Auteurship: Robert Altman

For my essay responding to auteurship, I choose to review the American director Robert Altman. I chose three of his films from completely different stages in his career. I at first thought that doing this would prohibit a more accurate analysis of his style as a director, as each film was done for such different reasons at such different times. However, I feel that this kind of challenge allows me to delve deeper into the core of Robert Altman as an Auteur.
One continuing theme that I have noticed in Robert Altman’s films is his use of fight scenes.
The first film I watched was The Delinquents. The Delinquents was made to show the effects of juvenile misbehavior in the fifties. The film was bought by the government and released in 1957. The story follows Scotty, a nice kid in his senior year of high school. In a desperate attempt to continue seeing his girlfriend, Scotty find himself traveling down paths he normally wouldn’t. In The Delinquents, Scotty finds himself in a few unwanted fights in order to defend himself. Even though Scotty gets himself, as well as his girlfriend, mixed into some trouble with a youth street gang, he is still remains more of a pure character. Since this film was made a type of public announcement service, I believe any type of auteurship might not be as well shown in this type of film.
The second film I reviewed was California Split, which came out in 1974. The two protagonists, Bill and Charlie are addicted to gambling. Despite this character flaw, they are still likeable characters. Bill and Charlie attempt to be good friends to each other until the end, in which one of them decides they don’t want gambling anymore. The two also find themselves in many unwanted fights in an attempt to defend themselves from other angry gamblers. Nevertheless, unlike Scotty and his girlfriend in The Delinquents, Charlie and Bill have a looser moral code.
Popeye was the last film I watched. It’s the story of the sailor Popeye stopping in a small town looking for his long lost father, while in the process falls in love with Olive Oyl and finds his son Sweet Pea. Released in 1980, Popeye would be more closely associated with The Delinquents. Both films have more of a black-and-white type of moral to them. However, Popeye has many heavily choreographed fights, each one becoming more intense until the final battle. Out of the three films I reviewed, Popeye was the most stylized.
Overall, I only felt a small amount of auteurship from the three of Robert Altman’s films I watched. Though all movies were excellent, they didn’t connect together as I have seen in other directors.