Robert Altman: The Oral Biography

by Mitchell Zuckoff

Robert Altman-visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend-comes roaring to life in this rollicking oral biography. After an all-American boyhood in Kansas City, a stint flying bombers in World War II, and jobs ranging from dog tattoo entrepreneur to television director, Robert Altman burst onto the scene in 1970 with M*A*S*H. He reinvented American filmmaking, and went on to produce such masterpieces as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park. In Robert Altman, Mitchell Zuckoff has woven together Altman's final interviews; an incredible cast of voices including Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, among scores of others; and contemporary reviews and news accounts into a riveting tale of an extraordinary life.

Genres: Biography, Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Audiobook, Autobiography, Oral History

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Mitchell Zuckoff is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers "Fall and Rise," "13 Hours," "Lost in Shangri-La," and "Frozen in Time." His previous books are: "Robert Altman: The Oral Biography," one of Amazon.com's "Best Books of 2009"; "Ponzi's Scheme," and "Choosing Naia." He is co-author of "Judgment Ridge," which was a finalist for the Edgar Award.

Zuckoff's magazine work has appeared in The New Yorker, Fortune, and other national and regional publications. He is a former special projects reporter for The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative reporting as a member of the Spotlight Team. He received the Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Livingston Award for International Reporting, the Heywood Broun Award, and the Associated Press Managing Editors' Public Service Award, among other national honors. He lives outside Boston.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In fact, he disliked the word "story", believing that a plot should be secondary to an exploration of pure (or, even better, impure) human behavior.

Mitchell Zuckoff's oral history of filmmaker Robert Altman's life and unique career should be satisfying and fascinating for Altman fans - of which I am one. Here's the thing: aside from his tv & theater work, Altman made roughly 35 feature films. When his work was good, it was amazing. When it was less than good, it was still often interesting. When it was bad, it tended to be a painful viewing experience. 

Yet, Altman said he loved all of his films equally, feeling particular affection for the unsuccessful ones. (Myself, I'm not convinced that's all that possible - but he's the creator.) 

The overall picture of this biography has the mosaic feel of one of Altman's larger-cast successes. At just over 500 pp., it's a very quick and insightful read, even though the bulk of the material leans toward the expected laudatory remembrances. (These are tempered by balancing observations re: Altman's less-than-noble characteristics. The net result is a clear-eyed vision of an all-too-human personality mostly loved by those who understood him best.) 

Ample coverage is given to the films themselves (which is mainly why we're here, after all). In thinking about Altman's work in retrospect, it's heartwarming seeing examples of how standout successes were critically received.

For example, I've never thought much of her as a critic, one way or the other, but Pauline Kael seemed to capture 'Nashville' in an appropriately fawning manner:

I've never before seen a movie I loved in quite this way: I sat there smiling at the screen, in complete happiness. It's a pure emotional high, and you don't come down when the picture is over; you take it with you. ... The picture says, 'This is what America is, and I'm part of it. 'Nashville' arrives at a time when America is congratulating itself for having got rid of the guys who were pulling the wool over people's eyes. The movie says it isn't only the politicians who live the big lie--the big lie is something we're all capable of trying for.

Or, as Keith Carradine is quoted:

"It's a better picture now than when we made it."

A similar sentiment accompanies this assessment of '3 Women':

Altman's dream of three women expresses his sense that human beings have become more vulnerable than ever to pain, loss, betrayal, cruelty and shame. He's right, but his film has an originality and beauty of form that moves you beyond the force of its insight.

This in spite of Sissy Spacek's view:

"I don't think I ever knew what the film was about. I remember Bob would say, 'Well, if you confuse people enough in the first twenty minutes they'll give up trying to figure out what it's about and they'll just go with it and enjoy it.'"

For me, the most interesting juxtaposition here was the pare-down of 'The Player' (with a Michael Tolkin script) against 'Gosford Park' (written by Julian Fellows). With the former film, Altman's deceptive, bull-in-a-China-shop bravado reflects his absolute comfort with and knowledge of the film's subject matter. But with the latter movie, Altman is shown in faux-eating-crow form when it's clear to him that the writer innately knows much more about the ground both he and the director are standing on.

It seems that, to a large degree, Altman wanted to be understood (contradictions / flaws and all) *through* his films. He as much as says so. In life, he seemed to get along best with those who 'got' him and could therefore easily become kindred spirits. As for the others... well, more often than not, they seemed to Altman as important as gnats. He basically had no time for his contrarians; he had films to get to; and he always felt as though he was never going to have the time he needed to devote to them. 

The takeaway here is a portrait of an often fiery, larger-than-life yet still deeply compassionate iconoclast (who, intriguingly, mellowed with time). He seemed bemused about actually being in the world but, as long as that was the case, he was determined to live as authentically as possible (naysayers be hanged).

Best interviewee: his wife, Kathryn.

[My Altman Faves, with a few Honorable Mentions: 

'M*A*S*H'
'Brewster McCloud'
'Nashville'
'3 Women'
'A Wedding'
'Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean' (which I also saw in Altman's stage version on Broadway)
'Vincent and Theo'
'The Player'
'Short Cuts'
'Gosford Park'

HMs:
'McCabe & Mrs. Miller'
'Secret Honor'
'Kansas City'
'A Prairie Home Companion']

[Carlos Valladares · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been enjoying a revisit to one of the key artistic figures and inspirations of my galaxy, Robert Altman, in this, the year of his centennial. A quick glean of Altman's films — COME BACK TO THE 5-AND-DIME JIMMY DEAN JIMMY DEAN, NASHVILLE, QUINTET, and THE COMPANY, to name four of the most immediately relevant in 2025 — suggest we have many, many lessons to still draw from his oeuvre. In my view, we have not fully reckoned with his achievements, because we have not fully reckoned with his radical working methods, his pecuniary savvy, his antiauthoritaniasm, the way he makes a dazzling hash out of the false binary of "failure" and "success" in American culture (I've been reading "The Politics of Totality," a 1994 Jameson essay, where everything that he maps out about William Carlos Williams can easily map onto Altman), and Altman's spiritual alignment more with the worlds of painting and music than cinema (especially the version of cinema closely linked to U.S. capitalist entertainment that salivates over economic "success", and the theatre which salivates over coherent character/narrative "success"). This engrossing oral biography, while clearly compiled by a very knowledgable and passionate dilettante, gravely shortchanges the fascinating and productive periods (namely, the late 70s and the 80s) where Altman was at his most experimental; weird yet essential works like BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, 3 WOMEN, A WEDDING, A PERFECT COUPLE, QUINTET, POPEYE (beyond the excesses of its production), and Altman's theatre-to-cinema work — none of which have been subjected to the serious attention that they so loudly merit — are all ignored in favor of giving big chapters to his big hits (whether the middling THE PLAYER, MASH, and GOSFORD PARK, or the masterful MCCABE and NASHVILLE). Yet, Zuckoff nevertheless brings a significant richness to the flavor of his universe and his biography through the sheer polyphony of voices that make up the Altman universe. This made me realize a dream book of mine is a study of All of Altman in the style of Shiguéhiko Hasumi, which would try to link Altman with the Americans that compel Fred Jameson (Stevens, Faulkner, Williams) in his own modernist canon — the company, similar to Lynch, in which Altman belongs.

Two particular testimonies ring through my mind: a very egocentric, ego-bruised and ungrateful Sam Shepard lambasting what Altman did to his play FOOL FOR LOVE (i.e., encouraged Sam himself to play his own role, to great effect I thought, though Sam himself would say I'm wrong: "Anyone who loved the film just didn't see the play" — uhhh, fuck me, right?! shame I never saw the original Globe performance of Hamlet, too...), and a very hesitant Jules Feiffer critically considering the pluses and minuses of the Altman style. Both of these men have the same critique: Altman didn't understand "story." He sacrificed character for indulgence, and, according to the unsparing Shepard, "he doesn't know a thing about acting." Well, Altman would be the first to admit that not-bombshell fact. Not knowing, not needing to know it all, trusting others, is the first step.

Sidenote: I remember once getting frustrated with a director friend of mine back in, like, 2019 when I told him, "God, I love actors, what they do — it's such a mystery to me." He snapped back that if I was going to be a director, I'd better learn how to direct them, and fast, and that it's not that hard to know. It was my job to know, he said. Six years on, I still love the dude to death — and I still think what he said is a total crock of shit. What actors do, what artists do, should always (in some measure) remain a mystery. That way, the childlike wonder of how we interact with each other — the fact that the next word or next gesture might erupt from some hitherto unseen cauldron — never leaves you, and there's space for you to do, play, think, dream beyond a dream.

Back to Feiffer: discussing POPEYE, which he wrote, he hits the nail on the head, in a sort of backhanded compliment, of why Altman was the master: "He's not interested in storytelling, building character — that's just not an interest of his. He is more of a painter on film, giving you impressions. He works a little like the action painters." Et voilà. He operated by fanatical instinct, refusing to do the convention, rejecting the cliché. If Altman was given a film noir, he'd have the reasonable detective blindly kill his best friend in a temporary rage by picture's end. If given a musical, he'd have them sing the weirdest, most uncommercial music ever conceived and (charmingly failingly) convince us they could make the cover of Cashbox Mag. If Altman was given complete uncensored access to Paris Fashion Week, he'd have 10 gags of people stepping in dog shit at every runway. He would even, when bored, film a one-man play — just to fuck with the people who try to simplify artists with these horrible adjectives like Lynchian, Lubitschian, Felliniesque, Altmanesque. And, as The Company proves, given a movie made in Hollywood, Altman would dare to have no "story." Certainly not the kind they teach you in Screenwriting 101. If he was told to be a director, he'd go right off and make films that were more like paintings, favoring things like atmosphere, line (of camera movement), music, shades varied according to the main pigment: actors. Only with films, the pigment sings back. Powell and Pressburger sought that out with The Red Shoes; to much humbler ends, so does Altman with THE COMPANY, and achieves it.

His isn't neener-neener rebellion for its own sake, much as his detractors would like to claim it is, finding a cheerless contrarianism in his work, not to mention their baffling projection of blind misanthropy. (He only made, like, two films that could be comfortably quantified as 100% misanthropic: MASH and OC & STIGGS, and the targets — the jingoist, macho U.S. military in occupied Korea, and white boy summer in Reagan's Phoenix — more than warrant it.) Altman's rebellion, rather, was a principled, deeply moving (to me, at least), unceasing quest to find what makes cinema cinema and not theater, and not music, and not poetry, and beyond all three. What makes it its own weird thing? How can an inner state be conveyed physically? "And all at once I knew I knew at once I knew he needed me" — if that ain't Gertrude Stein resuscitated in flop-chic Shelley Duvall, I don't know what. That's the inner state, physicalized against all odds, in a Disney kids' flick. And the inner state of the acceptance of death in life? Well, it's the moment in THE COMPANY when a ballerina snaps her Achilles, only to be immediately replaced by another dancer; the very next scene is of the performance the next night, where the replacement gets all the applause, as the now-hobbling replaced watches from the wings. And she's smiling for her. Not only acceptance of the end, but also contentment with where one's been.

[Carol Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing this oral biography of Robert Altman was an amazing achievement for my favorite nonfiction author, Mitchell Zuckoff. I have the book but I decided to listen to the audiobook and use the book for clarification and to see the photos. Mitchell interviewed many actors who worked with Altman over the years along with relatives, friends, producers, film critics, etc. The list was exhaustive. He worked closely with Altman himself until he died. Altman's wife was very involved in the interviews and her perspective was always interesting and at times very funny. If you're a fan of Altman's films, you will find this interesting. As Zuckoff says - books have been written about each of Altman's films and this book certainly doesn't go into that much depth. However, if you'd like to hear some of the backstories about certain films - why he chose them, how he picked the actors, problems during filming or during the release, how the actors view the films now, etc., this book will certainly entertain you. In the audiobook version you do hear the voices of many actors and family members. I thought this made listening more enjoyable.

If you've never seen a Bob Altman film, skip this book and see some of his movies!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book in terms of getting even more insight into Altman the man.

Incidentally (or not???), he was a serious weed smoker but now I know he toked into his old age. Pot brownies at the Oscars.

[Smiley III · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is good! I only read most of it, but I really, really liked it!

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started a watch/rewatch of Altman's films a few weeks back and wanted to read a good biography and retrospective of his work. What better way to tell Altman's story than through cascading dialog by a teeming host of people who knew and worked with him? The story that comes through here is the same one reflected in his eclectic and eccentric career - a dedication to a way of making a movie and telling a story that is genuinely unique. I don't love everything the man directed but I respect his vision a lot and, almost daily, wish we had a movie industry today as supportive of intelligent filmmaking as the film business of the 70s and 80s was. Sadly, you can see the change in tastes over the course of Altman's career as it's reflected here. To hear his voice and those of his associates lamenting that no one could get funds to make grown-up movies after Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark is like a distant echo of a trend so deep we may never escape it.

[Jedenobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, complex portrait of one of the all-time greats. I'm glad that this wasn't a hagiography, even while being sad that someone whose art I love so much could be so bad to his family. Zuckoff tracks down just about everyone you'd ever want to hear from, and there's a number of hilarious and moving stories throughout.

The only complaint is that Altman's career is so long and sprawling that to give each project its due would require a book 10x this length.

[Jack Herbert Christal Gattanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bob: "The minute I say what a movie I've made is *about*, I've narrowed everyone else's view of it. If I say what it means to me, its range to some event is limited to the viewer from that point on."

Paul Newman: "He was an original. Being an original means that you're standing out there on thin ice sometimes. But at least he was out there skating while everybody else was waiting for cold weather."

Q&A:
Q: If you were to die and come back as a persdon or thing, what do you think it would be?"
A: "I'm immortal."

What can I come away with after reading this monumental story of a life like Altman's? Well, simply, he was one of the most tenacious artists of the 20th century. And somehow he was able to navigate a system and work consistently that, by all accounts, could have kicked him out in the *late 1970s* much less the 80's when he was in the "wilderness." It is exhaustively detailed and the interviews are illuminating. This is a man who was seen to be uncompromising and perhaps difficult, but there were too many contradictions to pin him down so easily. One page you may see a man who has a ferocious temper and (to put it mildly) not suffer fools kindly, or even just someone who doesn't know their shit (or a studio exec, yeah, definitely one of those). The next you see someone who is like a big lovable bear of a man, who was happy to make films and lived by the Kurosawa maxim: "It is wonderful to create."

It's fascinating for me on a film buff-type level simply to understand just how long it took for him to get his big break - while he did make a couple of low budget B movies in the mid 1950s, he was mostly relegated to TV until 1968, and really made his commercial breakthrough at 44 with MASH. I'd think a lot of other directors might just be happy to stay a carpetbagger in TV (not to mention a very different time when a TV director didn't or couldn't have much personality to bring to a piece of filmmaking). But I didn't realize, or haven't seen simply out of not seeking them out, that on this early industrials and then the TV shows, he was already developing his tastes and style and craft. And he always thought he had it in him, which is inspiring: the confidence Altman had at the worst of times is what gets an artist through, and for all of the uh, you know, drinking, gambling, etc, family issues, he was always plugging away. And eventually it paid off...

AND YET, I also didn't comprehend just how much he was able to, how can I say it, get away with in the 70's. MASH basically bought him 10 years in Hollywood - including a five picture deal with FOX (thanks to Alan Ladd Jr, ironically the guy who stood up for George Lucas with Star Wars, the kind of movie that heralded in the unkind-to-auteurs 1980s that Altman suffered through), and none of those movies maded money (indeed one of them, HealtH, isn't available on video so I've not seen it) - and basically none of the movies he made after MASH (until, oddly enough, Popeye) made any money.

Yet he could get the stuff done he wanted, he had some wild and unruly but amazing collaborations with a variety of writers and actors, not least of which Warren Beatty, Joan Tewksbury, and Paul Newman, and changed how a film could be made - or, really, how it could be *percieved* to be made. Follow the script to the letter? Why? Make something else up if YOU think it works better. Often, that led to magical moments of cinema. Other times... well, I haven't watched Quintent in a while... And another irony that I found fascinating: Popeye, really his first major studio production in many years, was seen as a failure/disappointment in the industry and managed to kind of blackball him for another decade (with the exception of OC and Stiggs, which... frankly, I might've liked a little more on that, it was said he was unhappy making it, and I can't imagine he EVER revisited it, and yet he also said in one of those sweeping remarks: "I love all my films, they're my children", so... did he love that little bastard OC and Stiggs too? I dunno)... but the FOX films, they didn't really hurt him as much. The giant percieved-not-even-really-a-failure costs more, it seems, than the little money-losses.

I loved reading this book, despite taking a while with it; I think the early part, his early years right before Countdown, I put the book down for some dumb reason or another, maybe because I was getting impatient with it (Not a fault of the author who got the interviews, but with myself really). But once I got into the sections of Countdown and That Cold Day in the Park, I devoured this in a week. I love getting lots of insight into process but also how being prepared enough gets one to be open enough to let things, anything, happen, and to be intuitive and trusting and loving (yes, loving) enough of actors as creators to bring their work to the table. At the same time, it's also absorbing as a personal saga, of how he stayed married for all those years to Kathryn and the very real and honest problems he had as a father (or lack thereof), as an artist who saw his art as more paramount than his family. Further along with this are tumultuous sections about an affair with Faye Dunaway (who never appeared in his films fyi), and the producer Scotty Bushnell, who is more or less a "Bad Guy" (or "Bad Woman") in this story as the close producer Altman wouldn't let go - also that she wouldn't leave).

So, as an Altman fan before, this was further illuminating, but I'd think if you're just getting into his work this has a great structure and just so many voices to keep one interested - and keep one wanting to check out more/most/all of his works. And what helps is there are other critical voices as well - movie review excerpts, for example, but other random interviews and things like bits from DVD commentaries, and archive interview bits - so it's not all just Altman family or friends or actors or writers. You come away from this understanding all the more why he was important as a filmmaker, groundbreaking, the kind that can be tried to be repeated or mimicked but is hard/impossible to do, but also how he was as a man, and there's no easy way to pin him down on that. He could be cruel, a bastard, but also kind and generous and warm. He managed to not fuck up his career too bad on drugs (drink seemed worse for him that pot), and he stuck to his guns creatively and professionally - I had no idea, for example, he turned down *5 million* to direct MASH 2, as he was pissed off about the TV series, but also how many other films he planned to make sequels of (I.e. Nashville 2, Short Cuts 2) - and I agree when he refutes the whole "Comeback" notion from the 90's... since he had really never left!

A couple of other tidbits:

- I'm surprised the book didn't have maybe just a couple of sections or a page on the fact that Altman was on the top board of NORML, which is the national weed organization. Kind of a big deal, I'd think, that he smoked enough and was enough of an advocate to reach that position - or how that even happened.
- Kevin Spacey is a fucking asshole and I hope he burns in hell (even if I didn't know about *EVERYTHING ELSE* this book would make me think that).
- Beyond Therapy has zero written about it. Good, it sucks.
- The story behind making TANNER '88 I wish had a little more detail, personal preference, but what is here is fascinating.
- The 93 Oscars ceremony story was a hoot. I'd get baked too if I knew I'd not be winning. "Yeah! Go Clint!"

[Quinn da Matta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every minute of this. Insightful, intriguing, and inspiring.

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best oral biographies I've ever read. Whether you are an Altman fan or not, one cannot argue the distinguished mark this talented director left through his cinematic scope. A Hollywood outsider who worked with the most talented people (think Meryl Streep, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, and it really goes on and on and on), and also mostly an independent film-maker, reading through Altman's life is also remembering the many changes through mine- where I lived when "Short Cuts" premiered, who I broke off with when, after seeing "Nashville," we couldn't settle our differences about the film. How seeing "Gosford Park" was such a marker in forbearance for how much a success "Downton Abbey" would become, a decade or so later. I took notes all the way through this lovely book, and found myself thanking Bob Altman over and over for his contribution to the arts- his trust in actors and in the moment, his love of what was unexpected, the way his wife, Kathryn, loved him, gave him the backdrop and belief in his work that allowed him to leave so many cherished American films, that say so much about America, without setting forth to do so.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This "Oral Biography" features narrated quotes by Altman, his family, collaborators, and co-workers. Altman's own words are largely drawn from interviews done close to the end of his life and are not read by himself, as is the case with other quotes it sounds like. