Robert Altman - Mainstream Success

Mainstream Success

In 1969 Altman was offered the script for MASH, an adaptation of a little-known Korean War-era novel satirizing life in the armed services; more than a dozen other filmmakers had passed on it. The 1953 film Battle Circus, starring Humphrey Bogart, may have influenced the novel and/or Altman's version of MASH. (Battle Circus' original title, "MASH" was rejected by the studio; it was felt that the public might think the film was about potatoes!) Production was sometimes so tumultuous that the leads Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland tried to have Altman fired over his unorthodox filming methods, but MASH was widely hailed as an immediate classic upon its 1970 release. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival and netted six Academy Award nominations. It was Altman's highest-grossing film, released during a time of increasing anti-war sentiment in the United States.

Now recognized as a major talent, Altman had critical breakthroughs with McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), known for its gritty portrayal of the American frontier; The Long Goodbye (1973), a remake of a Raymond Chandler novel; Thieves Like Us (1974), and Nashville (1975). These made his distinctive, experimental, "Altman style" more well known.

Altman favored stories expressing the interrelationships among several characters; he stated that he was more interested in character motivation than in intricate plots. He tended to sketch out only a basic plot for the film, referring to the screenplay as a "blueprint" for action. He allowed his actors to improvise dialogue and was known as an "actor's director," a reputation that attracted many notable actors to work in his large casts.

To convey a naturalistic effect, he recorded the characters talking over each other, allowing the audience to hear only scraps of dialogue. He noted on the DVD commentary of McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) that he uses this technique, together with leaving elements of the plot for the audience to infer, because he wants people to pay attention and become engaged in the film. During the filming, he wore a headset to ensure that important dialogue could be heard, without emphasizing it. He wanted his films to be rated R (by the MPAA rating system) to keep children out of his audiences; he did not believe they had the patience and attention for his films. Movie studios wanted the films rated for the largest possible audiences to gain increased revenues.

Altman made films that no other filmmaker and/or studio would. He had been reluctant to make the Korean War comedy MASH (1970), but it became a critical success. It inspired the long-running TV series of the same name. In 1975, Altman made Nashville, which had a strong political theme set against the world of country music. The stars of the film wrote their own songs; Keith Carradine won an Academy Award for the song "I'm Easy".

Audiences took some time to appreciate his films, and he did not want to have to satisfy studio officials. In 1970, following the release of MASH, he founded Lion's Gate Films to have independent production freedom. (It has no relation to today's Canada/U.S.-based entertainment company Lionsgate). The films he made through his company included Brewster McCloud, A Wedding, 3 Women, and Quintet.