Robert Altman

Robert Altman—visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend—comes roaring to life in this rollicking cinematic biography, told in a chorus of voices that can only be called Altmanesque.

His outsized life and unique career are revealed as never before: here are the words of his family and friends, and a few enemies, as well as the agents, writers, crew members, producers, and stars who worked with him, including Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, Tim Robbins, Julianne Moore, Paul Newman, Julie Christie, Elliott Gould, Martin Scorsese, Robin Williams, Cher, and many others. There is even Altman himself, in the form of his exclusive last interviews.

After an all-American boyhood in Kansas City, a stint flying bombers through enemy fire in World War II, and jobs ranging from dog-tattoo entrepreneur to television director, Robert Altman burst onto the scene in 1970 with the movie M*A*S*H. He revolutionized American filmmaking, and, in a decade, produced masterpieces at an astonishing pace: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Thieves Like Us, The Long Goodbye, 3 Women, and, of course, Nashville. Then, after a period of disillusionment with Hollywood—as well as Hollywood’s disillusionment with him—he reinvented himself with a bold new set of masterworks: The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park. Finally, just before the release of the last of his nearly forty movies, A Prairie Home Companion, he received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement from the Academy, which had snubbed him for so many years.

Mitchell Zuckoff—who was working with Altman on his memoirs before he died—weaves Altman’s final interviews, an incredible cast of voices, and contemporary reviews and news accounts, into a riveting tale of an extraordinary life. Here are page after page of revelations that force us to reevaluate Altman as a man and an artist, and to view his sprawling narratives with large casts, multiple story lines, and overlapping dialogue as unquestionably the work of a modern genius.

From the Hardcover edition.

Share your thoughts on the Robert Altman ebook with other internet viewers!

Title of ebook: Robert Altman
ISBN: 9780307273352
parent-ISBN: 9780307267689
Publisher: Knopf
Internet download file size: 5236 kb
Released online for download: 10-20-2009

Format

Encrypted

Sku

ISBN

File size

Security

Printing

Copying

Read aloud

Devices

Mobipocket

Yes

9780307273352

5236 KB

n/a

Not allowed

Sys Requirements

Download reader

Robert Altman

The Oral Biography
M*A*S*H

*

M*A*S*H (1970)

Pauline Kael, review inThe New Yorker, January 24, 1970: M*A*S*H is a marvelously unstable comedy, a tough, funny, and sophisticated burlesque of military attitudes that is at the same time a tale of chivalry. It's a sick joke, but it's also generous and romantic—an erratic episodic film, full of the pleasures of the unexpected. . . . It's a modern kid's dream of glory: Holden Caulfield would, I think, approve of [the heroes played by Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould]. They're great surgeons, athletes, dashing men of the world, sexy, full of noblesse oblige, but ruthless to those with pretensions and lethal to hypocrites. . . . I think M*A*S*H is the best American war comedy since sound came in, and the sanest American movie of recent years.

* * *

From the M*A*S*H theme song, "Suicide Is Painless," lyrics by Michael Altman:

A brave man once requested me,
to answer questions that are key.
Is it to be or not to be?
And I replied, "Oh, why ask me?"

[Refrain] Suicide is painless. It brings on many changes,
a ... read full excerpt from Robert Altman ebook

Other Zuckoff, Mitchell ebooks:

receive alert on new Zuckoff, Mitchell ebooks

Robert Altman

Mitchell Zuckoff is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of three previous books, most rec ...

Best price: $34.96

Ponzi

You’ve heard of the scheme. Now comes the man behind it. In Mitchell Zuckoff’s exhilarati ...

Best price: $13.12

Ponzi

You’ve heard of the scheme. Now comes the man behind it. In Mitchell Zuckoff’s exhilarati ...

Best price: $

Ponzi

You’ve heard of the scheme. Now comes the man behind it. In Mitchell Zuckoff’s exhilarati ...

Best price: $

Mobipocket Reader Information:

I have a mobile device and I want to read ebooks on it. How can I install the mobipocket Reader?

If you have a Microsoft Windows Desktop PC:
- Download and the install the Mobipocket Desktop Reader.
- Connect your device (and push the HotSync button if you have a PalmOS device)
- The Mobipocket Reader should detect your device and propose you to install the Mobipocket reader on it.
- Follow the instructions.

You are now ready to use the Mobipocket Reader on your device.

If you do not have a Microsoft Windows desktop PC:
- Download the Mobipocket reader installer for your device here, and follow the instructions.

Question: How Do I Install the Mobipocket reader?

Open Mobipocket Reader on your computer
On the bar along the left side of the screen, click "Reading Devices"
On the bar along the top, click "Install New Device"
Select PalmOS or Other, depending on what your device
Follow the instructions to synch your device and load Mobipocket Reader installation files