Altman review: mish M*A*S*H

We’ve been here before. Keen cineastes will not want to miss Ron Mann’s documentary on the (this is the word, I think) legendary Robert Altman.

Featuring contributions from the director's widow Kathryn, the film certainly tells its story with lucidity. Born in Kansas City, Altman drifted into television and industrial films after serving in the Air Force. He might have remained a respected journeyman had he not, when already middle-aged, happened upon an unpromising adaptation of an obscure novel concerning the Korean War. M*A*S*H won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and launched one of the most fecund careers in US cinema.

Altman had few genuine hits after that, and for much of the 1980s and 1990s found it hard to raise money, but somehow or other he continued to put images on the screen. The Long Goodbye, Nashville and McCabe & Mrs Miller really are masterpieces for the ages.

If you care about all this, then Altman will pass the time well enough. Footage of the great man working in Ireland on the 1972 oddity Images is particularly valuable. In truth, however, this is a pretty unremarkable documentary. Its routine structure and perfunctory plod through career highlights somehow makes a fascinating life seem somewhat less than remarkable.

The few supposed innovations are mostly misconceived. A framing sequence of a sandcastle (referencing an Altman quote on film-making) demonstrates why metaphors should rarely be made flesh. Worse is an arch, artificial sequence of celebrity talking heads attempting to define “Altmanesque”. Each does little more than coin a hyperbolic cliché to express how awesome he was.

Bizarrely, none even hints at how the term is (for good or ill) usually intended: a complex story concerning many intertwined characters. That may, of course, have been the intention.