Robert Altman created a style of moviemaking that has been often imitated but rarely duplicated. The maverick film director who mostly worked outside the studio system died last night at age 81. His body of work is a legacy of movies that featured multiple characters with overlapping dialogue. These characters would often circle around in their own universe until they crashed into other characters in exciting ways. Notable examples of his distinctive style include Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts and Gosford Park. His fourth movie was a studio job that remained his most popular effort in terms of box office success. Before the TV series, there was M*A*S*H (1970) a movie that took a well worn genre, the G.I. service comedy, and took it into the realm of cutting edge anti-war black comedy at the height of the Vietnam War. In my mind Donald Sutherland is Hawkeye Pierce, Elliott Gould is Trapper John, Sally Kellerman is Hot Lips and Robert Duvall is Frank Burns.
My other Altman favorites include his take on the detective film, The Long Goodbye; his devastating look at Hollywood insiders, The Player, featuring a brilliant performance by Tim Robbins, and his Altman-ized version of the classic British upstairs/downstairs drama Gosford Park. His last film, A Prairie Home Companion, was Altman in a minor key, but it made fans of his multi-character canvas smile. While accepting a lifetime achievement Academy Award last February he noted,

“No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have. I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition."