In the opening scene of Robert Altman’s The Player, two characters are discussing the greatest tracking shots in films. That is, the greatest opening tracking shot. One throws in Hitchcock’s The Rope, an entire film that is one long tracking shot. The other character disputes that. He says Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil opening tracking shot is the best. As the characters are discussing this, we move to the windows of the office of a Hollywood executive, Griffin Mill (played by Tim Robbins), as he hears pitch after pitch.
“It’s like The Graduate Part 2!”
“Who will we get to play the girl?”
“Julia Roberts of course!”
As Mill remains hesitant to the notion of most of the potential pictures, the viewer becomes aware that we are witnessing a massive opening tracking shot. This is just one of the tricks that Altman likes to bait the viewer with in The Player. The Player follows Mill as he tries to shake off the stalker nature of a writer who wants recognition. Mill rejected the writer months back, and the writer is continually sending him threatening postcards. As Mill’s paranoia builds, he tracks down a suspect writer, and accidentally kills him. He finds out a little later that he got the wrong writer. Altman creates a Hollywood environment that is, quite frankly, brutal. Writers are ignored, and everyone just looks out for the interest of themselves alone. This feeling works, and is spurred on by some great acting from Robbins. As in The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins does very well at tight, intense, and emotional scenes.
The pacing of the film, however, feels a bit off. A majority of the film feels like a lengthy exposition, that comes to a head with a brief, and fast final act. Nevertheless, Altman ability for exponentially increasing both satire and intensity isn’t lost on the viewer. Through the intensity, a truth is created about the way the film industry has become. Even Robbins’ character Mill states during a lavish dinner that he praises the way some in the industry want real films, with life and emotion, and not those that cater to the box office and lazy audiences. The Player came out in 1992, over a decade before the massive film shared universes and franchises sprung up. With keeping this in mind, it turns the film into a painful admission that the film industry has become a money-making machine that refuses to quit.
All the jabs and satire come a biting final scene, and although I won’t spoil it, really shows the depths that many in Hollywood are willing to sink to.
This film means so much more now than I’m sure it did in the 90s.
3.5/5
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