The Politics of Robert Altman
By Chad A. B. Wilson
Published November 24, 2006, 6:30 pm in News, Military / Foreign policy, Economic Issues.
Today, I have to change gears to talk about the loss of one of the country's great auteurs, the director of many amazing and innovative films. Some may wonder what the death of Robert Altman has to do with politics, but I think it does. It's not like the assassination of the Maronite leader in Lebanon, nor like the death of the Iraqi comedian. It's also not as political as "Kramer's" racial slurs during his stand-up comedy in L.A. But Robert Altman was as political as any director out there. And he did it without being overt.
I want to talk about the politics of Robert Altman, specifically with two films—M.A.S.H, his first and most innovative, and Gosford Park, his most mundane but just as political. My favorite Altman films are Short Cuts and The Player, but these are satires and commentaries on the movie profession and everyday existence. They aren't nearly as political as these other movies.
If you can't tell, I love films, and I love to dissect them. Even though I love to talk about politics, if you meet me in a bar, I will probably just as soon engage you about Eli Roth or Ridley Scott as to talk about Nancy Pelosi or Trent Lott. Heck, we might even talk about Justin Timberlake or Angelina Jolie before I argue with you about politics. Now if you bring it up and claim that Libertarians are the only people with brains, then you've got an argument on your hands. I'm not afraid of it. But if you say something like "M. Night Shyamalan is a hack," you've got an argument on your hands, too.
So today, let's talk about film politics.
M.A.S.H. is probably one of the most political films without having anything overt to do with politics. I was watching a TV show last week and the character met a Vietnamese guy. When he found out the guy was Vietnamese, he said, "Oh, I love Vietnam; I used to watch M.A.S.H. all the time." The Vietnamese guy replied, "That was Korea, not Vietnam."
The Vietnamese guy was right, of course; the movie and T.V. show that was based on it took place in Korea during the Korean War. But the ignorant guy was actually getting at the point of the movie and show, too. M.A.S.H. came out in 1970, in the middle of the Vietnam War during the major protests.
As a footnote, let me say that I understand I am using the term war to describe these police actions, when the U.S. never officially declared war. What I'm talking about, however, is the perception of these wars, and the term war was used then and now by the common population. Even among historians now, the term war is just as common as the term conflict. People seem to agree that the denotation doesn’t matter; it's a war because people fought and died over a long period of time.)
Even though M.A.S.H. is overtly about the Korean War, it is really a commentary on the Vietnam War. Imagine the newer movie Jarhead, for instance. This movie is set during the first Gulf War, but it is really a commentary on this newer Iraq war. War films are naturally political commentaries, so it's dangerous to set a film during a current conflict. Francis Ford Coppola had a problem getting Apocalypse Now produced just five years after the Vietnam War. People knew he would make a very political film, and production companies don't want to risk something that would alienate the general public. Even though many people were not supportive of the Vietnam War, there were a lot of people who supported the action, and production companies, like advertising companies, know what they're doing. They will support films that will be popular, not films that should be made.
Made in the midst of the Vietnam War, M.A.S.H. establishes three major critiques of the war. First, it says that the leadership was incompetent. Second, the people in the war did not take it seriously. Third, the fighting itself was pointless.
Now these are generalizations that may or may not be based on fact. I don't want to argue about the Vietnam War right now. I'm not a historian, so I don't know if I will ever be able to cogently argue a point about Vietnam. And M.A.S.H. is a film, a very different medium from a political tract or argument. It cannot be expected to make the same kind of foolproof argument as other overtly political mediums. They probably wouldn't be good films if they tried. It's ridiculous to think that a film should present issues instead of narratives, political stereotypes instead of realistic characters. What makes M.A.S.H. so great is that it establishes its political commentary through characters and narratives.
But if a person were pro-Vietnam, he or she would never be convinced by this film. It is a commentary, not an argument. It is a version of events as they are imagined, not as they really are. If a person were against Vietnam, he or she would love the base commander because he is a bumbling idiot. But if a person were pro-Vietnam, he or she would hate him and say that no leader could possibly be that stupid.
Gosford Park is a very different film, but it's just as political. Gosford Park is what I like to call an upstairs-downstairs movie. It's a murder mystery, sure, and it's also a period movie, but again, political or social commentaries are often cloaked, removed from the current period. It's so much easier and more effective to criticize the audience's beliefs when the audience thinks it’s simply watching a fun or interesting story. Gosford Park says that even our social lives are actually political, a point I love. It says that our social systems are really segregated, if not by race, then by class or economic status.
We could talk about The Long Goodbye, too, or even 3 Women. Robert Altman made movies in nearly every genre. He was funny, satiric, dramatic, psychological, and militaristic all at the same time (and sometimes in the same film!). But M.A.S.H. and Gosford Park should give you enough to chew on. Our film world lost a master on November 20, and I’m glad that the Academy chose to honor him with a Lifetime Achievement Award this year. He deserved it, even if he never was awarded a Best Picture Oscar.
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By JT December 1, 2006, 11:59 pm. PermaLink
well, i guess you will have to go ahead and watch "A Prairie Home Companion," if you haven't already. even though it sukks. even though it has many locations where JT and DCB have visited, which is cool. that is just not enough to save this crapola movie.
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