# Robert Altman dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303 "2006-11-21T16:42:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/21 "2006-11-21T18:43:46Z")
[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy] That said, your list would be incomplete without adding **3 Women, The Player** , and the TV production **Tanner '88**. RIP ☹ [/QUOTE] **Tanner '88** was amazing! As was another made-for-cable piece done the same year as Tanner - **The Caine Mutiny Court Martial**. Altan brought a special touch to that production. Hell, I’m one of the two or three people who actually liked **Popeye**! I’ll really miss Altman. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/22 "2006-11-21T18:50:39Z")
Altman made some great movies, including one that trashed my hometown, but I loved it anyway. Somehow the Academy was able to pass on Director oscars to hacks like James Cameron and Ron Howard but never Altman, who was far more inovative and interesting. Stupid Oscars. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/23 "2006-11-21T19:02:08Z")
I’m sure gonna miss Altman. **Nashville** is high on my list of best movies of all time. Lawzy, how I love that movie. Another one that I really like a lot is **A Wedding**. Altman sure had a knack for managing large casts of characters and weaving intricate plots with them. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/24 "2006-11-21T19:12:46Z")
[QUOTE=vibrotronica] You’re just thread-shitting, **Trunk**. That’s called “being a jerk.” [/QUOTE] I’m not thread-shitting. I didn’t say anything disrespectful until you told me to “have some respect”. A thread at a message board about a person who died is not conversation at the person’s funeral. It’s a thread about the person – and his accomplishments – and saying, “he made some boring ass shit” is a perfectly valid comment. We discuss TV, movies, food, and celebrities here. We don’t eulogize them. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/25 "2006-11-21T19:17:46Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] A thread at a message board about a person who died is not conversation at the person’s funeral. [/QUOTE] It’s as close as any of us will get to being at the funeral. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/26 "2006-11-21T19:27:41Z")
Oh, such sad news! I have so much admiration for his talent and his work. Like **Struan** said, Altman looked a little ill when he accepted his honorary Oscar a few years ago – I had never thought of him as old until then. I don’t think **Trunk** was being a jerk at all. I am sad about Robert Altman, but it is his work that I know, not the person. Talking about his body of work, and its range, seems very appropriate when remembering his career. From what I do know about Altman as an individual, he would have been the first person to point out that he tried to accomplish many different things with his various projects, and that not every movie connected with every viewer. Heck, if they _had_, Altman would have been disappointed that he wasn’t pushing the envelope hard enough. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/27 "2006-11-21T19:27:58Z")
Perhaps, **vibrotronica** , but you can’t force the discussion to go exactly the way you want. Not everyone has to worship the ground he walked upon - after all. Paul Verhoeven[sup]1[/sup] he’s not . Whenever a celebrity shuffles off this mortal coil, his career, both good and bad, are fair game to criticism. [sup]1[/sup]I’m sorry **lissener** , please don’t hit me too hard ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/28 "2006-11-21T19:28:00Z")
Wow, Robert Altman directed _Gosford Park_? I _love_ that movie. What a different assortment of films he participated in, to be sure. It’s a shame he’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/29 "2006-11-21T19:30:38Z")
[QUOTE=vibrotronica] It’s as close as any of us will get to being at the funeral. [/QUOTE] Exactly! That’s why I’d say negative things here, and not there. If you’re concerned that there’s bad “mojo” talking about a guy after his death, or that he’s “looking down” on us. . .well, sorry, but I don’t buy that brand of crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/30 "2006-11-21T19:32:08Z")
So it’s OK to be boorish and insensitive as long as your not at a funeral? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/31 "2006-11-21T19:45:15Z")
[QUOTE=Walter Windchill] So it’s OK to be boorish and insensitive as long as your not at a funeral? [/QUOTE] No. A comment that could be taken as being boorish and insenstive at a funeral is really no such thing when you’re not at a funeral, such as “I never liked Robert’s films”. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/32 "2006-11-21T19:47:02Z")
You know what? I’m sorry I said anything. I don’t want to make this thread about **Trunk**. When I think about Altman, I think about that opening sequence in _The Player_, the shot of Christopher Penn standing over the girl he had just murdered in _Short Cuts_, and the dog coming to sit with everyone else to watch the women’s shower prank in _M.A.S.H._ It’s those little moments when chaos resolves into perfection that sort of define his magic for me. It’s really influenced the way I look at the world. Or, more accurately, Altman made me realize that’s how life looks from the inside. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/33 "2006-11-21T20:01:27Z")
I agree with **vibrotronica** about the 8-minute shot in The Player, and I’d like to add the Last Supper scene in MASH. A google image search on “mash last supper” yields a gorgeous still of this as the first result. On the other hand I’d say that Pret-a-porter is likely the worst film I’ve ever paid to see. I only stayed so that I’d be able to “discuss knowledgeably” the final scene. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/34 "2006-11-21T20:19:52Z")
[QUOTE=vibrotronica] You know what? I’m sorry I said anything. I don’t want to make this thread about **Trunk**. When I think about Altman, I think about that opening sequence in _The Player_, the shot of Christopher Penn standing over the girl he had just murdered in _Short Cuts_, and the dog coming to sit with everyone else to watch the women’s shower prank in _M.A.S.H._ It’s those little moments when chaos resolves into perfection that sort of define his magic for me. It’s really influenced the way I look at the world. Or, more accurately, Altman made me realize that’s how life looks from the inside. [/QUOTE] \*Nashville \*was one of those Helen Keller moments for me; when I suddenly saw that there was art in movies. And I love _Popeye_; it’s a sublime exercise in surrealism. It’s _McCabe and Mrs. Miller_ on acid. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/35 "2006-11-21T21:17:37Z")
I saw **Nashville** as a kid (perhaps when it came out; I would have been 7) but it’s high time I see it again to actually appreciate it! Off to amazon! ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/36 "2006-11-21T21:37:23Z")
I read the funeral home will have viewings at 1:00, 4:15, 7:30 & 10:25. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/37 "2006-11-21T21:39:42Z")
btw, The Player, 3 Women, McCabe & Mrs Miller, Thieves Like Us & That Cold Day in the Park are five of my all-time favorites. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/38 "2006-11-21T22:04:02Z")
Altman’s _Nashville_ and Coppola’s first two _Godfather_s were the best American movies of the 1970s. P.S. The title of the novel and movie was _MASH_; the TV series was _M_A_S_H\*. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/39 "2006-11-21T22:04:05Z")
Such a shame. I’ve enjoyed every movie of his that I’ve seen. I’d like to see Prairie Home Companion as well. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303/40 "2006-11-21T22:08:31Z")
I’d put those three in the top 20 or so Walloon, but don’t know if they are the top 3. That was a pretty good decade for movies. There’s Apocalypse Now to consider, and Annie Hall, and Mean Streets. Hell, even Rocky. Stallone never matched it, but it’s still the standard by which other sports movies are measured. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robert-altman-dead/381303.md?page=3)