The Player(1992) is that how Hollywood is?

Last night I watched for the first time Robert Altman's The Player. It starts out as your average spoof on Hollywood life movie. But soon after it molds into a dark black comedy about murder,paranoia,and the drama of making movies.



The plot deals with a Producer who starts getting death threats and hate mail. He then starts to freak out over everything until he finds a writer who seems to be behind all of it. After talking to the writer, he soon has a fight with him which ends with the producer killing the writer. His world starts to break and crash down after the cops question him,he starts dating the dead writers girlfriend, and starts making deals for movies that are sure floops.



The Player is one swing saw of a flick. It jumps from black comedy to drama to thriller at random times thurout. It shows how goofy the whole Hollywood system is. Instead of making movies for enjoyment or in lighting people, movies are made for the ticket prices only. Writers throw out horrible ideas based on market value only. Such as The Graduate part 2!

Acting wise this movie is at its peak with a great character study of the sleazy producer by Tim Robbins. Hes all over the place in this flick. Hes a total dirt bag that had it coming. Greta Scacchi plays the ice queen girlfriend of the writer murdered. She plays it well even thou at times she seems hollow.I got a kick out of seeing Fred Ward playing one of the executives who bitches about cutting to much in editing. Whoopi Goldberg is at her best as one of the cops on the murder case.The Tampon scene is a showstopper to be sure.Peter Gallagher was also great as Tim's rival who makes the white woman on death row movie.



The biggest thing i got out of The Player as a huge movie buff was all the inside movie jokes. The first big one is the opening scene that's one long take of the movie studio parking while dropping on the different conversions going on. Fred talks about the open taking shot of Touch of Evil(1958) during it that just rubs in the joke further. The second big inside joke is the overload of cameos of the various actors around Hollywood. From Karen Black to Cher to Sydney Pollack as a friend of Tim's and many many more. The one i dug the most was the gas chamber movie when being seen for the first time, With Julia Roberts as the victim and randomly Bruce Willis drops in to save her.



The Player was a weird trip of a movie and was well worth watching for the insider jokes and Tim if nothing else grabs you.