Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Michael Murphy | ... | Self | |
Robert Altman | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
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Kathryn Reed | ... | Self (as Kathryn Reed Altman) |
Sally Kellerman | ... | Self | |
James Caan | ... | Self | |
Donald Sutherland | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Elliott Gould | ... | Self | |
Dick Cavett | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
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Tommy Thompson | ... | Self (archive footage) |
Vilmos Zsigmond | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
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Matthew Reed Altman | ... | Self (voice) |
Stephen Altman | ... | Self (voice) | |
Keith Carradine | ... | Self | |
Richard Nixon | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Lily Tomlin | ... | Self |
The life of Robert Altman over the course of his career as a filmmaker is told in roughly chronological order. It is presented largely through archival footage, including of his interviews and of his and his longtime wife Kathryn Reed's home movies. It includes his rocky start in Hollywood as an aspiring screenwriter, which instead led to him working as a general filmmaker for an industrial film company. This work led to directing assignments for a number of television series back in Hollywood, where he butted heads with a number of studio executives and producers who did not appreciate his style of filmmaking in his desire to insert a sense a realism in whatever the project, that realism which includes hanging story-lines and overlapping dialogue, often in multiple equally important conversations in a single setting which forces the viewer to decide which conversation he/she wants to focus. This situation often led to him trying to achieve what he wanted either in not telling or ... Written by Huggo
This movie gets a 10 from me because it accomplished what it set out to do: be a career retrospective of Robert Altman, including lots of relevant voices, film clips, home movie footage and words of wisdom from the subject himself. It was heart-felt, and made me tear up a couple times.
I didn't realize I had seen so many of this man's films: The Player (back when the '90's were so fresh and slick), MASH, Popeye. Each one I've seen, I've liked. Now, to check out Gosford Park and McCabe.