Altman – Movie Review by Frank L.

Directed by Ron Mann

Writer: Len Blum
Stars: Bruce Willis, Julianne Moore, Robin Williams

“Altmanesque” is given a dictionary definition at the beginning by one of Altman’s collaborators. During the course of the film several more definitions are given by other collaborators. These varied definitions are according to Ron Mann like chapter headings. They are diverse in their scope and it is clear that “altmanesque” means different things to different people. It is this diversity which Ron Mann seeks to mine in this chronologically-told story beginning with a photograph of Altman in uniform before being demobbed at the end of the Second World War. It ends with him still at his craft making a movie, post heart transplant, now well into his eighties. It is a story well worth the telling.

Mann makes great use of interviews with Altman, family movies, and footage from the making of individual movies so to a certain extent the voice and personality of Altman himself is telling the story. It is clear as regards the film industry he was a square peg in a round hole or as he puts it elegantly “I make gloves and they sell shoes”. That neat sentence encapsulates his skill as a craftsman while the Hollywood industry were the purveyors of machine created mass products.

Given that the diversity of the human being was a central source of his work, he placed considerable strain on his craft in portraying that diversity. There were great successes MASH and Nashville for instance but a goodly number of failures. That there were successes and failures in itself is a true reflection of a person’s life. For those who are familiar with all or most of Altman’s work maybe there was little new in this documentary but for the rest not in that privileged state, this is an introduction to his life and work which generates a desire to see more. A documentary of unsentimental genuine affection.