Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1992
The Player (1992 film)
Buy The Player (1992 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'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.Tolkin, Michael, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KSCdACRt0qkC&printsec=frontcover "The Player"], 1st ed., New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. 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.DVD commentary on 'The Player'. 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.
Plot
Griffin Mill is a Hollywood studio executive dating story editor Bonnie Sherow. He hears story pitches from screenwriters and decides which have the potential to be made into films, green-lighting only 12 out of 50,000 submissions every year. His job is threatened when up-and-coming story executive Larry Levy begins working at the studio. Mill has also been receiving death threat postcards, assumed to be from a screenwriter whose pitch he rejected.
Mill surmises that the disgruntled writer is David Kahane, and Kahane's girlfriend June Gudmundsdottir tells him that Kahane is at the Rialto Theater in Pasadena, at a screening of 'Bicycle Thieves'. Mill pretends to recognize Kahane in the lobby, and offers him a scriptwriting deal, hoping this will stop the threats. The two go to a nearby bar where Kahane gets intoxicated and rebuffs Mill's offer, calling him a liar and continuing to goad him about his job security at the studio. In the bar's parking lot, the two men fight. Mill goes too far and drowns Kahane in a shallow pool of water while screaming, Keep it to yourself! Mill then stages the crime to make it look like a botched robbery.
The next day, after Mill is late for and distracted at a meeting, studio chief of security Walter Stuckel confronts him about the murder and says that the police know that he was the last one to see Kahane alive. At the end of their conversation Mill receives a fax from his stalker. Thus, Mill has killed the wrong man, and the stalker apparently knows this. Mill attends Kahane's funeral and gets into conversation with Gudmundsdottir. Detectives Avery and DeLongpre suspect Mill is guilty of murder.
Mill receives a postcard from the stalker suggesting that they meet at a hotel bar. While Mill is waiting, he is cornered by two screenwriters, Tom Oakley and Andy Sivella, who pitch 'Habeas Corpus', a legal drama featuring no major stars and with a depressing ending. Because Mill is not alone, his stalker does not appear. After leaving the bar, Mill receives a fax in his car, advising him to look under his raincoat. He discovers a live rattlesnake in a box and, terrified, bludgeons it with his umbrella.
Mill tells Gudmundsdottir that his near-death experience made him realize he has feelings for her. Apprehensive that Larry Levy continues encroaching on his job, Mill invites the two writers to pitch 'Habeas Corpus' to him, convincing Levy that the movie will be an Oscar contender. Mill's plan is to let Levy shepherd the film through production and have it flop. Mill will step in at the last moment, suggesting some changes to salvage the film's box office, letting him reclaim his position at the studio. Having persuaded Sherow to leave for New York on studio business, Mill takes Gudmundsdottir to a Hollywood awards banquet and their relationship blossoms.
After Sherow confronts Mill about his relationship with Gudmundsdottir, Mill coldly severs their relationship in front of two writers. Mill takes Gudmundsdottir to an isolated Desert Hot Springs resort and spa. In the middle of Mill and Gudmundsdottir making love, Mill confesses his role in Kahane's murder, and Gudmundsdottir responds by saying she loves him. Mill's attorney informs him that studio head Joel Levison has been fired, and that the Pasadena police want Mill to participate in a lineup. An eyewitness has come forward, but she fails to identify Mill.
One year later, studio power players are watching the end of 'Habeas Corpus' with a new, tacked-on, upbeat Hollywood ending and famous actors in the lead roles. Mill's plan to save the movie has worked and he is head of the studio. Gudmundsdottir is now Mill's wife and pregnant with his child. Sherow objects to the film's new ending and is fired by Levy. Mill rebuffs her when she appeals her termination to him. Mill receives a pitch over the phone from Levy and a man who reveals himself as the postcard writer. The man pitches an idea about a studio executive who kills a writer and gets away with murder. Impressed, Mill gives the writer a deal, if he can guarantee a happy ending in which the executive lives happily with the writer's widow. The writer's title for the film is 'The Player'.
Cast
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.
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. 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, 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.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:Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 98% based on 65 reviews, with an average rating of 8.80/10. 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." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."
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." 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."Siskel, Gene (April 24, 1992). "Altman targets Hollywood in masterful 'Player'". 'Chicago Tribune'. Section 7, p. C. Vincent Canby of 'The New York Times' wrote, "Robert Altman has not really been away. Yet his new Hollywood satire titled 'The Player' is so entertaining, so flip and so genially irreverent that it seems to announce the return of the great gregarious film maker whose 'Nashville' remains one of the classics of the 1970's.
Todd McCarthy of 'Variety' wrote, "Mercilessly satiric yet good-natured, this enormously entertaining slam dunk represents a remarkable American come-back for eternal maverick Robert Altman."McCarthy, Todd (March 16, 1992). "Reviews: The Player". 'Variety'. 58. Terrence Rafferty of 'The New Yorker' called it "a brilliant dark comedy about the death of American filmmaking," adding, "In this picture Altman is doing one of his specialties: exploring an odd American subculturerevealing its distinctive textures and explicating the peculiar principles of social intercourse which keep it functioning. But when his idiosyncratic style of anthropological realism is applied to the tight community of Hollywood 'players' it has an almost hallucinatory effect."Rafferty, Terrence (April 20, 1992). "The Current Cinema". 'The New Yorker'. 81. Peter Rainer of the 'Los Angeles Times' wrote that "Altman has made a movie that's supremely deft and pleasurable. As if to taunt his detractors, he even 'tells a story' this time, and he does a better job of it than the hacks who have been getting work when he couldn't."
'The Player' was placed on 80 critics' year-end best lists, second only to 'Howards End' in 1992.
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
|-
| rowspan="5"| 20/20 Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Picture
|
|-
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Actor
| Tim Robbins
|
|-
| Best Adapted Screenplay
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| Best Film Editing
| Geraldine Peroni
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| Academy Awards
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| Best Film Editing
| rowspan="2"| Geraldine Peroni
|
|-
| American Cinema Editors Awards
| Best Edited Feature Film
|
|-
| American Comedy Awards
| Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
| Whoopi Goldberg
|
|-
| Australian Film Institute Awards
| Best Foreign Film
| Michael Tolkin, David Brown and Nick Wechsler
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Awards Circuit Community Awards
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Adapted Screenplay
| Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
|
|-
| Bodil Awards
| Best Non-European Film
| rowspan="2"| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
| Best Director
|
|-
| rowspan="5"| British Academy Film Awards
| Best Film
| David Brown, Michael Tolkin, Nick Wechsler and Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Direction
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Actress in a Leading Role
| Tim Robbins
|
|-
| Best Adapted Screenplay
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| Best Editing
| Geraldine Peroni
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| Cannes Film Festival
| Palme d'Or
| rowspan="2"| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Director
|
|-
| Best Actor
| Tim Robbins
|
|-
| Csar Awards
| Best Foreign Film
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Film
|
|-
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Actor
| Tim Robbins
|
|-
| Best Screenplay
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| DallasFort Worth Film Critics Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Film
|
|-
| Directors Guild of America Awards
| Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Edgar Allan Poe Awards
| Best Motion Picture
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| Golden Globe Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
|
|-
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
| Tim Robbins
|
|-
| Best Director Motion Picture
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Screenplay Motion Picture
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| Independent Spirit Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Feature
|
|-
| Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Film
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| London Film Critics Circle Awards
| Director of the Year
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Screenwriter of the Year
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Film
|
|-
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Supporting Actor
| Sydney Pollack
|
|-
| Nastro d'Argento
| Best Foreign Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| National Board of Review Awards
| colspan="2"| Top Ten Films
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| National Society of Film Critics Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Film
|
|-
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Screenplay
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| New York Film Critics Circle Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Film
|
|-
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Best Screenplay
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| Best Cinematographer
| Jean Lpine
|
|-
| PEN Center USA West Literary Awards
| Best Screenplay
| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Picture
|
|-
| Best Director
| Robert Altman
|
|-
| Turkish Film Critics Association Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Foreign Film
|
|-
| colspan="2"| USC Scripter Awards
| rowspan="2"| Michael Tolkin
|
|-
| Writers Guild of America Awards
| Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
|
|}
Legacy
In 2015, 'Entertainment Weekly's 25th anniversary year, it named 'The Player' in its list of the 25 best movies since the magazine's beginnings. Rolling Stone listed 'The Player' as one of the best movies of the 90's.
See also
*List of films featuring fictional films
Notes
References
Buy The Player (1992 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1992