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The Player (Special Edition) (New Line Platinum Series)
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Format | Color, Widescreen, Anamorphic, Multiple Formats, NTSC, Closed-captioned |
Contributor | Dean Stockwell, Tim Robbins, Richard E. Grant, Peter Gallagher, Vincent D'Onofrio, Robert Altman, Whoopi Goldberg, Lyle Lovett, Fred Ward, Sydney Pollack, Michael Tolkin, Greta Scacchi, Brion James, Cynthia Stevenson See more |
Language | English |
Number Of Discs | 1 |
Runtime | 2 hours and 4 minutes |
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Product Description
Product description
PLAYER - DVD Movie
Amazon.com
A wicked satirical fable about corporate backstabbing--and actual murder--in the movie business, The Player benefits from director Robert Altman's long and bitter experience working within, and without, the Hollywood studio system. Rising young executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is tormented by threats from an anonymous writer. The pressure and paranoia build until Griffin loses control one night and semi-accidentally kills screenwriter David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio), who may or may not be the source of the threats. From that point, Griffin's life and career begin to fall apart. In keeping with the ironic spirit of the film itself, Altman's scathingly funny attack on the moral bankruptcy of Hollywood was embraced by many of the same people it was intended to savage, and restored the director to commercial and critical favor. Michael Tolkin adapted the screenplay from his own novel, and the movie is studded with cameos by famous faces, many of whom appear as themselves. The digital video disc includes a commentary track with Altman and Tolkin, some deleted scenes, a documentary about Altman, and a key to help identify more than 50 of the picture's big-name cameos. --Jim Emerson
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.38 x 0.6 inches; 0.8 ounces
- Director : Robert Altman
- Media Format : Color, Widescreen, Anamorphic, Multiple Formats, NTSC, Closed-captioned
- Run time : 2 hours and 4 minutes
- Release date : July 16, 1997
- Actors : Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher
- Subtitles: : English, Spanish, French
- Language : French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Unqualified
- Studio : New Line Home Video
- ASIN : 0780618564
- Writers : Michael Tolkin
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #90,807 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #10,598 in Comedy (Movies & TV)
- #15,717 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Also like "The Big Lebowski, the satire and sardonic wit is packaged around what appears to be a crime drama, with the straight drama itself engaging enough to entertain most viewers the first time around.
Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a high level studio executive whose job is listening to the countless pitches that come his way from aspiring writers wanting to get their screen play into production. The studio only produces a dozen features a year so Griffin mostly hands out rejections. He has made at least one major enemy during the process, an unknown writer who begins sending him threatening postcards.
Griffin thinks he has a line on the identity of his enemy, an unpublished writer named David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio-Private Pyle in "Full Metal Jacket) who lives in the valley with his artist girlfriend (Greta Scacchi). But their confrontation goes bad and Griffin accidentally kills him. Things get worse for Griffin; he becomes the main suspect for the murder, he gets a post-murder postcard revealing that he murdered the wrong guy, and he is in danger of being replaced by a newly hired hotshot Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher).
"The Player" is most famous for an eight-minute tracking shot at the very beginning of the film, self-reflexively compared to Hitchcock's "Rope" and to Welles' "Touch of Evil"; and full of Altman's trademark overlapping dialogue. Also notable are the 50 or so actors who make cameo appearances throughout the feature; most just play themselves (it is after all set in Hollywood) and it is entertaining just trying to identify everyone.
The DVD has a commentary by Altman and writer Michael Tolkin. Unfortunately Altman's film-making style does not lend itself to organized reflection so he mostly just rambles on about everything but the film; and Tolkin has major issues with the whole Hollywood scene so his commentary is just a continuous rant and whine about the system.
It is important to remember that Altman is essentially a Hollywood black sheep who has been at war with Hollywood his whole career. The Hollywood establishment is uncomfortable with him because he won't make their standard pre-sold product and yet he manages to crank out enough commercial successes on his own terms to keep them off balance.
"The Player" is kind of his revenge picture, he knew that its production would cause a wave of paranoia to sweep the industry and he made paranoia the defining characteristic of the film. He views Hollywood as a marketing machine that both drives and is driven by the lowest common denominator of audience demographics.
During the opening tracking shot look for Griffin's meeting with Buck Henry, who pitches a sequel to "The Graduate" (Elaine and Benjamin have a daughter and he suggests "The Postgraduate" for the sequel's title). Henry improvised this pitch which is funnier with each viewing, and appropriately also had a cameo in "The Graduate".
These film allusions are everywhere as Hollywood's past seems to be passing judgment on its pathetic present. Watch for the bungled meeting at the hotel, the scene ends with the camera centered on a picture of Hitchcock on the hotel wall-a shot of about the same duration as a typical Hitchcock cameo (in his own films).
For sheer comedy watch for Griffin's visit to police headquarters where the Pasadena detective (Whoopi Goldberg), interviews him in the busy squad room. Another detective (Lyle Lovett) is a movie buff who keeps chanting "One of us! One of us!" from "Freaks".
Griffin plots to derail the threat inside the studio by setting up Levy with a script pitched by self-styled auteur Tom Oakley (Richard E. Grant). It's a Susan Hayward vehicle with the heroine going to the gas chamber because "it's reality, and that's what happens." Oakley wants real which means no stars and a non-Hollywood ending. Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis are mentioned as exactly type of casting Oakley does not want; which foreshadows his pending commercial corruption and artistic compromise.
This is a film that is meant to be watched closely (the beginning tracking shot is Altman's way of getting our attention and warning us that we will need to pay attention). Audience involvement is very important to him and he is counting on a motivated audience who brings considerable prior knowledge to the viewing.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
I really like Tim Robbins, but didn't fully appreciate this movie first time I watched it. Sure, there's a lot of meta-meta stuff in it that you'll get just for being somewhat intelligent, but you won't appreciate all of it.
Then, after I watched it, I read some of the analysis that helped me get some of the "in-jokes" - and then went to watch parts of it again.
It's much more fun when you get the in jokes.
Look, lots of cultures have their in-culture stuff. I know tech, so I probably appreciated stuff like 'the social network" more than people who don't know tech. It's ok to not be in on every culture and subculture out there.
My main point is that I first watched this movie because I like Tim Robbins and hadn't see this. Then I read up on some of the history and in-stuff and satire involved. And then I went back and watched parts of it again (or at least replayed parts of it in my head to see them from a different angle) and it was so much more fun. I recommend you do it in that same order. There's a joy in being able to see things that were invisible to you the first time you looked.
Almost everything is 5*. The opening scene is an uncut 8 minute synopsis of the chaos of a movie studio, which makes specific reference to lengthy uncut scenes from other movies. The plot development, including the pitch and final production of a meta-movie, is first rate. The meta-movie writers insist on no stars and a tragic ending. When produced the meta-movie has Bruce Willis saving Julia Roberts's life at the very last second.
The plot in the The Player plays out similarly.
Vast numbers of A-list Hollywood stars make cameo appearances.
The only factor holding me back from a 5* rating is the relationship between Tim Robbins and Greta Scacchi. Right from the first encounter, when she reveals extraordinary information over the telephone to a complete stranger through the romantic development, it lacks all credibility. The Panglossian conclusion is conspicuously ironic, but it would have sat so much better if the relationship development in the early stages had been more credible.
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Er ist der Mann, der sich Drehbuchentwürfe von Autoren anhört und darüber entscheidet, ob daraus ein Film entstehen soll oder nicht. Da der Konzern nur zwölf Filme im Jahr drehen kann und er sich in dieser Zeit tausende Entwürfe anhören muss, bedeutet dies in den meisten Fällen eine Absage. Schon aufgrund dessen, aber auch wegen seiner arroganten Art, wie er die Autoren behandelt, macht er sich zwangsläufig Feinde.
