Robert Bernard Altman was born February 20, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was best known to the world as a director, but he also dabbed in producing and screenwriting. He loved his work and spent over fifty years making films that he gave his all to. Altmanesque is an adjective created to describe his work, by his peers. It means to be characterized by naturalism, social criticism, subversion of genre, not conforming to predictable norms, and indestructible.
He joined the U.S. Army at the ripe age of eighteen, and flew in bombing missions well over fifty times. When he returned from the army he attended the University of Missouri and studied engineering. Directing movies was never in the plan, but he took a chance by co-writing a script titled, “The BodyGuard”. He sold the script in 1948 to RKO and gained instant success. He moved to New York City and California to try to jump start his film career, but at this time it wasn’t a part of his story.
When his cross country ventures didn’t pan out, he moved back to Kansas City and began working for the Calvin Company, on approximately sixty-five industrial films and documentaries. He eventually had raised enough money to make his own film, working for Calvin Company. In 1959, his first major film, “The Delinquents”, was purchased by United Artists for 150,000 dollars.
After “The Delinquents”, he was discovered by Alfred Hitchcock and Altman directed two episodes for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In this time frame is where he met his wife, Kathryn Reed, while filming the television show, “Whirlybirds”. They were married in 1959, between the two of them had four children from previous relationships, and eventually two more were added to the clan. His career continued at this point with him working on the Kraft Television Theater episodes, this came to an end though in 1963, while he was working on an episode titled, “The Hunt”. The networks sponsor refused to allow Altman to cast a black actor as a convict, so he quit the television business, and bad mouthed the sponsor in the media, which was Kraft Cheese.
He worked for Warner Brother’s for a short time, but was fired while working on the movie “CountDown”, for overlapping dialogue between the actors. This is something we don’t think about in movies nowadays, but back then it wasn’t even thought of. This gave Altman his next idea, to develop an eight-track sound system that allowed him to record sound live with microphones. This would eliminate post-dubbing, make mixing and unmixing at the end easier, and producing a multi-layered soundtrack. This type of recording is now used the most in present day Hollywood.
The next big move in his career was when a career changing script was brought to him by a talent agent. The agent thought he would be perfect to direct the film after watching a short film Altman had done about smoking pot, “Pot au Feu”. The movie that became a huge box office hit and cult classic was the 1970, “MASH”. This movie was hilarious, but also showed the reality of the death that was the Vietnam War. “MASH” was nominated for six Academy Awards and won multiple awards at the Cannes Film Festival, causing Altman to become the most sought out director in Hollywood.
In 1975, Altman directed the smash hit “Nashville”, which earned five Oscar nominations. He added the political edge to the film, because of his strong hate for Richard Nixon. He was also the director of Robin William’s first feature film, “Popeye”, in 1980. This movie was demolished by the critics, even though it was one I enjoyed very much as a child. In 1992, he directed the movie, “The Player”, starring Tim Robbins. Robbins character is a studio executive, who murders a wannabe screenwriter that he thinks has been sending him death threats. It was an attack on Hollywood morality that may have been offending to some, but regardless of who may have had any negative feelings about it, the movie was nominated for three Academy Awards.
The final movie of his career was, “A Prairie Home Companion”, in 2006. The movie consisted of a star studded cast, including, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, Lindsay Lohan, Kevin Klein, and John C Reilly. This movie was considered a masterpiece and was a very respectful way to end his film career.
Altman never won any of his Oscar nominations throughout the years, but was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Oscar, in 2006. He passed away on November 20, 2006, at eighty-one years old, of cancer. He leaves behind a legacy of movies that pushed the social norms and was a pioneer to many moments in the history of film.
Filmography
Christmas Eve, 1947
Bodyguard, 1948
The Delinquents, 1957
The James Dean Story, 1957
Nightmare in Chicago, 1964
Countdown, 1968
That Cold Day in the Park, 1969
M-A-S-H, 1970
Brewster McCloud, 1970
Events, 1970
McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 1971
Images, 1972
The Long Goodbye, 1973
Thieves Like Us, 1974
California Split, 1974
Nashville, 1975
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, 1976
Welcome to L.A., 1977
The Late Show, 1977
Three Women, 1977
A Wedding, 1978
Remember My Name, 1978
Quintet, 1979
A Perfect Couple, 1979
Rich Kids, 1979
Health, 1980
Popeye, 1980
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, 1982
Streamers, 1983
Secret Honor, 1984
Fool for Love, 1985
Beyond Therapy, 1987
O.C. and Stiggs, 1987
Aria (one segment, Les Boreades, ) 1987
Vincent & Theo, 1990
The Player, 1992
Short Cuts, 1993
Pret-a-Porter (Ready to Wear, ) 1994
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, 1994
Jazz '34, 1996
Kansas City, 1996
The Gingerbread Man, 1998
Cookie's Fortune, 1999
Dr. T. and the Women, 2000
Gosford Park, 2001
The Company, 2003
Tanner on Tanner, 2004
A Prairie Home Companion, 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment