R. Altman in the Blogosphere

Well, we really like "Nashville" and Robert Altman, which and who S/FJ so roundly disses in his blog. He probably did it just to get the inevitable outrage, some of which he has already posted (click ahead). He does apparently give it up for "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," thank goodness.

Look: just below, we quoted R. Chandler, and Altman's version of "The Long Goodbye" (1973) is the best Chandler on film. It has almost nothing at all to do with Chandler's book, but instead is a devious meta-text interpretation of the private-eye tradtion sent to us straight out of the type of early '70's questioning that produced so many of the greatest American movies. "The Long Goodbye" was scripted by Leigh Brackett, who, in addition to being one of the few major female pulp writers, co-scripted the most famous Chandler on film: Howard Hawk's "The Big Sleep," with Bogart and Bacall (1946). (The other credited script-writer was William Faulkner, who was drunk the whole time.) After "The Long Goodbye," Brackett scripted a minor indie fiim by G. Lucas called "The Empire Strikes Back" to close out her long and fascinating career.

Altman's "The Long Goodbye" is also the direct ancestor to the Coen brothers's "The Big Lebowski," which is one of the Rosetta Stones or Ten Commandments of The Bad Plus. (We quote "Lebowski" on tour all the time.) The Coen's admit their debt in the interview on the "Lebowski" DVD. Probably "TLG" and "TBL" are the only "private eye" films in which the "detective" is seen fussing incompetently with milk in the opening scene.

As for "Nashville": Mark Morris declared to us (a few years ago) that it is his FAVORITE FILM. Not on some personal "Top 100 List", but no: it is the best film he has ever seen.