Robert Altman Collection (M*A*S*H / A Perfect Couple / Quintet / A Wedding)
by Robert Altman
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Actor: Carol Burnett, Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Paul Newman, Vittorio GassmanDirector: Robert Altman
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Writer: Allan F. Nicholls
Writer: Frank Barhydt
Writer: John Considine
Writer: Lionel Chetwynd
Writer: Patricia Resnick
Writer: Richard Hooker
Writer: Ring Lardner Jr.
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 470 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-04-25
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Robert Altman Collection (M*A*S*H / A Perfect Couple / Quintet / A Wedding)
DVD Review: Fine but no need for M*A*S*H again
Summary: 4 Stars
I love Robert Altman movies and here are three rare ones, finally getting their due. But why is M*A*S*H included, when it was afforded a big two disc set treatment only a couple of year's previously? It would have been a far better idea to have added HEALTH, a really obscure Altman film, that barely got released. MASH was included to make sure their was a popular title in the mix, but to attract fans of the sitcom, not the movie. The Altman devotees, which this composite says is its target audience, bought the MASH set on the first bounce. So, here, the devoted had to rebuy the Korean war film in order to get A WEDDING.
A WEDDING is a fine, funny film which expands the NASHVILLE-style multiple character arena Altman genre to new heights. Wonderful performances and outrageous plot turns will delight fans, but the unwary may be turned off. It is intelligent, fast paced and filled with Altman touches.
A PERFECT COUPLE deserves to be better known. It is a romantic story of two nebbish-y people finding romance in the midst of a wild tangle of Altman weirdos. Funny, well acted, it got dumped on its original release and never got a chance to find an audience.
QUINTET is probably the worst Altman film of all time. Arty, pretentious, devoid of meaning, and boring,
This package cries out for HEALTH, and there really needs to be commentaries. If Altman himself wasn't available, then there are certainly enough serious enthusiasts of his work to add insight to the set. The 'by the book' little documentaries offer very little.
DVD Review: not such a bargain
Summary: 2 Stars
Ive always been a big fan of robert altmans, and two of these films are certainly marvellous, the classic mash, unsurpassed, and a wedding, which is clever and funny, but the other two, quintet a perfect couple, are a little embarassing for an altman fan, as they really are pretty atrocious.But if youre a movie buff and altman can do no wrong, Im sure youll find some enjoyment even in those disasters.DVD Review: One bonafide gem, three others for consideration.
Summary: 4 Stars
There's not a whole lot more one can say about MASH, except that it showed that the late Robert Altman was a potent if erratic filmmaker to be reckoned with. "Erratic" is a key word, because while it's true that there are a lot of great films in the Altman canon, there are also a lot of misfires or, at the very least, films that work well in some places and fall apart completely in others. There are a lot of divergent opinions about A WEDDING, QUINTET and A PERFECT COUPLE and, in the end, it probably comes down to one's own patience with Altman's filmmaking methods in each. For my part, QUINTET suceeds the best; it's a dystopian fantasy about the remnants of humanity slowly freezing to death in a snow-covered world, when they're not killing each other off playing a bizarre game called Quintet. Paul Newman plays a traveler who gets caught up in the game and winds up with more than he bargained for from the other players. While a downer, it's an interesting and muted story that explores what life is worth when the world around you is dysfunctional, and it's held my interest each time I've seen it. I'm less fond of A WEDDING and A PERFECT COUPLE. The former just seems to go on and on about how two families with numerous skeletons in their closets fare on the wedding day that joins them together as in-laws. It has all the disparate storyline elements that made films like NASHVILLE and GOSFORD PARK such sucesses, but it feels hectoring, beating you over the head to show you how icky all of these people are. A PERFECT COUPLE is sweet but slight, a tale about a May-December romance that isn't very engaging. At the end I had a hard time figuring out what the two romantic leads saw in each other to stick it out together after their initial encounter through a dating service.
