NEW Robert Altman Collection (DVD)

Finally a boxed set that includes - aside from MASH - some of Robert Altman's underrated great films. Perhaps the most underrated of all of Altman's films is the great "Quintet", which you cannot find on DVD except for this collection, and the collection is worth it to have yet another look at "Quintet". It is a narrative film of the future, stark, bleak, existentialist. The film sets a mood, beginning with Paul Newman trudging through white snowy landscapes in search of someone whom he finds in one of the few remaining, if not last remaining, human habitations in this post-apocalyptic frozen landscape, but who is suddenly murdered bringing Newman's character into the bizarre world of the inhabitants caught up in the life and death tag game of Quintet. Fascinating, moody characters inhabiting this defined and multi-textured enclosed interior of a last outpost of human habitation. Well acted, exquisite cinematography, and for those who stick with it Quintet is a creative original masterwork that stays in the mind long after first viewing. To get this finally on DVD in a boxed set with the brilliant "Mash"

is almost too good to be true.

This collection includes the four films Altman made for MGM. M*A*S*H is a certified classic and needs no further commentary so I'll just offer my thoughts on the other three films that are included.

A WEDDING: This is Altman's most exciting ensemble project since NASHVILLE. Thats a good thing. But where NASHVILLE is an elaborately structured and multi-layered narrative with large public and private themes A WEDDING is a much less structured and much more spurious affair. Its also much more uneven. I would describe this film as a three ringed vaudevillian circus with no ringmaster and an open bar because it is Altman's loosest project since BREWSTER MCCLOUD or at least it seems that way. Altman may have firm control over everything that happens on screen but it feels like the controlling purpose or thesis of the film is not to have one. But thats the reason the film is so exciting to watch. It seems like anything can happen from one moment to the next and that keeps you interested. Altman has assembled a fun cast but with no obvious stars and so this absence of a hierarchy of talent allows you to spread your interest evenly from Lauren Hutton to Carol Burnett to Pat McCormak to Pam Dawber etc.... Its a fun film that you will watch and enjoy many times.

QUINTET: This is a difficult film to like because its so austere. Certainly including this film in a package that includes M*A*S*H and A WEDDING makes an excellent case for Altman's willingness to experiment with alternative narratives and styles. I would say its austerity turns me off less than the fact that the characters just don't seem to interest Altman as much as the ideas. In other words this film feels like Altman at his most introspective and least sociable and it just feels like the characters are getting in the way of ideas. This film is not poorly made but its a difficult film to get attached to or have much enthusiasm for giving it more than one view to satisfy your curiousity. Paul Newman stars along with others but they're all icy performances. In the featurette interview Altman sits beneath a large poster of Newman which is a pretty cool shot of the star and more interesting to look at than the film itself. In the feaurette Altman claims to be equally proud of each of his films but I don't think anyone would ever call this one their favorite Altman film.

A PERFECT COUPLE: This film follows two distinct narratives. One is the narrative of a large Greek family and the other of a late seventies rock band called Keeping 'em off the Streets. This is billed as a romantic comedy and it has all of the charms of that genre but with all of the added bonuses of Altman's parodic sensibility. The Greek family is very traditional and the seventies rock band is very liberal-minded and the two groups are contrasted when a member of the Greek family (Paul Dooley) begins dating a member of the rock band (Marta Heflin). We get to see the rock group through the eyes of Paul Dooley and then we get to see the Greek family through the eyes of Marta Heflin. In the featurettes Altman claims that this film is as good as anything he has ever done. But its also evident that he knows that most people will find that comment a little surprising since the film itself is so slight. What we see is entertaining enough but the characters and their respective living situations are never really explored in depth and we never really get beyond a kind of surface view and we are just asked to enjoy it as a light satire. If Altman ever made a sit-com for network television in the late seventies this is what it would have looked like. It would have been good solid innovative tv but it doesn't make for the most riveting feature.

So this four film collection is mainly for Altman collectors (M*A*S*H is the only one that has been previously available on DVD)and completists. The price makes it an attractive package even if only two of these films are really classics.

First off, I have a love/hate relationship with Altman's films. I see each and EVERY one I can but I don't love every one and many leave me baffled or feeling totally alienated from whatever "message" or "vision" ALtman had at the time. More than few feel like experiments in the making, something he created to get to a point where he could make a film based on what he learned on a previous film.

Needless to say, the studios often had a less than kind attitude about the varying effect of his films on audiences - and the unpredictable box office profits.

Watching some of his film can be frustrating (because his great films are SO great!) that I find myself going back again and again to watch the films I didn't like, trying to give him another chance, trying to figure out what I could be missing.

So those who buy this collection of films may find themselves, as I was, totally smitten with Mash (one of my favorite films, period,) and have varied reactions to the others.

If "popular" opinion matters to you, actual viewers who commented on these films,(the kind written by your average moviegoer, not a critic or collector of obscure or unusual films) didn't relate to Quintet and had mixed feelings about A Pefect Couple and A Wedding. None of them were the solid hit that Mash was.

If you are a collector, you'll want to get this set if only because the earlier films may become even harder to find than they already are. Mash will probably remain pretty easy to get, one way or another (and it shows up on tv a lot) but the others are shown less often, although I'm sure there'll be a retrospective at some point, with some major tv airing - perhaps TNT has already done so.

While I confess that I wasn't crazy about A Wedding or A Pefect Couple either, both had some sublimely wonderful moments, the kind worth watching a movie just to see. I could have listened to the soundtrack for A Wedding and ignored the whole story - it was that good.

I always admire Altman's willingness to tenaciously cling to his vision, even if it might not pay off at the box office. He is a true original and, like so many of those, his movies may resonate only with certain viewers. Think of his films as original compositions. You'll feel yourself drawn to some more than others, just as people may tend to like certain pieces of music or art while detesting others.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 14 reviews  3.9 out of 5 stars