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THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 29
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 ROBERT ALTMAN FILMS:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) 86 23 9
#2 Nashville (1975) 65 17 6
#3 Short Cuts (1993) 51 17 3
#4 3 Women (1977) 43 13 3
#5 The Long Goodbye (1973) 40 14 1
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

The number one spot this week easily went to McCabe & Mrs. Miller with 86 points (third highest total in Top 5 history). In a distant but still strong second place was (my favourite) Nashville with 65 points. After that it was a real battle to the finish between four films. In third was Short Cuts with 51 points, followed by 3 Women with 43 and The Long Goodbye with 40.

Just missing out was The Player, with 37 points. Overall, twenty-three of Altman's films were chosen by twenty-nine different participants. Films that showed well were M*A*S*H, Gosford Park, California Split and Images. Even Popeye recieved a vote.

We here at The Cinematheque (that is the editorial we) would like to say how much Mr. Altman will be missed. Rest in Peace and let's hope Spielberg doesn't get ahold of his final film and pull a Kubrick/A.I. debacle on it.

Individual lists:

Kent Jones
Editor-at-Large, Film Comment

  1. California Split (1974)

  2. 3 Women (1977)

  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  4. A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

  5. The Long Goodbye (1973)



Michael Wilmington
Film Critic, Chicago Tribune
Professor & Film Scholar, University of Chicago

  1. Short Cuts (1993)

  2. Nashville (1975)

  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1970)

  4. M*A*S*H (1970)

  5. Gosford Park (2001)

Runners-Up: A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Secret Honor (1984), A Wedding (1978), The Player (1992), Tanner ’88 (1988).


David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics
ed., "Robert Altman: Interviews," University Press of Mississippi, 2000

  1. 3 Women (1977)

  2. A Wedding (1978)

  3. Nashville (1975)

  4. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  5. The Player (1992)



Carrie Rickey
Film Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer

  1. Vincent & Theo (1990)

  2. M*A*S*H (1970)

  3. Gosford Park (2001)

  4. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  5. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)



David Ehrenstein
Film Critic & Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998

  1. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  3. 3 Women (1977)

  4. Short Cuts (1993)

  5. A Prairie Home Companion (2006)



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Film Critic & Freelance Entertainment Writer
Las Vegas Weekly, Oakland Tribune

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  3. Short Cuts (1993)

  4. 3 Women (1977)

  5. The Company (2003)



Christopher Null
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com

  1. The Player (1992)

  2. M*A*S*H (1970)

  3. Short Cuts (1993)

  4. 3 Women (1977)

  5. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)



Rick Curnutte
Film Critic & Editor, The Film Journal

  1. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  3. 3 Women (1977)

  4. California Split (1974)

  5. The Player (1992)



Laura Clifford
Film Critic & Co-Host, Reeling: The Movie Review Show

  1. Nashville (1975)

  2. 3 Women (1977)

  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  4. The Player (1992)

  5. Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)



Peter Sobczynski
Film Critic, eFilmCritic.com

  1. Short Cuts (1993)

  2. McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971)

  3. Nashville (1975)

  4. Popeye (1980)

  5. Quintet (1979) - As I said when I insisted on including this film in an Altman retrospective I once helped put on, how can you possibly celebrate America's most iconclastic filmmaker without celebrating his most iconoclastic film.

That said, with the exception of Beyond Therapy and maybe The Gingerbread Man, there isn't a single Altman film that I can think of that I wouldn't happily sit down and watch right now. (And yeah, I even have a soft spot for O.C. and Stiggs and Ready-to-Wear)


Eric Enders
Film Critic, Out There in the Dark

  1. The Player (1992)

  2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  3. Secret Honor (1984)

  4. Gosford Park (2001)

  5. Short Cuts (1993)



Michael Parent
Film Student

In the death of Robert Altman we’ve lost one of the best directors last week but I’d like to take the opportunity to mention that one of the best actors passed away too; Philippe Noiret with over than 100 films. Anyway, I really like Altman’s style and vision.

