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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Multimedia Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend November 26, 2006 They don't make 'em like Altman anymore By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Robert Altman got a lot of people's attention, including mine, with "MASH." Although he was of my parents' generation, and the picture was supposedly about Korea, it caught what was in the air in 1970, just nailed it. Emblematic of Altman's relationship with the Hollywood establishment, the best picture Oscar that year went to "Patton." One of the most creative and influential film directors of the last third of the 20th century, Altman is gone now, and it doesn't seem possible. At 81, he brought more passion and creativity to a project than all but an elite few of the very best directors. His pictures were unorthodox and complex and crowded and disconnected-feeling and typically refused to tie everything up in a neat Hollywood knot at the end. Advertisement He never liked being called a cult director. He said it meant you didn't have enough fans to be a minority. He learned he had cancer about a year and a half ago but kept working, finishing "A Prairie Home Companion," which was released in June, and doing pre-production work on the new movie he would have begun shooting in February. You suspect he didn't know what else to do. He had two decades of riding high. In the 1970s the muse kissed him as few have ever been kissed, and he rode a five-year wave from "MASH" through "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" to "California Split" and "Nashville." I figured he was a genius by "McCabe" and knew it by "Nashville." But it was a weird career. He filmed stories for half a century and had that '70s run and another from 1992's "The Player" that lasted, arguably, until the end. That one included "Short Cuts," "Gosford Park" and this year's "A Prairie Home Companion." By the time of the deliciously savage "The Player" it was clear he hadn't lost his edge. The murder, in Hollywood, paled alongside the consequences of making a flop. Was Tim Robbins ever better? And that intro shot? Unlike younger directors whose stars rose in the 1970s, he didn't come with a new-style film school resume. He spent his early career making industrial films, TV stuff and low-budget Hollywood quickies. Many directors turned down "MASH." He fought with 20th Century Fox over the picture (not what they'd expected; how could it be?). He always said it wasn't particularly better than other films he made, it just had great timing. He was a stubborn man, intolerant of what he saw as Hollywood philistines, a hard drinker who could be hard to get along with. He fought with studio executives and sometimes writers but was loved by his actors. He thought a casual set and freedom to improvise got things out of them they didn't know were there. He popularized the use of dialogue that sounded almost as if it were written by Chekhov, sentences that overlapped or dwindled off into inconsequence or got finished by another character — but somehow made great scenes. His camera would prowl and circle the action. He pioneered soundtracks with multiple layers for crowd scenes. It all added up to movies unlike any you'd seen before. Look at "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," one of the great, quirky westerns of all time, set in a counter-classic West that turned the cliches on their heads. The lead dude (Warren Beatty) is a dim bulb undone by a hooker junky (Julie Christie), and you had these loser characters moving through a fallen world of rats and filth, foreshadowing HBO's "Deadwood" three decades later. After "Nashville," audiences and critics abandoned Altman for a time. A bottom was the universally (and unjustly) reviled "Popeye" in 1980, a flawed work of genius in which Altman's camera and Jules Feiffer's script captured the deeply strange world of Popeye creator Elzie Crisler Segar by way of Max and Dave Fleischer's animation. Great for the cult, too weird for the general audience. He made his critical and commercial comeback with "The Player" and followed it the next year with "Short Cuts," the Raymond Carver medley thing. Both mesmerized with technical brilliance. Both eschewed the Hollywood ending on a triumphant note, going out instead on something vaguely unsettling, like say, a major seventh. He called Hollywood executives "fast buck operators" who didn't want good movies but successful ones. "The marketing people run it now," he told the Washington Post in 1990. In a Reuters photo from the set of "A Prairie Home Companion," he is shown with actors Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson and Lindsay Lohan. The actors are looking out of the frame and beaming, as if basking in an audience's applause. Altman, standing between Streep and Lohan, has turned his face to the camera and been caught with a slight, mischievous grin. The look seems to say that he's still here, uncompromising as ever, and he never went away. Or maybe it doesn't. He'd never wrap it all up for us anyway. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] . Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Online Casino Reviews Trunks, Footlocker Fundraisers UK Homeowner Loans Casinos Canada Cord Blood Banking Discount Hotel Reservations Texas Electric Choice Compare Electric rates in Texas Windermere Van Vleet Men's Clothing Debt Help New Hampshire Primary