Foggy Melson | "The Player" Movie Review (April 22, 1992) @foggymelson | Uploaded September 2023 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
The Player is a 1992 American satirical black comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Michael Tolkin, based on his own 1988 novel of the same name.[2] The film stars Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James and Cynthia Stevenson, and is the story of a Hollywood film studio executive who kills an aspiring screenwriter he believes is sending him death threats.
The Player has many film references and Hollywood in-jokes, with 65 celebrities making cameo appearances in the film. Altman once stated that the film "is a very mild satire," offending no one.[3] The film received three nominations at the 65th Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. The film also won two Golden Globes, Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for Robbins.
Cast
Tim Robbins as Griffin Mill
Greta Scacchi as June Gudmundsdottir
Fred Ward as Walter Stuckel
Whoopi Goldberg as Detective Susan Avery
Peter Gallagher as Larry Levy
Brion James as Joel Levison
Cynthia Stevenson as Bonnie Sherow
Vincent D'Onofrio as David Kahane
Dean Stockwell as Andy Sivella
Richard E. Grant as Tom Oakley
Sydney Pollack as Dick Mellon
Lyle Lovett as Detective Paul DeLongpre
Dina Merrill as Celia
Gina Gershon as Whitney Gersh
Angela Hall as Jan
Jeremy Piven as Steve Reeves
Scott Glenn as Himself
Jeff Goldblum as Himself
Andie MacDowell as Herself
Bruce Willis as Himself
Julia Roberts as Herself
Production
Altman had troubles with the Hollywood studio system in the 1970s after a number of studio films (McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye) lost money or had trouble finding audiences, despite the critical praise and cult adulation they received. Altman continued to work outside the studios in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, often doing small budget projects or filmed plays to keep his career alive. Chevy Chase was interested in playing the role of Griffin Mill, but Warner Bros. didn't want Chase to star in the film.[4]
Although it was distributed by Fine Line Features rather than a major studio (FLF was a division of New Line Cinema), The Player was Altman's comeback to making films in Hollywood.[5] It ushered in a new period of filmmaking for him, and he continued on to an adaptation of Raymond Carver's short stories, Short Cuts (1993).
Opening sequence shot
The opening sequence shot lasts 7 minutes and 47 seconds without an edit. Fifteen takes were required to shoot this scene,[6] but, according to the slate at the beginning of the shot, the tenth take was used in the final edit.
Intimate scene
Altman was praised for the sex scene in which Robbins and Scacchi were filmed from the neck up. Scacchi later claimed that Altman had wanted a nude scene, but that it was her refusal which led to the final form.[7]
Editing
The editing of The Player by Geraldine Peroni was honored by a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. In 2004, Tony Sloman wrote an appreciation of the film's editing:[8]
The Player is a marvellous example of collaborative editing, Peroni matching Altman's tone with exactitude. Early on, a cut from a zoom-in to the gun in Humphrey Bogart's hand on a postcard sent to Tim Robbins is perfectly successively matched with what appears to be a black frame, in which a reveal shows that it's an open drawer in which the postcard has been placed. Another felicitous sequence is the one in the Pasadena police station, where the Robbins character is arraigned as Lyle Lovett swats a fly and Whoopi Goldberg and her associates ridicule Robbins with laughter. This is beautifully edited; well-shot, too, but the rhythm is built in the cutting.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 65 reviews, with an average rating of 8.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Bitingly cynical without succumbing to bitterness, The Player is one of the all-time great Hollywood satires — and an ensemble-driven highlight of the Altman oeuvre."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[10]
Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars out of four and called it "a smart movie, and a funny one. It is also absolutely of its time. After the savings and loan scandals, after Michael Milken, after junk bonds and stolen pension funds, here is a movie that uses Hollywood as a metaphor for the avarice of the 1980s. It is the movie The Bonfire of the Vanities wanted to be."[11] Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect four-star grade and wrote, "If you knew nothing and cared nothing about the movie business, you can still appreciate The Player as a ripping good thriller, too."
The Player is a 1992 American satirical black comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Michael Tolkin, based on his own 1988 novel of the same name.[2] The film stars Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James and Cynthia Stevenson, and is the story of a Hollywood film studio executive who kills an aspiring screenwriter he believes is sending him death threats.
The Player has many film references and Hollywood in-jokes, with 65 celebrities making cameo appearances in the film. Altman once stated that the film "is a very mild satire," offending no one.[3] The film received three nominations at the 65th Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. The film also won two Golden Globes, Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for Robbins.
Cast
Tim Robbins as Griffin Mill
Greta Scacchi as June Gudmundsdottir
Fred Ward as Walter Stuckel
Whoopi Goldberg as Detective Susan Avery
Peter Gallagher as Larry Levy
Brion James as Joel Levison
Cynthia Stevenson as Bonnie Sherow
Vincent D'Onofrio as David Kahane
Dean Stockwell as Andy Sivella
Richard E. Grant as Tom Oakley
Sydney Pollack as Dick Mellon
Lyle Lovett as Detective Paul DeLongpre
Dina Merrill as Celia
Gina Gershon as Whitney Gersh
Angela Hall as Jan
Jeremy Piven as Steve Reeves
Scott Glenn as Himself
Jeff Goldblum as Himself
Andie MacDowell as Herself
Bruce Willis as Himself
Julia Roberts as Herself
Production
Altman had troubles with the Hollywood studio system in the 1970s after a number of studio films (McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye) lost money or had trouble finding audiences, despite the critical praise and cult adulation they received. Altman continued to work outside the studios in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, often doing small budget projects or filmed plays to keep his career alive. Chevy Chase was interested in playing the role of Griffin Mill, but Warner Bros. didn't want Chase to star in the film.[4]
Although it was distributed by Fine Line Features rather than a major studio (FLF was a division of New Line Cinema), The Player was Altman's comeback to making films in Hollywood.[5] It ushered in a new period of filmmaking for him, and he continued on to an adaptation of Raymond Carver's short stories, Short Cuts (1993).
Opening sequence shot
The opening sequence shot lasts 7 minutes and 47 seconds without an edit. Fifteen takes were required to shoot this scene,[6] but, according to the slate at the beginning of the shot, the tenth take was used in the final edit.
Intimate scene
Altman was praised for the sex scene in which Robbins and Scacchi were filmed from the neck up. Scacchi later claimed that Altman had wanted a nude scene, but that it was her refusal which led to the final form.[7]
Editing
The editing of The Player by Geraldine Peroni was honored by a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. In 2004, Tony Sloman wrote an appreciation of the film's editing:[8]
The Player is a marvellous example of collaborative editing, Peroni matching Altman's tone with exactitude. Early on, a cut from a zoom-in to the gun in Humphrey Bogart's hand on a postcard sent to Tim Robbins is perfectly successively matched with what appears to be a black frame, in which a reveal shows that it's an open drawer in which the postcard has been placed. Another felicitous sequence is the one in the Pasadena police station, where the Robbins character is arraigned as Lyle Lovett swats a fly and Whoopi Goldberg and her associates ridicule Robbins with laughter. This is beautifully edited; well-shot, too, but the rhythm is built in the cutting.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 65 reviews, with an average rating of 8.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Bitingly cynical without succumbing to bitterness, The Player is one of the all-time great Hollywood satires — and an ensemble-driven highlight of the Altman oeuvre."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[10]
Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars out of four and called it "a smart movie, and a funny one. It is also absolutely of its time. After the savings and loan scandals, after Michael Milken, after junk bonds and stolen pension funds, here is a movie that uses Hollywood as a metaphor for the avarice of the 1980s. It is the movie The Bonfire of the Vanities wanted to be."[11] Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect four-star grade and wrote, "If you knew nothing and cared nothing about the movie business, you can still appreciate The Player as a ripping good thriller, too."
