Robert Altman: The Director of The Gingerbread Man - Essay Example

Robert Altman: The Director as seen through “The Gingerbread Man” W. Nelson Lewis The American Experience Through Film December 10, 2005 Born in 1925to a wealthy insurance salesman in Kansas City, MO, Robert Altman started life attending Catholic schools and military academies. “This is where I got my ‘chips,’ my attitudes. I lived on West 68th Street and went to several schools – Rockhurst, Southwest High School, Wentworth Military Academy, … Restless, I guess” (Tibbitts, 1992). However, even then, he said he has always had an interest in media, experimenting with tape recorders as early as his high school days (Gerber, 2002). He hadn’t really considered movie-making until he found himself near Hollywood while training in the military. Serving as a B-24 copilot in the United States Air Force, Altman took the next baby steps toward his future career when he began writing short stories and screenplay drafts at the age of 20 (“Robert Altman”, 2005). As soon as he was discharged from the military at the end of the World War II, Altman made a bid for his Hollywood dreams by following the path of many who had gone before him and trying to become an actor. He even landed a spot as an extra in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” then wrote an unaccredited screenplay for United Artists’ “Christmas Eve” and sold a script he co-wrote with Richard Fleischer to RKO for the 1948 version of “The Bodyguard” (“Robert Altman”, 2005). Despite this early promise, Altman eventually went bankrupt in Hollywood and was forced to return home to Kansas City, but he hadn’t given up on his dreams. He began working for the Calvin Company and was given the opportunity to direct his first film, although it was a short one and meant for industrial purposes. Through the Calvin Company, Altman learned valuable filmmaking lessons such as how to shoot rapidly, stay on schedule, work within the confines of both big and low budgets, how to use the camera, the boom mike, the lights, and more technical aspects of the art (“Robert Altman”, 2005). His first feature film came in the form of a teenage gang drama entitled “The Delinquents” filmed in Kansas City, edited in Hollywood and sold to United Artists. With this film, Altman was able to catch the eye of Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he began directing a series of television shows. Altman worked in the television arena until 1964, working on shows such as “Bonanza,” “The Millionaire” and the “Kraft Suspense Theatre.” One of the shows he directed for the latter was expanded into a feature length movie and helped pave the way for Altman to break into that genre. However, his breakthrough film is commonly considered to be “M*A*S*H” in 1970. It was with this film that he gained a large public following, box office success and the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes International Film Festival (Gerber, 2002). Other accolades he’s earned since include Oscar Nominations for Best Film and Best Director and Best Film and Best Director awards from the National Society of Film Critics for “Nashville”, and an Emmy award for the HBO series “Tanner ’88.” (Gerber, 2002). In addition, his 1992 “The Player” received three Academy award nominations, including Best Director. The 1993 film “Short Cuts” brought home another Oscar nomination for Best Director. These two films “cemented his reputation as one of Americas best filmmakers” (“Robert Altman”, 2005). In all, Altman has produced 39 films to date and continues to work on new projects, now with the freedom afforded with success. Filmography The Delinquents - (1957) (Altmans big-screen directorial debut) The James Dean Story - (1957) docu-drama Countdown - (1968) That Cold Day in the Park - (1969) M*A*S*H - (1970) Brewster McCloud - (1970) McCabe & Mrs. Miller - (1971) Images - (1972) The Long Goodbye - (1973) California Split - (1974) Thieves Like Us - (1974) Nashville - (1975) 3 Women (aka Robert Altman’s 3 Women) - (1977) A Wedding - (1978) Quintet - (1979) Health - (1979) A Perfect Couple - (1979) Popeye - (1980) Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean - (1982) Streamers - (1984) Secret Honor - (1985) Fool for Love - (1985) Beyond Therapy - (1987) O.C. & Stiggs - (1987) Aria - (1987) Tanner ’88 - (1988) Vincent & Theo - (1990) The Player - (1992) Short Cuts - (1993) Pret-a-Porter (aka Ready to Wear) - (1994) Kansas City - (1996) The Gingerbread Man - (1997) Cookie’s Fortune - (1998) Dr. T & the Women - (2000) Gosford Park - (2001) The Company - (2003) Tanner on Tanner - (2004) Paint - (2005) The Last Broadcast - (2006, in post-production) Source: “Robert Altman”, 2005 In order to really get an appreciation for the art and vision of the man, it is necessary to take a closer look at the work he has produced. Because of the breadth and scope of his work, it is difficult to pin a single style definition on him or his work, although some common aspects will be extrapolated in further discussion. As he said himself, “I don’t know what my style is. I’m the last one to say what it is, I think. What I secretly think about myself might be wrong. I didn’t know what anybody was talking about when they said my first seven films had the ‘Altman signature.’ I was just trying to do things totally different from one film to another. Now I look back at them and see my fingerprints all over them. You can’t keep your hands clean” (Tibbitts, 1992). By taking a look at a film such as “The Gingerbread Man,” one can get an idea of the type of creative power Altman wields in approaching his subject. “The Gingerbread Man,” produced in 1997, opens with a fancy party given in honor of lawyer Rick Magruder. Magruder has just won an acquittal for a man who was on trial for shooting a police officer, a fact that becomes significant as the story unfolds yet seems incidental at this point. On leaving the party, Magruder discovers one of the waitresses from the party, Mallory Doss, has had her car stolen, so he offers her a ride home. When they arrive at the house, they see the stolen car parked in the driveway. At this point, the girl begins to explain that her father, Dixon Doss, has been terrorizing her by playing stupid, yet potentially dangerous and threatening, pranks. The two end up in bed together as Mallory has stripped down to nothing during her relation of the story. The following day, Magruder returns to the house to find Mallory’s cat has been hung in the back doorway. He rushes back to his office to find her waiting for him, explaining that she wants to know more about how to have her father committed to a mental institution. Although his assistant, Lois, and his investigator, Clyde, both express misgivings about delving into the bizarre case, Magruder chooses to take it on and becomes an object of terror himself. He gets Dixon committed with seemingly very little effort, but must subpoena Mallory’s ex-husband into testifying, which he seems oddly reluctant to do. Dixon himself displays remarkable clarity of thought despite his short temper. Later, while Magruder comforts Mallory following a bad dream, she tells him her father’s favorite bedtime story “The Gingerbread Man.” As she recites it, the film cuts to shots of Dixon’s strange, backwoods followers shuffling through a graveyard with bolt cutters to free the older man. An innocent day at a sunny park the following day turns sinister as it becomes obvious someone is following Magruder while he visits with his children. The threats suddenly become much more personal, involving not only Mallory, but also the two young children. Magruder kidnaps them from their school in order to protect them, but is followed again. The children disappear while he is talking with their mother on a nearby pay phone. Thinking Dixon has taken them, Magruder picks up Mallory from the bus station and travels out to a compound held by her father. Once there, he is confronted by Dixon, who angrily shouts he is trespassing and pulls a shotgun on him. Magruder, using a handgun provided by Mallory, shoots Dixon instead and is eventually arrested for murder by the police who have no reason to look to his best interests. Before the police arrive, however, Dixon’s backwoods friends make a run for it in their car with Magruder following, finally crashing the car in a swamp. It is only then that Magruder finds out his children are back at home safe with their mother. Finally Magruder realizes that if Dixon had wanted him dead, as a hunter with a direct line of sight, he should have been able to kill him. Then Magruder begins looking into what Mallory is about to inherit and discovers the property her father was sitting on contains approximately $10-15 million worth of prime black walnut trees. The next surprise comes when he finds out that Mallory was never divorced from her husband. He decides to set a trap for her by claiming he found a will that names the strange men as the beneficiary. As the physical storm finally breaks, Clyde disappears while keeping an eye on Mallory. Magruder finally finds his dead body aboard Mallory’s husband’s boat. Magruder is discovered and a fight in the rain ends when Mallory shoots a flare into her husband’s back and he falls into the ocean. When Magruder confronts Mallory, she tries to shoot him as well, but he locks her in the cabin and calls for help. In the end, Magruder accepts a plea bargain to five years of community service and loses his license to practice law as a result of killing Dixon. Mallory is sent to prison as a result of her scheming and the two other men that are dead. Of the characters in the movie, only Rick Magruder shows any sign of growth as a result of his actions. When the story opens, he is a savvy lawyer who will stoop at nothing to win his case, even if the case, such as the one he’s celebrating at the film’s beginning, really shouldn’t be won. He has a reputation as a womanizer and everyone treats him as though they expect him to behave like a spoiled child. His ex-wife’s stringent custody of the two children despite the fact that Magruder himself is a lawyer and could presumably argue for his greatest benefit also testifies to the shallowness of his moral and ethical character. In conducting business, he seems to work diligently to ensure any blame for breakdowns in the system is blamed not on himself, but on the circumstances of the law. He takes no responsibility for his actions. His easy acceptance of Mallory’s bed, although he knows virtually nothing about her, indicates one night stands are not unfamiliar to him, yet he becomes obsessed with her case almost immediately due to the helpless figure she presents him. Taking a firm stance on the case, Magruder seems to be enjoying acting out the part of the protector until it’s proven that he is not immune to the threats that have been plaguing Mallory. When he can’t even protect his own children adequately, Magruder begins to wake up to his own human frailties. Realizing the children are safe back at home