The Player [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Overview

"Robert Altman takes a scalpel to Hollywood ethics in the 1990s (or the lack thereof) in his acidic satire The Player, adapted from Michael Tolkin's novel. (Tolkin also wrote the screenplay.) The film concerns a sleek and smooth Hollywood studio executive who starts receiving death threats from a disgruntled writer because he has committed the ultimate Hollywood sin -- he promised the writer he would call him back and he never did. This is particularly ironic because the studio executive, Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), is considered ""writer-friendly,"" spending his days listening to pitches from such noted screenwriters as Buck Henry, who is pushing ""The Graduate, Part II"" and Alan Rudolph, who is hawking a Bruce Willis action film described as ""Ghost meets The Manchurian Candidate."" But The Player finds Griffin's comfortable life style in danger of collapse. He is trying to find a way to unload his girlfriend (Cynthia Stevenson) whose independence and intelligence make her a poor candidate for a trophy wife. More importantly, it seems that Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), a slippery executive from Twentieth Century Fox, is angling for his job. And then there are those nasty postcards and faxes from a screenwriter threatening to kill him. Altman cast over 65 stars in cameo roles as texture for his scabrous tale."

Product Details

Release Date:	05/24/2016
UPC:	0715515177115
Original Release:	1992
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen, Color]
Sound:	[Dolby Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:04:00

Special Features

Audio commentary from 1992 featuring director Robert Altman, writer Michael Tolkin, and cinematographer Jean Lépine; Interview with Altman from 1992; New interviews with Tolkin, actor Tim Robbins, associate producer David Levy, and production designer Stephen Altman; Cannes Film Festival press conference from 1992 with cast and crew; Robert Altman's Players, a short documentary about the shooting of the film's fund-raiser scene; Map to the Stars, a gallery dedicated to the cameo appearances in the film; Deleted scenes and outtakes; The film's opening shot, with alternate commentaries by Altman, Lépine, and Tolkin; Trailers and TV spots

Scene Index

Notes on the director; Genre, structure and style; Reading a film as text; Summary and commentary; Character notes; Theme and issues notes; What the critics say; Sample essay; Sample questions.

Editorial Reviews

Half the fun of The Player is watching director Robert Altman and screenwriter Michael Tolkin repeatedly and enthusiastically bite the hands that feed them -- or, in Altman's case, stopped feeding him: it was his first film for an American studio in seven years, marking his commercial and critical comeback after some interesting but inconsistent pictures following the box-office disappointment of Popeye (1980). The Player can be read as an indictment of the amorality of all American business in the 1980s and 1990s, but it's Hollywood that takes it on the chin, and the parade of movie notables in cameo roles suggests that plenty of people in town were sympathetic to the message. Like most of Altman's films, The Player features a superb cast that brings out the best in each other, notably a memorably slimy Tim Robbins , Greta Scacchi at her mysterious and seductive best, Vincent D'Onofrio as the suitably angry writer, and Richard E. Grant in a scene-stealing turn as a man who won't let his integrity get in the way of a deal. Also like Altman's best work, The Player twists and turns along the way, providing yet perverting all the elements of a successful Hollywood movie: violence, but against the wrong people; comedy, but mean-spirited and at the expense of the leads; major stars, but mostly for about a minute at a stretch; and a "happy" ending, which benefits a morally contemptible man who ought to be in jail. That The Player was a commercial success made the film's attack on the movie industry all the more ironic, but you get the impression that Altman must have seen the humor in that.