Robert Altman

I didn't think any of the Robert Altman films were enjoyable to watch except for The Last Goodbye which was just mildly appealing. In The Last Goodbye I enjoyed watching the main character Philip Marlowe, played by Elliot Gould, act like a low-life but still work as a good detective. His personality captivated my attention during the early scenes in the movie where he tried so hard to get his cat food while he continued to chain-smoke. The smoking did take my attention away from the movie because I thought it took away from the acting ability of Gould. I think that there are better things for a character to do in their down-time than smoke, and I think other things would let us learn more about the character. Besides that, I thought that he was a great actor. Nashville didn't interest me at all because I have zero interest in country music. Although I didn't like it, I thought that the camera work composed by Altman was very good in Nashville. I liked the way the camera would be showing something going on, but be emphasizing a character in the background. This happened once when the woman was being shown in the background while the blonde haired guy who wanted her was singing "I'm Easy." I thought that The Player had too many unrealistic characters to be any good to watch. That type of stuff where characters such as the black cop lady act ridiculous turn me away from movies. I thought it also seemed somewhat unrealistic that the main character killed the woman's husband, and then he went on to fall in love with her. Besides these downsides, I thought that Altman brought a lot of uniqeness in the way he mixed dialogue in with different camera angles. Overall, I don't like Altman much as a director because he apparently doesn't make movies to fit my interests. Film Noir, country music, and the film industry just aren't things that interest me.