and that he’s just killed an innocent man wakes him up to other inconsistencies he’s been ignoring, such as having any proof whatsoever that Dixon Doss committed any of these acts of terror. By the end of the movie, Magruder is encouraged to fight the case against him, having ample evidence that he was manipulated, but this time he stands firm. “But Rick, you’ve never lost in eight years,” Lois tells him. “Maybe it’s time that I did,” he replies. As he watches Mallory being led away in chains, one gets the sense that Magruder has finally become a man. Mallory is a different story altogether. Throughout the picture, she portrays a lost soul. Another character who refuses to take responsibility for her own actions, Mallory presents herself to Magruder and his staff as being a helpless woman destroyed by the circumstances life has dealt her. Having no control over the crazy antics of her father, she gains their sympathy and their trust, or at least the sympathy and trust of Magruder. Everyone else seems to be able to see through her. Even Clyde indicates she was the subject of an investigation at some point in the past, although the exact details of that investigation are not exactly made clear. She willingly goes along with every suggestion Magruder makes concerning her father and her own safekeeping, but instills a fear of her father into Magruder through terrifying nightmares related in the dark and the production of a hand gun as a means of protection. But this, too, she claims is the idea of one of Magruder’s trusted friends instead of her own. At no point in the movie does she ever quite lose the air of calm self-control, easily moving into Magruder’s house, fleeing to Lois’ house, even driving out to her father’s compound. In shooting her husband, her explanation to Magruder is even delivered calmly – “I had to. He would have killed you,” she says, even though she immediately attempts to kill Magruder the moment she gets the flare gun back. Although there are hints here and there of Mallory’s duplicity, her complete villainy at the end of the story seems too great a character shift to have accomplished all this on her own. However, the dark figure of her husband lurking in the background, with very little information about him and only a crude, antisocial nature could account for the excess. Although serving an important function as an informant and additional set of eyes, the investigator Clyde also shows very little character development. This notion of introducing characters into movies without developing them fully is very common for Altman, whose focus in this instance is more on developing the background sufficiently for audience participation. Altman shows us that he is an alcohol-soaked individual with an abiding affection for his semi-shady lifestyle and a penchant for womanizing himself. In this respect, Magruder has earned Clyde’s admiration enough to keep the drunken binges to a minimum, or at least to stay sober enough to carry on the functions of his job. At several points, he had the opportunity to provide Magruder with small but significant facts that might have swayed the course of the story, but always worked simply to follow directions. It is through this character, though, that we get a real feel for Altman’s sense of foreshadowing. In phasing Clyde out of the story, Altman first shows him stumbling up to Mallory’s bedroom window, making an outcry in the process. Following this, Magruder pulls up to a dark house with only Clyde’s car parked out front, something dark and small dangling ominously from the rearview mirror and the windshield wipers still functioning. Making a shrewd guess, Magruder next drives up to the boat dock where Mallory’s husband’s boat is tied up and discovers a car with an open trunk. Although we could think the trunk lock is simply broken, an empty whisky bottle and ringing cell phone provide stark evidence of what has probably become of the poor bumbling investigator. Lois, a hard-working, kind-hearted individual, does work to dissuade Magruder from becoming so involved with Mallory, but is quickly instructed to follow orders like Clyde on this issue. Despite this, she repeatedly works in a subtle way to get Magruder to back off the case enough to get a clear perspective, but fails in the attempt. Although most of her job functions as assistant looks more like secretarial work, she takes up the challenge to represent Mallory in court following her father’s death and works to defend Magruder himself in the charges against him. Although she shows little to no character development throughout the story, she does gain a sense of independence and authority as the story progresses, finally appearing as a real lawyer in the latter half of the picture. She also seems to be a fairly well developed character to begin with, therefore needs little else. In this instance, Altman displays his ability to include subtlety in his work. At the beginning of the movie, we consistently see the top of Lois’ head as she bends over a desk or sits in a chair. We never see her in a courtroom setting until the latter half of the movie. In some respects, this can be construed as indicating Magruder is her superior as our perspective of her is always looking down. Throughout the movie, Lois is slowly shown doing more and more lawyer work, even appearing in the courtroom a time or two and obviously representing Magruder in his murder case. By the end of the movie, Altman focuses in on her very businesslike shoe, perhaps suggesting that Magruder is now her inferior. The charges of insanity against Dixon Doss are impossible to prove one way or another based on the information provided in the story. Although it seems clear by the end of the movie that the acts of terrorism committed on both Mallory and Magruder are designed by Mallory herself, Dixon’s friends and strange behavior indicate there might be some validity to the claim. Even while sitting in the courtroom, Dixon is unable to keep shoes on his feet, which is the single most identifying feature about him. His fear of government bureaucracy and intense desire to remain aloof from modern society does not necessarily peg him as insane, but helps to foster the belief. In addition, his immediate dismissal of his court-appointed lawyer seems foolhardy. However, as he himself argues, “you’ve provided me with an incompetent attorney,” to which the judge doesn’t argue. The only time in which he speaks to his own defense, he is lucid and logical, but quickly loses his temper upon being thwarted in his attempt to explain reason. Of course, in relating the tale of the Gingerbread Man to Magruder, Mallory makes it seem as if it is her father playing the part of the gingerbread man in the fairy tale, constantly running and playing fearful tricks on those who displease him. “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.” This idea is further ingrained in the viewer’s mind by the cutaway shots of Dixon’s followers breaking him seamlessly out of the asylum, without a single alarm bell ringing. His escape is so smooth that it is not even discovered until later the next day. Consistent shots of his running feet also foster the belief that he is the sinister character. The viewer might then also be reminded of the first glimpse of Dixon when police raid the house in which they live. As the men who live there scatter in many different directions, all in virtually the same degree of grey shabbiness, Dixon is seen grabbing a hat from one passing man and shifting here and there among the lineup of men to conceal himself. It is only through the telltale sign of the bare feet that he is finally recognized. However, as the story progresses, it becomes obvious that Dixon cannot be the gingerbread man, if for no other reason than he is caught not just once, but twice, the second time leading to his death, from which there is no escape. His very grayness seems to indicate he is not a principle player in the madness. Through hints and suggestions throughout the movie, especially following Dixon’s death, it becomes evident that Mallory herself has become the gingerbread man. Like him, she looks innocent and sweet on the outside, helpless to defend herself against the evils of the world and in need of someone to protect her. However, in reality, she is clever, intelligent and manipulative, pulling the strings of all her carefully selected players so that they perform just as she willed them to, frightening them into action when they might not otherwise have moved and occasionally throwing tricks in their way just to keep them off balance so they wouldn’t have time to think through what they were doing. All of this is portrayed not only in the storyline itself, but with considerable assistance of the filming techniques used. Snugly classified as a film noir, Altman has included several dark scenes to help portray the fact that no one is going to win in this story. From the very beginning, when Magruder meets Mallory in the middle of a deluge, the viewer gets the sense that this meeting cannot lead to anything good. The unfamiliar weather pattern further helps to offset our sense of security in a well-ordered world. When the two main characters are shown together in bed, there are constantly shifting shadows lying across them, whether from the fan in the window or the palm fronds outside. Through this technique, both characters are shown to be in constant flux and always partially hidden. In addition, the almost unnatural whiteness of their bare skin in contrast to the dark shadows makes both characters seem horribly diseased and corpselike, another hint of subtle foreshadowing. Characteristic techniques of Altman’s used in the film include a rich and multi-layered sound track, restless camera movement and characters that just kind of join the story (Taylor, 1998). The sound track, featuring numerous sounds overlapping each other even in conversation, helps to convey the dark sense of being involved in the action. This obscures some of the dialogue, contributing to the sense that there’s something sinister under the surface that should never see the light of day. As in real life, background noise does not seem to be filtered out, so televisions, barroom chatter and heavy winds serve to obstruct portions of conversations we wish we’d heard, but couldn’t. This technique leaves the audience in a constant state of uncertainty as well, never sure they’ve heard all they need to know to solve the puzzle presented. The wandering camera eye, now showing the action close up, now viewing the characters from outside a window as if someone else were watching them surreptitiously with us, also helps to increase the sense of unease inherent in the film constantly making viewers feel as if they should be checking over their shoulder to make sure all is well. It is a unique way of building suspense that works precisely because it is unusual in filmmaking. No one has had the chance to become immune to it yet. By switching viewpoints in such a way, Altman gives the viewer the sense that they are observing the scene through the eyes of an incredibly unstable individual, and feel unstable themselves. Even when traditional techniques are used to build suspense, rising crescendos in the musical score, for instance, they are delivered with dramatic effect because of the camera position or the shaded lighting that ensures something is always in hiding. “His camera work is full of sly, subtle tricks. During one especially tense sequence when Rick stops at a roadside gas station, Altman makes us jump every time a truck zooms by on the highway and blocks our view. After Dixon is committed and his oddball buddies show up under cover of darkness to bust him out, Altman includes a shot of them disappearing among the gravestones of a cemetery, like spooks evaporating into the night” (Taylor, 1998). It is precisely because of little tricks like these, sometimes leading to nothing more than the next seemingly innocuous scene, which keeps the audience in a heightened state of suspense. In addition, Altman has created a weather pattern that would obviously not happen in reality, featuring hurricane-type rain storms each evening and sunny days in which to play. Despite its unnatural base, the weather is effective because it reinforces what we believe while still negating it. We want to believe that a sunny day in the park with the kids is all about fun and carefree living, but with the addition of shadows and obscuring foliage, the thunder seems always just outside of hearing. We do not feel these people are safe. We do not feel safe ourselves in watching it. There is too much room for things to hide and too many unnatural events happening for us to ignore. This mixing up of something we’ve come to believe is marginally predictable further shakes us out of our comfort sphere. Lighting also plays a significant role throughout the film. As in the weather patterns, lighting doesn’t necessarily reflect the time of day in this film. Even thought Magruder’s office is spacious and full of windows, it is never seen as a place full of light. Although this can be interpreted on a physical level as the result of dark paneling and furnishings, it can also be seen on a psychological level as the result of Magruder’s unwillingness to see the truth of his own behavior. The light playing across Mallory and Magruder’s bodies as they lie awake in the dark consistently reminds us that this is not a healthy relationship for some reason, even when we’re not quite sure why not. The only time the sun comes out in the film is when Magruder is spending time with his children, perhaps suggesting that the only time Magruder will see the truth about himself is when he looks at his life through the eyes of his children. In this film, it is the darkness, not the light, that brings about change, and that, to us, is frightening. Finally, costuming also plays a large role in interpreting the characters throughout the film. Hints that Dixon and his gang of old men are relatively harmless are given through the universally gray nature of their entire appearance, right down to the hair on their heads. As the color would suggest, they are neither good nor evil, they just are. Although all of the other characters are dressed in the somber colors of the legal profession most of the time, frequent bursts of red continue to shock the audience into paying attention. This is especially true as the color red seems to flag the next victim of the dark plots in action. Dixon is dressed in red prison clothes at his trial as he becomes the first victim, winning a sentence of insanity without even a chance to defend himself. The first flash that Magruder himself might be a victim comes at the same time as he wears a red vest in the courtroom. When the children disappear from the hotel room, Magruder’s view of them is blocked by a large red truck. When Mallory’s husband is killed, it is with a red flare burning in his back, going out in a spectacular blaze as he sinks into the water. The only use of red in dealing with Mallory is used, appropriately enough, in her umbrella. By contrast, the only color she’s seen in other than something dark is green, the antithesis of red. With this kind of genius interpreting the script, it’s hard to see the stereotypes involved in the story. Instead of the tough-guy private investigator, Altman delivers a vulnerable, weakened man who enjoys the mysterious side of life but is unsure how to deal with the danger. Instead of a simple lost will, we are given a whole different reason for anticipating foul play in the re-appearance of Mallory’s husband. Instead of bad guys who stand and fight, we are handed men in grey who fade into the background like ghosts. In producing a movie with these kinds of effects, it is easy to see why someone might claim Altman to be one of the greatest directors since Woody Allen. Works Cited Gerber, Louis. “Biography of Robert Altman”. 2002. Cosmopolis. Retrieved December 14, 2005 from . The Gingerbread Man. Dir. Robert Altman. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downing Jr., Daryl Hannah and Tom Berringer. PolyGram, 1998. “Robert Altman.” December 8, 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 14, 2005 from . Taylor, Charles. “Midnight in the Garden of Altman and Grisham.” March 6, 1998. Entertainment Salon. Retrieved December 15, 2005 from . Tibbitts, John C. “Robert Altman: After 35 years, still the ‘action painter’ of American Cinema.” Literature Film Quarterly. Maryland: Salisbury State University, 1992. Read More