But that's me. Other people I know who mostly love Altman can't stand QUINTET but think A WEDDING was as good as NASHVILLE, if not better, so there you are (I haven't run into any admirers of A PERFECT COUPLE yet, but I don't doubt they're out there). I'm just glad that some of Altman's questionable movies are available in the US, and you might well like all of them. Now if only an NTSC version of THIEVES LIKE US was available....
DVD Review: A Perfect Couple Makes this a Necessity
Summary: 5 Stars
A Perfect Couple - hadn't even heard of this endearing film until Alman's death and this is the only way to get it. It is worth the cost of the collection - of course the other titles don't hurt.DVD Review: ROBERT ALTMAN (FEBRUARY 20, 1925 - NOVEMBER 20, 2006)
Summary: 5 Stars
Bob's Mini-Bio from Amazon's own IMDB:
Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school.
From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started exploring the art of exploring sound with the cheap tape recorders available at the time. He was then sent to Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri where he attended through Junior College.
In 1945, he enlisted in the Air Force and became a copilot of a B-24. After his discharge from the military, he became fascinated by movies and he and his first wife LaVonne moved to Hollywood, where Altman tried acting (appearing in the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)), songwriting (he wrote a musical intended for Broadway, "The Rumors are Flying"), and screenwriting (he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Bodyguard (1948) and wrote the story (uncredited) for Christmas Eve (1947)), but he could not get a foot hold in Tinseltown.
After a brief fling as publicity director with a company in the business of tattooing dogs, Altman finally gave up and returned to his hometown of Kansas City, where he decided he wanted to do some serious work in filmmaking. An old friend of his recommended him to a film production company in Kansas City, the Calvin Co., who hired him in 1950.
After a few months of work in writing scripts and editing films, Altman began directing films at Calvin. It was here (while working on documentaries, employee training films, industrial and educational films and advertisements) that he learned much about film making. All in all, Altman pieced together sixty to sixty-five short films for Calvin on every subject imaginable, from football to car crashes, but he kept grasping for more challenging projects.
He wrote the screenplay for the Kansas City-produced feature film Corn's-A-Poppin' (1951), he produced and directed several television commercials including one with the Eileen Ford Agency, he co-created and directed the TV series _The Pulse of the City (1953)_ which ran for one season on the independent Dumont network, and he even had a formative crack at directing local community theater.
His big-screen directorial debut came while still at Calvin with The Delinquents (1957) and, by 1956, he left the Calvin Co., and went to Hollywood to direct Alfred Hitchcock's TV show. From here, he went on to direct a large number of television shows, until he was offered the script for MASH (1970) in 1969. He was hardly the producer's first choice - more than fifteen other directors had already turned it down. This wasn't his first movie, but it was his first success.
After that he had his share of hits and misses, but The Player (1992) and more recently Gosford Park (2001) were particularly well-received.
--
RIP Bob. You will be sorely missed.
Description of Robert Altman Collection (M*A*S*H / A Perfect Couple / Quintet / A Wedding)
Episode Description: Disc 1 "MASH (single disc)": Rating: R Audio: English: Stereo & Mono / French: Mono Subtitled: English & Spanish Special Features: Commentary with Robert Altman, AMC Backstory Featurette, Still Gallery and Theatrical TrailerDisc 2 "A Perfect Couple": Rating: PG Audio: English: Stereo / Spanish: Mono Subtitled: English & Spanish Special Features: Perspective on Altman's Perfect Couple, Theatrical Trailer, Fox Flix: A Wedding, Quintet, & MASH
Disc 3 "Quintet": Rating: R Audio: English: Mono & Stereo / French: Mono / Spanish: Mono Subtitled: English & Spanish Special Features: Developing the World of Quintet, Theatrical Trailer, Fox Flix: A Wedding, A Perfect Couple, & MASH
Disc 4 "A Wedding": Rating: PG Audio: English: Stereo / French: Mono / Spanish: Mono Subtitles: English & Spanish Special Features: A Wedding Altman Style, Theatrical Trailer, & Fox Flix: Quintet, A Perfect Couple, & MASH
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