ROBERT ALTMAN-Beloved Maverick

The death of famed director Robert Altman at age 81 is the loss of a true auteur of filmmaking whose prowess was undiminished right to the end.

A late bloomer who had done considerable television work in its golden era (his TV work was formidable in its own right-Combat, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, Peter Gunn), Altman had minor success in feature films in the sixties until he transformed M*A*S*H into a critical and popular success which would launch him throughout the seventies as a visionary artist who told stories in a candid, realistic manner. Of course, his style has been emulated by newer directors like Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia) and Paul Haggis (Crash) who have adopted aspects of Altman’s storyline structure of often seemingly unrelated characters in a vast tapestry of contemporary America that gradually coalesce into a unifying theme. Witness the recent Babel, which bears a striking similarity to the Altman way.

If you wanted ‘precise to the page’ scripted dialogue, then you wouldn’t look to an Altman film. He was notorious for improvising scenes and lines, and his fierce independence and respect for actors attracted the biggest and best of stars. How else could he get Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts do what amounted to superb cameos in The Player! It was fun to watch him match different actors together just to see how they would respond. One minute there was Lily Tomlin paired with Keith Carradine in Nashville and both get Oscar nominations, and next there was Lindsay Lohan paired with Meryl Streep in A Prairie Home Companion.

I had the good fortune of meeting Altman while I was working with the student union film committee at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. He was featured to speak to the students at a showing of some of his films, and several of us had lunch at a nearby restaurant. Altman was always patient and informative in his responses to questions from the committee. What you saw on TV was what you got; he was just like that in real life. When asked what he thought of the hit television show M*A*S*H based on his movie, he wasn’t particularly fond of it since it sanitized and distorted the truth about what his film was trying to depict. When asked which of his films was his favorite, he answered that it was difficult to choose in the same way that his films were like his children, all special and beloved. I asked him what he had thought of Sam Peckinpah, another contemporary director, and his answer was “sick man…very sick….”, which was often an opinion shared by many. Altman’s individuality was evident when the waitress took our orders, and all of us went for the all-you-can-eat buffet. When it came time for Mr. Altman to order, he instead ordered a sandwich. Go figure.

A case could be made that as he got older, he became a better filmmaker. Sure, there were misfires like Popeye or the quirky Brewster McCloud, but you had to give him credit for being willing to take chances. Every few years or so, when you thought his career was foundering, he would return with The Player or Gosford Park and silence the critics and scholars. His is a body of work (Nashville, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 3 Women, Short Cuts) that will be admired and imitated for a long time.