Sein Job ist bedroht, als der aufstrebende Drehbuchautor Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher) im Studio zu arbeiten beginnt. Mill hat außerdem Postkarten mit Morddrohungen erhalten, die vermutlich von einem Drehbuchautor stammten, dessen Angebot er abgelehnt hatte. Mill vermutet, dass der verärgerte Schriftsteller David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio) dahintersteckt. Er versucht ihn zu kontaktieren und telefoniert mit dessen Freundin June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi), die ihm erzählt, dass Kahane im Rialto Theater in Pasadena den Klassiker „"Fahrraddiebe“ anschaut. Mill gibt vor, Kahane in der Lobby zu erkennen und bietet ihm einen Drehbuchvertrag an, in der Hoffnung, dass dadurch die Drohungen gestoppt werden. Die beiden gehen in eine nahegelegene Bar, wo Kahane betrunken ist und Mills Angebot ablehnt, indem er ihn einen Lügner nennt und ihn weiterhin über seinen nicht mehr so ganz sicheren Arbeitsplatz im Studio aufhetzt. Auf dem Parkplatz der Bar kommt es zu einem Streit zwischen den beiden Männern. Mill geht zu weit und ertränkt Kahane in einem flachen Wasserbecken. Anschließend inszeniert Mill das Verbrechen, um es wie einen verpatzten Raubüberfall aussehen zu lassen. Als Mill am nächsten Tag zu spät zu einem Treffen kommt und abgelenkt ist, stellt ihn der Sicherheitschef des Studios, Walter Stückel (Fred Ward), wegen des Mordes zur Rede und sagt, dass die Polizei weiß, dass er der letzte war, der Kahane lebend gesehen hat. Am Ende ihres Gesprächs erhält Mill ein Fax von seinem Stalker. Mill hat also den falschen Mann getötet, und der Stalker weiß das offenbar. Mill nimmt an Kahanes Beerdigung teil und kommt mit Gudmundsdottir ins Gespräch. Die Detectives Avery (Whoopi Goldberg) und DeLongpre (Lyle Lovett) vermuten, dass Mill des Mordes schuldig ist. Mill erhält vom Stalker eine Postkarte mit dem Vorschlag, dass sie sich in einer Hotelbar treffen sollen. Während Mill wartet, wird er von zwei Drehbuchautoren, Tom Oakley (Richard E. Grant) und Andy Sivella (Dean Stockwell), in die Enge getrieben, die "Habeas Corpus" vorstellen, ein juristisches Drama ohne große Stars und mit einem deprimierenden Ende. Da Mill nicht allein ist, erscheint sein Stalker nicht. Nachdem er die Bar verlassen hat, erhält Mill in seinem Auto ein Fax, in dem er aufgefordert wird, unter seinen Regenmantel zu schauen. Er entdeckt eine lebende Klapperschlange in einer Kiste und schlägt sie voller Angst mit seinem Regenschirm nieder. Mill erzählt Gudmundsdottir, dass ihm durch seine Nahtoderfahrung bewusst geworden sei, dass er Gefühle für sie hege. Mill ist besorgt darüber, dass Levy sich weiterhin in seine Arbeit einmischt, und lädt die beiden Autoren ein, ihm Habeas Corpus vorzustellen. Damit überzeugt er Levy davon, dass der Film ein Oscar-Anwärter sein wird. Mills Plan besteht darin, Levy den Film durch die Produktion leiten zu lassen und ihn zum Flop zu bringen. Mill wird im letzten Moment eingreifen und einige Änderungen vorschlagen, um die Kinokassen des Films zu retten und ihm seine Position im Studio zurückzugewinnen...
"The Player" ist einer dieser Filme, in dem der Schurke ungeschoren davon kommt und sogar weiter auf der Erfolgsleiter hoch klettern darf. Natürlich muss es ein Opfer geben, in diesem Falle ist es Bonnie Sherow, gespielt von Cynthia Stevenson, die als einzige empört ist, was aus dem guten Skript "Habeas Corpus" vom Studio gemacht wurde. Wie so oft sind sehr viele Cameo Auftritte dabei, viele Stars spielen sich selbst. Als Lohn für das geglückte Werk bekam Tim Robbins einen Golden Globe und auch der Film selbst wurde mit diesem Preis honoriert. Ausserdem gab es 3 Oscarnominierungen (Beste Regie, Bestes Drehbuch, bester Schnitt) für diesen Film, der 29 Millionen Dollar Umsatz erreichte.
Robert Altman analyse ses personnages au scalpel avec une dramaturgie semblable à celle d'Hitchcock ou de Welles. Son film est une mise en abime intelligente, cynique, impitoyable et passionnante du monde d'Hollywood où l'ambition personnelle et la rentabilité priment sur la qualité des œuvres. Peu importe que le scénario d'un film soit totalement invraisemblable à partir du moment où le public va y retrouver les ingrédients qu'il préfère à savoir de la violence, du sexe et un happy-end.
Le personnage interprété par Tim Robbins peut aussi bien passer pour un génie que pour un monstre dénué de tout scrupule et de profondeur.
C'est un ambitieux prêt à tout pour conserver sa place quand bien même il devrait pour cela écraser les personnes qu'il donne l'illusion d'aimer.
Le seul rayon de lumière est incarné par la belle et talentueuse Greta Scacchi, laquelle est en dehors du système hollywoodien.
La fin du film est à l'image de la réalisation de Robert Altman à savoir grandiose.