  1. M*A*S*H (1970)

  2. Nashville (1975)

  3. Gosford Park (2001)

  4. Short Cuts (1993)

  5. The Player (1992)



Adam Trovillion
Film Enthusiast

  1. Nashville (1975)

  2. Aria (segment "Les Boréades") (1987)

  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  4. M*A*S*H (1970)

  5. Short Cuts (1993)



Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast

  1. 3 Women (1977)

  2. Nashville (1975)

  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  4. Short Cuts (1993)

  5. The Long Goodbye (1974)



Kevin Cassidy
Film Enthusiast

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. Nashville (1975)

  3. A Wedding (1978)

  4. M*A*S*H (1970)

  5. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1988)



Dan Jardine
Film Critic, Cinemania

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. Nashville (1975)

  3. Short Cuts (1993)

  4. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  5. The Player (1992)



Chris Cathcart
Film Enthusiast

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. Images (1972)

  3. The Player (1992)

  4. Short Cuts (1993)

  5. Vincent & Theo (1990)



Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) - Altman's stated intention in making McCabe and Mrs. Miller was to "destroy all the myths of heroism," and the result is so thorough a revision of Western movie mythology that we're finally left with that famous line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, ironically inverted, "When the facts become legend, print the facts." Instead of glorifying the pioneering spirit, celebrating rugged individualism, or mythologizing heroic gunmen, Altman creates a harsh, punishing portrait of pioneering life in the Northwest, where life is cheap, death comes suddenly, big business runs roughshod over the individual, and the hero is hardly worthy of the appellation. Far from being the noble larger-than-life savior of civilization from Western movie lore, Beatty's John McCabe is a belching, heavy-drinking, two-bit gambler and businessman who's simply trying to survive in a dangerous environment. Yet it’s precisely McCabe's lack of heroism that makes his final stand so moving, and when he unexpectedly whips out a derringer (the gun with which he reputedly shot one Bill Roundtree) during that memorable gunfight in the snow, you're forced to reconsider everything you knew, or thought you knew, about John McCabe. Maybe Altman found room for the legend, after all.

  2. The Long Goodbye (1973) - Like McCabe and Mrs. Miller, this is another revisionist masterpiece, this time of the private eye genre, which stars Elliot Gould as a '50s style version of Philip Marlowe who, like a modern day Rip Van Winkle, figuratively awakens from a twenty year (big) sleep to find himself a cultural throwback whose code of honor, particularly his loyalty to friends, is poignantly out of place in the narcissistic, morally indifferent milieu of '70s L.A. It's an inspired conceit, which allows Altman to critique the selfish me-generation and parody the conventions of the private eye genre, while still managing to tell an engrossing mystery story, aided by Gould's poignant re-imagining of Marlowe, Brackett's clever screenplay, the vitality of Zsigmond's constantly tracking, panning, and zooming camerawork, and William's intentionally corny, yet oddly haunting title tune, whose theme wittily pops up throughout the picture in the darndest places (including a doorbell!). I also like how the generally low-key, humorous tone is punctuated by unexpected jolts of violence, notably the shocking finale in which Marlowe shows that he's not someone to be trifled with.

  3. The Player (1992) - There's poetic justice in Altman, the quintessential maverick filmmaker and Hollywood outsider, skewing the Hollywood system from the inside. That so many celebrities agreed to participate in the skewing of the system of which they're a part is both a delicious irony and a testament to the respect Altman enjoyed within the acting community. Working from Tolkin's knowing script, which reaches sublime heights of self-referential irony, Altman may have found the perfect milieu for his patented free form style in the boardroom meetings, dinner parties, and power lunches of the Hollywood elite.

  4. Nashville (1975) - Has Altman's signature free form style ever been put to better use than in Nashville? As he cuts back and forth between his 24 characters, the expert use of overlapping dialogue and the skillfully improvised performances achieve a stunning sense of intimacy and spontaneity, while the exploration of their customs, politics, music, social pecking order and sexual activities becomes a virtual anthropological study of Nashville culture. By the end, I'm always awed by the sheer scope of Altman's achievement, especially by how skillfully he weaves together so many interrelated narrative strands, climaxing in a series of dramatically moving moments, including the classic scene in which the womanizing Carradine sings "I'm Easy" while four of his female conquests watch him perform. The film's final shot is interesting. The camera cranes up and away from the crowd at the political rally/concert, pausing from on high to take a final look at its subjects, then pans skyward, at which point the film fades out. Altman seems to be disengaging himself from the events below and from the entire Nashville scene, as if to say that this sociological study is over, no more can be learned here, it's time to go.

  5. Thieves Like Us (1974) - This sadly underrated gem, a rural gangster flick a la Bonnie and Clyde, features rich period flavor, excellent dialogue, and marvelous performances by Carradine and Duvall, whose touching lovers-on-the-lam relationship lends considerable emotional resonance to the tragic ending.



Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

Of the 20,000 to 30,000 films I have seen in my lifetime, McCabe & Mrs. Miller has remained my favorite for the past three decades.

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. Gosford Park (2001)

  3. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  4. 3 Women (1977)

  5. The Player (1992)



Rod Armstrong
Film Critic, Reel.com

  1. Tanner '88 (1988)

  2. 3 Women (1977)

  3. Short Cuts (1993)

  4. The Player (1992)

  5. Images (1972)



Jay Antani
Film Critic

There are so many Altman films equally good and great that it's tough to parse these into a proper list. Just off in the wings of this Top 5 for me: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Secret Honor (1984) and 3 Women (1977).

  1. California Split (1974)

  2. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  3. M*A*S*H (1970)

  4. Nashville (1975)

  5. Gosford Park (2001)



Jeff Vorndam
Film Enthusiast

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  3. Gosford Park (2001)

  4. The Player (1992)

  5. California Split (1974)



Rob Walton
Film Enthusiast

  1. Nashville (1975)

  2. Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)

  3. Short Cuts (1993)

  4. Gosford Park (2001)

  5. The Player (1992)



Brian Leonard
Film Enthusiast

  1. 3 Women (1977) - perhaps not Altman's greatest achievement, but I'm putting it at the top because of its uniqueness and emotional effect.

  2. Short Cuts (1993) - Altman at the top of his game.

  3. M*A*S*H (1970) - Still radical.

  4. The Player (1992) - Good even after the first shot.

  5. Vincent & Theo (1990) - Highly underseen and underrated.

Hardest to leave off: Nashville (which I always thought was slightly overrated, but still a fine film); Brewster McCloud; Gosford Park. I need to see McCabe & Mrs. Miller again--the only time I saw it, the sound was so distorted that *all* the dialogue was incomprehensible.


Jason Mlinarsik
Film Enthusiast

  1. Nashville (1975)

  2. Short Cuts (1993)

  3. The Player (1992)

  4. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  5. M*A*S*H (1970)



Stephen Cone
Film Enthusiast

  1. Gosford Park (2001) - His greatest masterpiece; Altman's (and everyone else's) art in perfect, perfectly discordant harmony.

  2. California Split (1974) - The best Cassavetes film Cassavetes or Elaine May never made.

  3. Cookie's Fortune (1999) - His most undderrated and one of the few very good Southern films. It captures the South's beautiful/brutal, profoundly conflicted spirit perfectly.

  4. A Prairie Home Companion (2006) - A minor work? Are you out of your mind?

  5. The Long Goodbye (1973) - Like really expensive liquor.

Runners-Up would have to be, well, The Company or 3 Women, his loveliest poems. Nashville's good, too.

I would also like to add that Robert Altman is very likely, as of today, the best thing to happen to digital video. Period.


Jesse Walker
Film Enthusiast and Managing Editor, Reason Magazine

  1. Short Cuts (1993)

  2. The Long Goodbye (1973)

  3. Nashville (1975)

  4. Images (1972)

  5. California Split (1974)



Wes Anderson
Student and aspiring filmmaker

  1. Nashville (1975)

  2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  3. Short Cuts (1993)

  4. M*A*S*H (1970)

  5. The Player (1992)



Ricardo Luis Alvarez
Film Enthusiast

  1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  2. Images (1972)

  3. The Player (1992)

  4. Nashville (1975)

  5. 3 Women (1977)

Honorable Mentions: The Long Goodbye (1973), Short Cuts (1993), Cookie’s Fortune (1999), Gosford Park (2001).


Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

  1. Nashville (1975)

  2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

  3. 3 Women (1977)

  4. M*A*S*H (1970)

  5. The Long Goodbye (1973)

Although there are different "levels" in the Altman oeuvre, I have never seen an Altman film that I disliked (and yes, I have seen Popeye) - although Kansas City probably comes the closest - but I wanted to list a handful of his films that deserve runner-up status, and also seem to get regularly overlooked by many. These films are: Buffalo Bill & The Indians, Brewster McCloud, The Company, A Wedding, and the aforementioned Popeye.

*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
ON HIATUS FOR ONE WEEK

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #30,
no later than 6pm-ish on Sunday, December 17, 2006.

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