When Altman was on, he made some really great films..
My top picks:
Images
3 Women
Secret Honor
The Player
Short Cuts
Gosford Park
and a number of his lesser films are still interesting.. even Quintet!
I’ve never quite warmed to Nashville either however..
Opinion has always been about equally divided on Altman: hate the guy, love the guy, with not much room in between. I wish to occupy that middle ground, but leaning a little toward love. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is one I love, for its weather, for Vilmos Zsigmond’s pictures, for Warren Beatty’s depiction of a stereotypical male fool, for Julie Christie’s depiction of that housemother with a big habit. Even the frog-throated Leonard Cohen somehow helps to make this send-up of the old west a good time.
M*A*S*H perhaps lost its juice with the fall of Saigon, but when it opened in 1970 it was akin to an act of treason up there on the screen, an actual anti-war movie made while the war was still underway. (We knew that wasn’t really Korea.) It seemed deliciously funny then. But long after the war, and after years of that soapy television series that abused its name, so many of its jokes now seem juvenile. 3 Women is strange and wonderful, for two of its women, Shelly Duvall and Sissy Spacek. Elliott Gould is kind of like Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973), not exactly a send-up of Chandler, but a wild comic homage. Thieves Like Us is the unromantic side of
depression-era bank robbing and, while a bit depressing, has some nice parts. Vincent and Theo (1990) in another take on the life of Van Gogh, but I can’t decide if it is better than Lust for Life. (But better than both of these is Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh from 1991.)
Of his crowd movies, Nashville is still regarded as his best work, and it probably is. I was ambivalent about it in the 70s and haven’t gone back to look again. I guess I should. I didn’t like most of Short Cuts, nor much of Kansas City, or The Player. But Gosford Park was an entertainment.
Fool for Love was a blunder. But a couple months ago we saw his one-man, one-act movie-play, Secret Honor: Philip Baker Hall is Richard Nixon after leaving office, but before the pardon, alone in a room with a bottle of whiskey, a pistol, and a collection of recording equipment. Hall’s Nixon is startling. That Altman was actually able to make a moving picture out of this confinement, amazing.
i was and am still a huge fan of Altman’s M*A*S*H*, and although i wasn’t around for the Vietnam era, i think about of the madcap, rebelliousness of the film’s doctors still has some standing power. this occupation we’re in now might not be paired with the film as well as Vietnam was, but i think this generation can take something out of it. the power of the film as far as a new type of American cinema has obviously fallen flat with younger audiences, but taking the film in context to when it was made, its easy to see why and how the film made such a splash. honestly, because so few film makers try to copy Altman (although many are influenced, obviously) to me the style still seems pretty “fresh”, as in un-spoiled by repetition.
i wasn’t sure about McCabe & Mrs. Miller at first, but now after watching a few more westerns, i kind of really love it alot more. i still prefer M*A*S*H* over it, but love it none the less.
3 Women is probably my favorite Altman film as of now. it really pulled me in and kept my interest, even after it got all surreal and halucinatory (sp?). i thought Sissy Spacek, who i think is a great actress, was just fucking awesome in that role.
I thought the Long Goodbye was pretty much stellar throughout, but the ending was so unlike the novel I was left a little disapointed. had i not read the book so long ago, it probably wouldn’t have bothered me one bit.
as far as his 90s work goes, i’ve only seen Short Cuts, the Player and Gosford Park. i thought the first two were excellent, and although I enjoyed Gosford Park it wasn’t a standout for me. it also wasn’t all that funny, for a comedy…
i wasn’t too impressed with Prarie Home Companion, though. yeah it was good enough, but the whole side-story with the evil Tommy Lee Jones and the ghostly Virginia Madsen just didn’t sit well with me. i did like Lindsey Lohan in it, and i wish she would focus more on her acting instead of being popular. if she tries hard enough, she’s actually quite a good performer.
