HealtH

Some of the acknowledged Altman "masterpieces" seem sadder to me now. Maybe it's me. Like the last reviewer, I even like this "lesser" Altman (shown recently on FMC), although I don't think he was aiming at a wide audience. Organization politics as a "microcosm" for public campaigns. Some of this satirical "docudrama" is now dated, like Dick Cavett watching the Tonight Show, but I found much of the dialog funny and insightful (e.g. "You are for real. That means you're no threat to anyone"). The story isn't "profound," but I liked it. And the performances are funny, especially Cavett (as "himself"), Lauren Bacall as an aging conservative figurehead, Glenda Jackson (who actually became a member of Parliament) as a left wing ideologue (in the opening scene lecturing someone dressed as a carrot on the sanctity of politics), and Carol Burnett as a basket case. All in the inimitable Altman style, although maybe not quite as inimitable as usual. But pretty inimitable.

RIP Glenda Jackson, first of all. Secondly, when the yellow-overall HealtH singers say "Welcome to HealtH" it sounds like "Hell." So it goes. Third, I'd like that Monte Cristo, thanks.

A decidedly minor work in a run Altman had in the 1970s (into 1980) that stands alone in all of American Cinema for comedic and dramatic chutzpah and innovation in holding no quarter for stylistic convention or even typical taste; it just doesn't add up to a whole lot, mostly as you dont care much about what the Garner and Burnett characters had together, and while I would never use the "this was a Dress Rehearsal for that" with Altman because he just didn't work that way he would have sharper knives out (and more empathy) with a similar ruthless political satire later in the 1980s with Tanner 88 - there's even an "Exercise Your Right to Vote" bit - albeit Lauren Bacall and her knowing-ballyhoo book-to-product line was amusing in its cynical snark.

But within enough individual scenes, and for as thin as their characters are Burnett and Garner bring a lot and my goodness Jackson (the latter's dialog 90% taken from Adlai Stevenson speeches), I found myself laughing a lot, consistently, simply because I knew the actors knew what they were saying in the moment, absurdity and Carlin-esque understanding of "its all BS, folks, and it's bad for ya" in toyal. It's a true Oddity in American motion pictures, so weird that I imagine the studio decided not to release it long before in the runtime that Henry Gibson showed up in drag (how did he not wind up on the Golden Girls?).

And, yeah, Alfred Woodard, disarmingly hilarious because shes so straightfoward with Dick Cavett talking to her, has the right attitude, which is her politely saying: you white mothers are crazy.

This is all to say, what I would've given to share a bong with Bob.

"HEALTH" never comes near the brilliance of Robert Altman's earlier political satire, "Nashville"; but it has its moments. I found it interesting because of the good characterizations from all of the participants, but bringing it all together into a unifying theme seems to be absent from this Altman effort. The movie starts out promising but seems to lose steam before its hour and 45 minute running time is over. The ending disappoints because the outcome is so obvious from the first few frames. Still the viewer can have fun along the way: Lauren Bacall lifting her hand for purity and then sometimes inexplicably dropping off into oblivion; Paul Dooley lying at the bottom of the swimming pool as a campaign stunt; Dick Cavett relaxing in his hotel room watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Granted you would have to be a certain age to appreciate that last joke. Still, one wonders what was in Altman's mind in creating this film. Since it was made in 1980, I would think it would be a veiled criticism of Ronald Reagan's ascension to the presidency. But it never stretches itself far enough to really make that point. So I may be reading more into it than is intended.

As disjointed as it is, HEALTH is still light years more clever than a lot of movies that get wide release so it's a real head scratcher why it sat on the shelf for so long...and is pretty much forgotten now. Assembling his standard large cast, director Robert Altman makes some pointed comments on the hypocrisy of many health food aficionados. Lauren Bacall and Glenda Jackson are well-used as rivals vying for president of a national health organization. Bacall is the best thing in the movie as she claims to be in her eighties --- and has a dog in his forties to boot! She's also senile and kept alive by a sex-starved nurse and a shady manager. Jackson is the clipped tongue naturalist who views herself some sort of Jesus figure for the Health conscious set. Carol Burnett is terrific as a government representative who grows more and more wary of the health movement the more she is exposed to it. Her interview scene with Dick Cavett, as himself, is priceless. James Garner plays Bacall's manager and he's appropriately caddish. Henry Gibson is a hoot as a political dirty trickster. Paul Dooley and Alfre Woodard have a few funny moments as well.

In the classic sense of the four humors (which are not specific to the concept of funny or even entertainment), Altman's "H.E.A.L.T.H." treats all of the humors, and actually in very funny, entertaining ways. There's the Phlegm, as personified by Lauren Bacall's very slow, guarded, and protective character Esther Brill, who's mission in life appears to be all about appearance, protecting the secrets of her age and beauty more than her well-being. There's Paul Dooley's Choleric Dr. Gil Gainey, who like a fish out of water (perhaps more like a seal) flops around frenetically, barking and exhorting the crowds to subscribe to his aquatic madness. The Melancholy of Glenda Jackson's Isabella Garnell smacks of Shakespeare's troubled and self-righteous Hamlet -- even proffering a soliloquy or two. And let's not forget Henry Gibson's Bile character, Bobby Hammer ("The breast that feeds the baby rules the world"). Then there's the characters Harry Wolff and Gloria Burbank (James Garner and Carol Burnett, respectively), relatively sane characters striving to find some kind of balance amongst all the companion and extreme humors who have convened for H.E.A.L.T.H. -- a kind of world trade organization specializing in H.E.A.L.T.H., which is to say anything but health. This is Altman at his classic best.