The movies reflect our times, and the times then help categorize our movies; if the '70s can be defined as the decade of ("Taxi Driver", "Network", etc,) and the '80s were a 10-year coming-out party for the big blockbuster "popcorn" films, certainly the '90s will be remembered for the independent film revolution - the period where the big studios couldn't buy an Oscar (well, for less than $200 million, that is.)
And there can't be a better way to kick it all off than with "The Player."
Released in 1992 by Fine Line, one of the earlier Indy studios, Robert Altman's ("M*A*S*H", "Nashville", "Pret a Porter") film based on Michael Tolkin's novel (he also scripted the screenplay,) stars Tim Robbins as Griffin Mill, one of the top executives at a Hollywood studio. His job is threatened, however, by the rising Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher, "American Beauty".) If that wasn't enough, he's also started receiving poison pen letters from someone claiming to be a scriptwriter; a writer than Mill refused to give the time of day to.
Mill, thinking he's figured out the culprit, travels to Pasadena to assuage him - with a script deal. The writer, David Kahane (Vince D'Onofrio) won't play his game though, instead mocking Mill for his trek into the lowly suburbs. This proves fatal for Kahane, as Mill, his job and his life threatened, beats him to death in a stairwell on impulse.
Somewhat guilty (but only somewhat,) Mill attends his funeral, and later meets up again with Kahane's girlfriend June (Gretta Scacchi) whom he met before when trying to find Kahane. He falls for her, and this coupled with a witness to the murder draws the attention of the Pasadena police, who start investigating him for Kahane's murder.
The film is a clinic in direction, as Altman invokes color (June's blue tinted house, the blood-red lights in the stairwell, Mill's increasingly dark suits as he falls further into despair) to set the mood of the film, along with old movie posters in every nook and cranny to remind the viewer, and perhaps the film's characters, how far the industry has come.
Altman even opens the film by showing off, doing what no computer can do: shoot eight minutes without a cut (yeah, "Snake Eyes" went 14, but I SWEAR there were at least two digital cuts - okay, maybe computers can do it.) The many-scenes-within-a-scene that begins the movie not only get us ready for something a little different than we're used to, but help establish the characters, and give us a few movie cliches to boot - including two characters talking about long, endless shots.
Of course, the movie's biggest claim to fame is its endless stream of cameos. Besides getting several stars to play supporting roles (Whoopi Goldberg, Lyle Lovett,) a cavalcade of Who's Who play themselves in the film, starting with John Cusack and Anjelica Huston and ending with the biggest of all: Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts.
The cameos help to remind you of the subject, but also distract a bit; you're sometimes more concerned with who you'll see next than what Robbins will do next.
And the appearances are hardly the only cliche hammered home; along the way, we get schooled in how a classic script is turned into garbage, and in one of the greatest endings you'll see in a film, the movie comes full circle with one of the best cliched endings ever - that really works.
The script is top notch, the acting is perfect, the casting has no flaws whatsoever - and in its two hours, four minutes, "The Player" manages to rip Hollywood apart 31 different ways, and yet still, deep down embrace it, seeming to want reform, not obliteration.
And the ultimate hypocrisy, of course, is the cameos: multitudes of actors helping to admit their industry is messed up.
What a way to begin the Independent Film revolution.
Product DetailsOriginal Title:The Player (Special Edition) - New Line Platinum SeriesActors: Robbins, Tim - Scacchi, Greta - Ward, Fred - Whoopi Gold...More at iNetVideo.com
Robert Altman's adaptation of Michael Tolkin's novel gives the notorious director a chance to address perhaps his greatest nemesis: the Hollywood stud...More at Family Video
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