side right from the start. He is a rare protagonist. Essentially, he is a cowardly man, a “phony” (even if I dislike that term with a passion) with a generous heart and a sense of honour that if taken into account with his other traits, creates a very layered character. We get the idea that the reason for his pretence and the tough persona he has adopted is the need for survival. I drew parallels between McCabe and the unfortunate cowboy that got shot on the bridge for asking for socks. That man could be McCabe, had he not created a mask for himself (and here comes the critique but I’ll get into that later on). He is a good ordinary man, caught in an extraordinary situation, out of his depth.
2) Mrs. Miller is even more complicated. Julie Christie is mesmerising and makes for the perfect canvas for this mysterious character. Poetic indeed. She is a woman who cannot stay. Even if we never get to know that much (the film doesn’t delve into sexual subjects), we could draw parallels between Mrs. Miller and the character of Sabina in the Unbearable Lightness of Being. She flees and is the “travelling woman” that we hear about in Cohen’s soundtrack. She loves McCabe and she tries to protect him. But as soon as she realises he is in danger, she leaves. Her self preserving intelligence shows in her leaving yet again (as we can assume she has always done) – she fears his death, and thereby prevents herself from getting hurt. Is she strong or isn’t she? What does it really mean to be strong? To survive in the animalistic Western world we see here (or, in her case, to protect herself from pain), or to stay and possibly lose? In that vein, which one of the two leads is stronger, and essentially, who is more honest? The final zoom of her captures it all (along with Altman’s touch).
3) it is possibly my favourite western of all time. Not objectively the best, but surely the most unique (Meek’s Cutoff is in the same group as well). It criticises sharply the way things work in western world – the survival of the strongest, the unlawfulness of it all. However, the movie achieves something very rare; it shows the human side of all the things. The critique is there, but we do get to really feel the characters and feel FOR the characters. Never have I been more eager for someone to succeed than for McCabe to escape his enemies.
4) the movie is gorgeous. Harsh winter blueish and cold colours, with bold reds and yellows for contrast. Zooms of course. Nobody can do zooms as well as Altman.
@Georg – wonderful review. Thanks for sharing. You hit it all- a very nice addition to the page here.
From what ive seen i really hate his movies: Mash, Nashville, The Long Goodbye. I saw The Player, Gosford Park, and Short Cuts in the past and never liked them. Oddly enough I watched 3 Women a few days ago and thought it wasn’t bad, 2nd best of 1977 that I’ve seen, was quite good, not nearly as good as Suspiria though. I saw his ratings on imdb and 3 Women is actually his highest ranked so maybe my opinion isnt that weird. Although on this site and Flickchart 3 women is on the lower tier of his rankings..
Just had the opportunity to revisit Short Cuts (1993) and made me wonder:
Is Altman the King of the Ensemble? Is there any other director who can so naturally handle films with casts that have legit like 20+ actors/actresses? I mean there are 22 names on the Criterion cover. Obviously PT Anderson is capable of handling large casts and is a known Altman acolyte but even so I am not sure if even he is superior in this regard (I do think PT Anderson is a better overall auteur to be clear).
@James Trapp- Linklater with Slacker, Dazed and Confused and more? Wes Anderson seems to be sprawling out more and more. Certainly you have to talk about Renior and The Rules of the Game. I’m sure I’m missing a few. But I would have to agree with you that Altman is the king
@Drake – and the ensembles flow so naturally. I do think Magnolia (1999) is superior to Short Cuts overall but I actually think Short Cuts is more seamless from a narrative standpoint even if it is not as impressive on a visual level and does not have a performance that can match Cruise’s in Magnolia (although it has some fine performances none the less)
Have you seen Pret-a-Porter, and if so, how bad is it?
@Zane- It is pretty good actually. I bet a second viewing gets it into the archives.
[…] 34. Robert Altman […]