Altman is one of my favorites although I admit he’s done a number of clinkers(O.C. & Stiggs anyone). I loved Mash when it was released although it hasn’t aged as well as others of his. My favorites are:
McCabe & Mrs Miller
The Player
Short Cuts
Nashville
Thieves Like Us
3 Women
California Split
The Long Goodbye
Always though Buffalo Bill & the Indians was underrated and Gosford Park overrated. And I’m probably the only person who will post on here and admit to liking Popeye(caught the flavor of the original strips very well).
Steve: Popeye was cute, so I’ll just add it too, but it’s not a film for ‘cinephiles’, I guess. Shelley Duvall showed a comic turn in this I had never seen before in her other performances. She was an Altman staple for a while. Wanted to add The Player to my list above as it had some good momemts and some good ‘in’ jokes re the movie business.
Any comments on Pret-a-Porter (Ready to Wear)? I think I am the only person I know who liked it. I thought it had some of that 70’s Altman charm and humour. The end was – well, kind of an hilarious send-up, I thought.
i loved gosford park as i thought it allowed for an excellent space within which altman could continue his discourse on group dynamics.
i also really enjoyed cookie’s fortune, not necessarily because it was a great/original work, but because i am a sucker for southern charm.
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
The Long Goodbye
Gosford Park
Short Cuts
Cookie’s Fortune
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Images
3 Women
Nashville
That Cold Day in the Park
Bob-I haven’t seen Pret a Porter since it was first released. Remember not careing for it very much but should see it again as I can’t recall much about it. My opinions on films can change over the years.
I thought Pret a Porter was lousy, and I love Altman. When he’s on, he’s on; when he’s off, it tends to be a disaster of the first magnitude.
His segment for Aria is my favorite of the work of his that I’ve seen. I haven’t seen much though, but all that I have seen outside of the Aria segment (M*A*S*H, A Prairie Home Companion, The Player) I have hated.
Nashville
Short Cuts
The Long Goodbye
California Split
Thieves Like Us
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
M*A*S*H
The Player
Vincent and Theo
Kansas City
Secret Honor
A Prairie Home Companion
Dr. T and the Women
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
Six of the first seven were made between 1970 and 1975. It was the second Golden Age of Cinema, and I can’t think of another director who did better work in that period.
It sucks that we’ll never see what he could have done with “Hands on a Hard Body.”
http://www.cinematical.com/tag/hands+on+a+hard+body/
i think M*A*S*H* is a good way to judge whether or not you’ll like Robert Altman, since it was kind of the “beginning” for his style (i’ve heard he did some work before it, but i’ve no idea what that was or when it was made). if you thought M*A*S*H* was lousy, or dull, or had too much going on without anything happening, you won’t like his films probably. if you thought it was hilarious, brilliant, and a great ensemble piece of cinema.
Nashville is his masterpiece, hands down. Its thesis of politics as entertainment (or entertainment as politics?) just seems to get more and more relevent every day. Altman is one of the very few directors who can make a movie that, depending on your mood, can be a bitter comedy or a humanist tragedy or some combination of the two. The characters in Nashville are constantly showing you new depths, and every character is interesting and fully formed. I will admit that it’s the type of movie that grows on you, though.
I have a soft spot for Buffalo Bill and the Indians too, mainly because it touches on a lot of the same subjects.
I’d also have to rank McCabe & Mrs. Miller up there as well. Great story, great cinematography, and I’ve got a real soft spot for Leonard Cohen.
NASHVILLE
The Long Goodbye
Nashville
California Split
Short Cuts
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
M*A*S*H
The Player
Secret Honor
I love the guy, so it’s sad to see it when many people don’t feel the same way. The Long Goodbye, Nashville and McCabe are my favorites (the first two are among my favorite films, need to see McCabe again). 3 Women was cool. The Player and MASH were pretty good. Those are the only ones I’ve seen so far.
