Robert Altman (born February 20, 1925,Kansas City,Missouri, U.S.—died November 20, 2006,Los Angeles, California) was an unconventional and independent Americanmotion-picture director, whose works emphasize character and atmosphere over plot in exploring themes of innocence, corruption, and survival. Perhaps his best-known film was his first and biggest commercial success, the antiwar comedyM*A*S*H (1970).

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Early years

Altman, the son of a well-to-do insurance man, was a member of a prominent family in Kansas City, Missouri. From his junior year ofhigh school through the beginning of his college education, he attended the Wentworth Military Academy inLexington, Missouri. In 1945 he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces, serving as a pilot until 1947. After a failed attempt as anentrepreneur and a sojourn in Los Angeles, Altman took a job with the Calvin Company in Kansas City, where he directed dozens of industrial films. In 1957 he shotThe Delinquents, adrama aboutjuvenile delinquency, in Kansas City with a cast that included Tom Laughlin (later the star of the 1970s cult filmBilly Jack). Altman also codirected, with George W. George (son of cartoonistRube Goldberg), the documentaryThe James Dean Story (1957). That film, released two years afterthe actor’s death, brought Altman to the attention of the television industry, in which he would work for years,directing episodes ofCombat,Bonanza, andAlfred Hitchcock Presents, among many other programs.

In the 1950s and ’60s Altman made a number of short films, and in 1964 he directed the television movieNightmare in Chicago. It was not until 1967, however, that he directed another feature film, the meticulously realized, documentary-flavoured space adventureCountdown (1968), withRobert Duvall and James Caan playing astronauts. Altman went to Canada to shootThat Cold Day in the Park (1969), a portentous modern gothic drama starringSandy Dennis as a disturbed spinster who brings home a young drifter, with dire consequences.

M*A*S*H and the 1970s

Altman’s next film,M*A*S*H (1970), was a phenomenal success. Released at the height of theVietnam War, this brilliantblack comedy was set during theKorean War but transparently was a reflection on the more recent conflict. The performances byElliott Gould andDonald Sutherland as the madcap surgeons Hawkeye and Trapper John, respectively, struck a chord with the American counterculture in their refusal to bow to authority, and Sally Kellerman and Duvall provided superb support. Altman’s use of overlappingdialogue was a startlinginnovation at the time and became an Altman hallmark thereafter, and his cutting suddenly from bawdy slapstick to the shocking horrors of war disturbed thecomplacency of viewers in a way few Hollywood movies had ever done. Altman was nominated for anAcademy Award for best director, and the film was nominated for best picture.M*A*S*H put Altman in position to make the kind of films that he wanted to for a long time.

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He used his newfound carte blanche to make the relentlessly quirky, fabulistBrewster McCloud (1970), with Bud Cort as a nerd who wants to fly inside the HoustonAstrodome (the world’s first domed stadium). Despite its inventive cinematography, the film met with mixed reviews and failed commercially. Audiences and critics both initially had a lukewarm response to Altman’s next film,McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), but, as time passed, praise grew for this revisionist “anti-western,” Cowritten by Altman, it was a film of rare beauty, set at the turn of the 20th century in a boomtown in thePacific Northwest, and it offered a symboliccritique of corporate capitalism.Warren Beatty delivered an especially appealing performance as John McCabe, a rather dense small-time gambler whose ambitions prove too big for him, andJulie Christie played Mrs. Miller, a canny brothel madam who loves but cannot save him. Altman’s use of overlapping dialogue and sound, the film’s patient pacing, and a lingering camera together convey a sense of atmospheric naturalism that is deftly augmented by a dreamy score by singer-songwriterLeonard Cohen and the poetic cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond. Altman next made the ambitiousImages (1972), which starredSusannah York as a disturbed woman who has trouble separating fantasy from reality. Although it was carefully constructed and beautifully shot, and it was also likened to the work ofIngmar Bergman by some critics and to that ofJoseph Losey by others, it received only a limited release.

With theThe Long Goodbye (1973) Altman reworked another classicgenre. This time he deconstructed theiconic hard-boiled private eye at the centre of so muchfilm noir. Gould provided an aggressively antiheroic, ignoble portrayal ofPhilip Marlowe, the protagonist in the 1953 novel byRaymond Chandler on which the film was based. Altman’s film hews close to Chandler’s plot, simply transposing the time frame to contemporary Los Angeles, but his deliberately provocative tone did not sit well with many moviegoers.

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Some critics lauded the inventive use of radio to comment on events and the period details inThieves Like Us (1974), Altman’sadaptation of Edward Anderson’s 1937 novel about aBonnie-and-Clyde-like gang of bank robbers. Others felt the film fell short ofNicholas Ray’s treatment of the same source material inThey Live by Night (1949).California Split (1974) was a loosely structured, almostexistential meditation on the joy and despair ofgambling, with Elliott Gould andGeorge Segal as a pair of cardsharps trying to score big in a high-stakes poker game in Reno, Nevada. The improvisational acting so central to Altman’s filmmaking process is prominently on display inCalifornia Split. Altman seldom used ashooting script anddisdained conventional narratives. Instead, he usually worked from a general concept and expected his actors to familiarize themselves with the details of the story’s historical period or socialmilieu and to be prepared to improvise dialogue and actions. Altman’s faith in chance and his dependence on his collaborators was partly based on his development of a group of actors, akin to a traditional theatricalstock company, who were familiar with his process.

Many of those repertory players—Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall,Michael Murphy, Gwen Welles, and Bert Remsen, among others—helped Altman take his exploration of free-form narrative to another level inNashville (1975), a wildly inventive profile of some two dozen characters who congregate in the city of Nashville over the course of a weekend—some to attend a political rally, some to break into the music business, and some for seemingly no real reason at all. Aided byLily Tomlin, Ronee Blakely, Karen Black, andBarbara Harris, Altman wove fromdiverse threads an impressionistic tapestry that somehow conveys the essence of the American dream. The film received near-unanimousaccolades from critics, performed well commercially, and garnered a raft of Academy Award nominations, including for best picture and best director.

Coming in the wake of this masterpiece,Buffalo Bill and the Indians; or, Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976) was viewed by many as a major letdown. Altman’s adaptation (with Alan Rudolph) ofArthur Kopit’s 1969 playIndians starredPaul Newman asBuffalo Bill Cody, who is revealed to be a far cry from the mythic frontiersman of dime-novel fame. Despite Altman’s biggest budget to date (provided by producerDino De Laurentiis) and a fine cast that includedBurt Lancaster,Harvey Keitel, and Geraldine Chaplin, the film was a commercial and critical failure, which resulted in the canceling of Altman’s contract to direct a film version ofE.L. Doctorow’s novelRagtime (eventually made byMiloš Forman). Undaunted, Altman acted as producer, director, and writer forThree Women (1977). A mystical investigation into the nature of identity (based on a dream Altman had), with Shelley Duvall,Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule, itpolarized critics. Altman and his production company, Lion’s Gate Films, also played an important role in supporting the career of directorAlan Rudolph, whoseWelcome to L.A. (1976) andRemember My Name (1978) were produced by Altman.

For the remainder of the decade, Altman directed a series of films forTwentieth Century-Fox that were received by filmgoers and critics with increasing indifference.A Wedding (1978) revolved around dozens of characters, and the allegorical science-fiction mysteryQuintet (1979) starred Newman. NeitherH.E.A.L.T.H. (1979), despite a cast that includedJames Garner,Carol Burnett,Lauren Bacall,Glenda Jackson, and Alfre Woodard, norA Perfect Couple (1979) were given a theatrical release.