California Split
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Movie Reviews of California Split
Movie Review: Masterpiece...
Summary: 5 Stars
One of Altman's very best films ever. An excellent screenplay is just the starting point for one of Altman's most poignant and intelligent films. Listen closely to Altman's extroadinary and sophisticated use of sound and music in the film, it is quite brilliant.Movie Review: Another DVD disaster
Summary: 1 Stars
Beware -- this is NOT the movie "as it was meant to be seen."
Although finally available -- and in widescreen -- the disc
presents a severely compromised version of Robert Altman's
great film. As detailed by Brad Stevens in VIDEO WATCHDOG
magazine, No. 116, it has been shorn of three minutes --
cuts that render some scenes incomprehensible -- due to music
rights issues (real or imagined by skittish studio lawyers).
More damage has been done throughout by altering the
soundtrack -- carelessly and stupidly -- wherever certain
songs were originally heard in the film. What a shame.
Don't erase those old tapes!
Movie Review: A Minor Gem From Altman
Summary: 4 Stars
California Split is Robert Altman's take on the classic buddy movie. It tells the story of two hard-core gamblers, Bill Denny, played by George Segal, and Charlie Waters, played by Elliott Gould, who, after a chance meeting, take off on a long and unexpectedly successful spree binge that takes them from their native Los Angeles to a high-stakes poker game in Reno.
I love this picture, even though, as I explain below, Altman is something of an acquired taste. The first point is that because Altman cares about actors, he gets great performances from them. California Split is worth watching simply to see the extraordinary by-play between George Segal and Elliot Gould. They obviously liked working with each other, and they portray realistically idiotic and lovable louts, incapable of maintaining serious lives, relationships or jobs because the gambling gets in the way. Maybe the best-known scene in the movie is one in which these two addled and somewhat drunken dopes try to recall the names of Disney's seven dwarves. It's a very short scene, but it is poignant and funny at the same time, which is the tone of the best part of this picture.
The other remarkable thing is how brilliantly Altman captured the world of small-time gamblers. This movie was made in 1974, long before the World Series of Poker became a staple of ESPN, when hard-core gambling was restricted to tiny corners of the nation. The verisimilitude of the casino and bar scenes is so terrific its as if he used no actors at all, just went into the casinos and started shooting. Altman got it all, the smoke, the crazy characters, the sleaze, and oh yes, the insane excitement of winning.
The rap on Altman is that he couldn't tell a story, and there's some merit to the charge. In truth, Altman, who grew up in the television business, was completely capable of telling a story, it just wasn't his primary interest. Altman is more interested in his characters, and how they interact with each other, than with producing classic Hollywood story-arc movies. To some extent, all of his movies contained an at-best loosely connected series of vignettes, rather than traditional tight plotting. In his most commercially successful movies, like Nashville and M*A*S*H, there was just enough story line to carry audiences; in other movies, and California Split falls into this category, the story line is either so weak or so implausible that audiences didn't like the movies he made, because they seemed shapeless. But the point is, you don't watch his movies for the plot lines; there's always Bruckheimer and Simpson for that. You watch Altman movies because he gets these fabulous performances out of actors, and because he takes you places other people can't or won't. If you like movies, you won't regret watching California Split.
Movie Review: "Now Let's See...There's Goofy, Sleepy, Grumpy.."
Summary: 3 Stars
Robert Altman: Iconoclast, maverick, annoyance. You either love him or hate him. When I ponder Robert Altman, I think of M.A.S.H., Nashville, and The Long Goodbye. California Split is a mixed bag, with some excellent scenes and dialogue (including the famous "Seven Dwarves" sequence), but overall, I consider this one of his lesser works. There are too many long, drawn-out scenes which seem to go nowhere. The female leads are terrible, and the ending is unsatisfying.
The gambling scenes are first rate, especially in depicting George Segal as a hopeless degenerative gambler who can't stop to save his bacon. Elliott Gould plays a loveable goof as only Elliott Gould can. The scene in the restaurant between Segal and his shylock is priceless. The robbery scene in the parking lot is hysterical. In the end, these great scenes cannot sustain the whole movie, and as a result there are long moments that are soporific and boring.
I love parts of this movie, and I would recommend at least one viewing. For me it was hit and miss, but then again, I'm not an absolute Robert Altman fan, so maybe I don't "get it."
Movie Review: Character & Behaviour Over Plot & Story
Summary: 5 Stars
In the 1970s, Elliott Gould and Robert Altman were an unbeatable team. They first worked together on M*A*S*H, a savage satire of the military, then again on a radical, contemporary reworking of Raymond Chandler's novel, The Long Goodbye, and finally completed the hat trick with California Split, an ode to obsessive gamblers. For years, this film has been relegated to obscurity, showing up occasionally on TV and tied up in legal issues over the music which delayed its release on DVD. Finally, all of these entanglements have been resolved and the movie is presented the way it was meant to be seen.
California Split is one of Altman's trademark character-driven films. It is less concerned with plot than behaviour as we watch the friendship between Bill and Charlie develop over a mutual love of gambling. As the film progresses and the two men hang out more, Bill starts to become more addicted to the gambling lifestyle. He blows off work early to meet Charlie at the track and sells his possessions for money. Bill and Charlie are gambling addicts who ride the high arcs and the low valleys, never passing up a bet. At a boxing match they put money on the outcome of the fight with a fellow spectator.
Those who know Elliott Gould and George Segal only from their contemporary sitcom appearances (Friends and Just Shoot Me, respectively), should see California Split if only to see these guys in their prime and working with a master filmmaker at the top of his game. Gould and Segal have never been better and play well of each other. There is good chemistry between them as Gould plays the more experienced gambler in contrast to Segal's more na?ve one.
Altman fans will enjoy the audio commentary included on this DVD. It features the director, the film's screenwriter Joseph Walsh, Gould and Segal. They point out that all the extras in the opening sequence were ex-drug addicts. Altman and Walsh talk in detail about the filmmaking process with the latter pointing out the authenticity of the gambling lifestyle as depicted in the movie. Everyone recounts amusing anecdotes on this relaxed, informative track.
California Split is not afraid to show the ugly side of gambling. Bill sells his car and his possessions for a big poker game in Reno. Charlie exacts a rough, bloody revenge on the guy who mugged him at the beginning of the movie. These are not always likeable guys and to Altman's credit he doesn't try to romanticize or judge them, leaving that up to the audience. California Split is arguably Altman's loosest film in terms of plot and one of the richest in terms of character and observing their behaviour.