Unquestionably MCCABE & MRS MILLER. I feel it is nearly perfect in every way. After that I guess I would have to go with THE LONG GOODBYE and THIEVES LIKE US. I suppose the common link is that these are genre films (the western, the hard-boiled detective, and couple in crime).
I recognize that NASHVILLE is probably Altman’s most “important” film or maybe even his best, but these three that I’ve mentioned are personal favorites.
best comment is that during the second golden age of American film he was the best director. I agree completely….
MASH
McCabe
Brewster Mc
Thieves Like Us
Buffalo Bill
Long Goodbye
Nashville
3 Women
all from that remarkable era and all worthy of any director of note.
the Player, Short Cuts, Gosford Park and Prairie are late icing on an already sweet cake!
vale Bob Altman….. a maverick (he formed Lionsgate) and a great director.
M *A *S *H
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Long Goodbye
Thieves Like Us
California Split
Nashville
Tanner ’88
Vincent & Theo
Cookie’s Fortune
The Company
One the of the all-time greats. Also somehow became an extremely polarizing figure among critics and cineastes.
It seems like people’s opinion of a film like, say, ‘Nashville’ has no in-between. Either one feels it is one of the greatest films ever, or it is the most overrated movie of all time.
His so-called “failures” are also worth mention, because they hold up surprisingly well. ‘Popeye’, considered a disaster upon release, has enjoyed an unexpectedly healthy life on video and television (no other all-time “disaster” gets as much airplay on television). ‘Dr. T & the Women’, for some reason regarded by many people online as the most painful moviegoing experience ever (it’s true… on various movie-related websites, I’ve read this over and over again). However, its subtext and insight regarding how men view women is outstanding. Richard Gere’s Dr. T is more of a misogynist than any number of playboys and womanizers we’ve seen on screen. He views them as perfect delicate object (note the term OBJECT) needing to be placed in a glass box by men. He feels this way so intensely that his wife reverts to a childlike state. Upon succeeding in therapy, she refuses him back, realizing she has her own identity. His illusion of women having their place is shattered when he meets Helen Hunt’s character, who refuses him any kind of entitlement simply because they slept together. There’s a lot more going on here, and the only reason I can muster as to why there’s such intense hatred online toward this film is that it attacks the male perspective. Being that the majority of fanboys and people who talk in great length online about movie are men, I can see this being somewhat a source of anger (or simply a refusal to accept this alternate perspective on the relational dynamics between men and women)
The all-time American stylist- for confirmation of this, see:
The Long Goodbye
3 Women
A Wedding
The Company
Bob Stutsman
I was surprised how many people put Robert Altman down as ‘over-rated’ in the thread on directors. He always went out on a limb and liked to do different things in films and not repeat himself. He had a lenghty film career, with the inevitable hits and misses. I think he deserves more recognition here as a truly creative and original filmmaker. I particularly love his films from the 1970’s and many are among my own personal favourites. I will note my own picks, and open this up for discussion:
McCabe and Mrs. Miller – see my review in the movie section. It remains my favourtie Altman, personally.
Images – a dense, complicated film, like his 3 Women that Jason B talks about separately.
M*A*S*H – that mad-camp romp through the Korean war that paralled America’s disillusionment with the Vietnam War. This was the big turning point in his career as a true independent voice in American cinema. Although dated now, it had a big impact on those of us who saw it at the time. I was not a fan of the hokey TV spin-off.
Brewster McCloud – reminiscent of those quirkly Hal Ashby films from this period like Harold and Maude for defining a non-conformist attitude.
Nashville – a film that has never really worked its magic on me, so I will let others discuss it. I found it too long and episodic, but I know it has many admirers.
After this golden age, Altman became much more sporadic. I enjoyed several of his later films, to varying degrees, such as: Vincent & Theo, Short Cuts, and Pret-a-Porter. Gosford Park didn’t really work for me, as he seemed to have lost that sense of spontaneity so evident in his earlier films. What do you think about him and what films would you pick?