Robert Altman – The Oral Biography – Mitchell Zuckoff (Knopf)
July 21, 2010 · Print This Article
Hard to think of a director in Hollywood who’s made more of an impact but got less credit than Bob Altman. After all, his movies like M*A*S*H, Nashville and The Player were never really considered to be box-office blockbusters. Nor was Altman ever honored with a single Oscar for producing or directing, though his films received many nominations throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90s.
No, Robert Altman was an outcast, a scalawag; a rapscallion of film directors.
That’s what makes his story so great.
In “Robert Altman: The Oral Biography,” author Mitchell Zuckoff captures it all. From Altman’s early days knocking around Kansas City (a place on which he would later base his feature film of the same name) to his war years, his roguish romantic escapades, his eventual landing in California (working for, among others, the legendary Alfred Hitchcock) Zuckoff’s assemblage of the autuer’s story covers all the bases.
As colorful as the oral history is of the director’s early dating and family life, his military service and his career beginnings in both industrial films and, once in Hollywood, television, (‘Combat,’ Whirlybirds,’ etc.) the best portions are reserved for his relationships with the actors he loved and the studio bosses he loathed. When actors would add a line to their dialogue, most film sets expected a visit from the studio brass. When Altman’s actors wanted to add a line, he openly encouraged them to add more. (M*A*S*H’s Sally Kellerman (‘Hot Lips’) practically wrote her way into the whole movie from what was originally slated as a naked shower scene.) In the final analysis, Altman was the master of the ensemble film; his indelible mark comes from the inner workings of the casts he assembled, not necessarily from the stories themselves. As Zuckoff points out in Altman’s own words, he would be the first to admit it.
Along the way, the book regales the reader with stories from all the front line players (as in ‘The Player’) in Altman’s great body of work. Legends like Paul Newman, Bob Evans, Cher (remember her red dress at the black and white ball?) Jimmy Caan, Bobby Duvall, Elliot Gould, Patricia Neal, Richard Zanuck, Meryl Streep, Harry Belafonte, Lily Tomlin, Tim Robbins, Beatty, Becall and others weigh in and reminisce about their (rather detailed) recollections of Bob’s past. The one thing that rises above it all, is that Altman worshiped the actors; always exhorting them to mix it up, speak over each other words, act like in real life. So while he may not have been Hollywood’s most successful director, in many ways, he was perhaps its most authentic.
After his passing in 2008 (and after having finally received an honorary Oscar from the Academy in 2006) Altman needed a book – not on his work, but on the man himself. It is fitting that this oral biography is comprised of many of the same ensemble players that created the Altman oeuvre itself. Well done. Fade.
Freakin’ awesome review. I wish that people for the LA Times wrote as good as this, lol. Makes me want to read a book that I never would’ve looked twice at. In fact, where IS this book?