Robert Altman on the movies that accidentally changed cinema: “Those are pictures that should not have succeeded”
As the 1960s gave way to the following decade, it became clear that the American film industry was in a period of transition and evolution, whether it wanted to admit it or not. Robert Altman was at the forefront of the incoming revolution, not that he believed Hollywood wanted him to succeed.
The ‘New Hollywood’ movement was like a breath of fresh air funnelling down the neck of the United States, with the studio-mandated models of old quickly being usurped by a wave of fresh, dynamic, and daring auteurs who refused to compromise in bringing their unfiltered vision to the screen.
It didn’t last long, with the era effectively over by the time the 1980s began, but it was a monumental moment for the business. Even a sampling of the names of those who broke through as part of the ‘New Hollywood’ wunderkinds illustrates the legacy it left behind, with many of them sitting pretty among the greatest directors of all time.
Alongside Altman, there was Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Michael Cimino, John Cassavetes, Brian De Palma, Stanley Kubrick, and Sidney Lumet, which was merely the tip of an iceberg that melted and washed over Tinseltown from the boardrooms to the soundstages.
At the end of the day, though, the aim of the game is to make as much money as possible. Altman was keenly aware of that fact but singled out a trifecta of ‘New Hollywood’ touchstones that changed cinema forever, even though by the standards of what the industry had been for decades beforehand, never should have taken off in the way they did.
“Every film that was a breakthrough film that changed the way films are made and changed the way audiences see films, has been an accident,” he told David Breskin. “Easy Rider, M*A*S*H, Five Easy Pieces; those are pictures that should not have succeeded. They were never backed. And you probably can name 25 other ones that were real benchmarks that changed things. The point is that different kinds of things do get made and will continue to get made, but now totally by mistake.”
M*A*S*H was Altman’s fourth feature, but it was his true breakthrough, with the wartime dark comedy winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, netting ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ nominations at the Academy Awards, winning the filmmaker ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, and bringing the auteur’s style to the forefront of the cinematic consciousness.
Easy Rider was the definitive counterculture flick that influenced and inspired a generation well past the four corners of the silver screen, with Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces making a similar splash. It speaks volumes and enhances Altman’s point that the least successful of the three was the latter because it was ‘only’ shortlisted for four Oscars and ‘only’ recouped its budget 15 times over at the box office.
