The Player (1992)

The Player: Directed by Robert Altman. With Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg. A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected, but which one?

“Come next year, when I am trying to devise a list of the best films of the 90u0026#39;s, Robert Altmanu0026#39;s u0026quot;The Playeru0026quot; will be near the top of my list. This film skillfully creates a central plot around Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) (who hears about 125 movie pitches per day), a studio executive who is being threatened by a writer whose script or idea he likely brushed off. But what is even more brilliant about u0026quot;The Playeru0026quot; is everything going on peripherally to the main plot; all the references to studio techniques of film-making, foreign film movements, homages and Old Hollywood vs. New Hollywood. The film is multi-layered, yet everything that we view falls neatly into the formula which Hollywood film-making survives by. What we see in the duration of u0026quot;The Playeru0026quot; would potentially make a perfect pitch for a movie. This may sound confusing, but watch the entire film, and you will immediately know what I mean.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film begins with a stunning homage to Alfred Hitchcocku0026#39;s u0026quot;Ropeu0026quot;, an approximately eight minute long take where the camera moves freely around a studio encountering many people in the midst of their everyday routines. For example, we come across a couple discussing how Hollywood film is now much like MTV u0026quot;cut, cut, cutu0026quot;. One of the characters even uses the example of u0026quot;Ropeu0026quot; to illustrate his point. u0026quot;Ropeu0026quot; is approximately a ninety minute film that appears to have been shot all in one take. Of course, it wasnu0026#39;t done in one take, as reels of film at that time were only ten minutes long. If one watches the film very closely, it can be determined where the cuts are made.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the duration of the same take, we encounter Griffin Mill conducting business in his office. People walk into his office pitching movie ideas. It is here that we begin to learn about populist Hollywood film-making. Ideas, not stories or scripts are pitched to executives u0026quot;in 25 words or lessu0026quot;. Almost always, the ideas thrown out are based on previous films (e.g. u0026quot;someone always gets killed at the end of a political thrilleru0026quot;) and even combinations of previous films (e.g. u0026quot;Itu0026#39;s Pretty Woman meets Out of Africau0026quot;). When we see the usual films that are released into theaters each week, it is not difficult to believe that this is the way in which they are conceived. The usual Hollywood formula entails sex, violence, familiarity and most important of all u0026quot;happy endings, a movie always has to have a happy endingu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;The Playeru0026quot; is filled with loads of Hollywood stars, most of them playing themselves. Jeff Goldblum, Malcolm McDowell, John Cusack, Angelica Huston, and Burt Reynolds to name a few. Many of them are encountered at restaurants during lunch and at night time Hollywood gatherings, where the topic of conversation is always movies. Near the beginning of the film, Griffin suggests that he and his lunch guests talk about something else. u0026quot;Weu0026#39;re all educated adultsu0026quot;. Of course no one says anything. Their lives are so indoctrinated by Hollywood, they do not know what else to talk about.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRight from the beginning Griffin receives numerous postcards threatening his life. He begins to suspect a certain writer and goes to his house one night to confront him. The man turns out not to be home, but there is an incredible scene where Griffin talks with the manu0026#39;s girlfriend on the phone while voyeuristically watching her through the window. This is an extraordinary symbolization of the voyeuristic essence that goes along with watching a film, or the notion of scopophilia to be precise. The idea behind the concept of scopophilia is that the cinema constructs the spectator as a subject; the beholder of the gaze, who has an intense desire to look. The cinema places viewers in a voyeuristic position in that the viewer watches the film unseen in a dark room. While Griffin is watching the girl as he speaks with her, it is night time and he remains unseen to her. This scenario metaphorically represents the theater and the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the duration of Griffinu0026#39;s conversation on the phone, he finds out that the man he is looking for is watching u0026quot;The Bicycle Thiefu0026quot; in an art-house theater in Pasadena. This film in itself represents the first contrast to Hollywood that we see in u0026quot;The Playeru0026quot;. Vittorio DeSicau0026#39;s u0026quot;The Bicycle Thiefu0026quot; was part of a movement that lasted from 1942 to 1952 called ‘Italian Neo-Realismu0026quot;, whose other main exponents were Rossellini and Visconti. Rossellini called neo-realism both a moral and an aesthetic cinema. Neo-realism, to a great extent owes much of its existence to film-makersu0026#39; displeasure at the restrictions placed on freedom of expression. This film movement is quite different from the modern Hollywood formula of film-making. When Griffin first meets the man he suspects is sending the postcards, he suggests that perhaps they could do a remake of u0026quot;The Bicycle Thiefu0026quot;. The man responds with u0026quot;yeah sure, youu0026#39;d probably want to give it a happy endingu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlso interesting in u0026quot;The Playeru0026quot; is one of the studio executives suggestions to newspapers as a source for script ideas. This serves to contrast Old Hollywood versus New Hollywood. In the older days of studio film, Warner Brothers (one of the studiou0026#39;s of middle-class America) would produce films with ideas seemingly drawn from real life or from the headlines of major newspapers. This gives us the sense that often Hollywood is stuck for original ideas, so ideas from the past re-circulate themselves.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have touched on only a few of the many interesting references that run peripherally to the main plot of u0026quot;The Playeru0026quot;. The great thing is that even if you do not catch all the film references that I have been discussing, it is still enjoyable. When I first saw the film, I was really young and did not know much about movies, but yet I enjoyed it thoroughly. Now, it is one of my favorites. I definitely recommend it to anyone who has a keen interest in film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e**** out of ****”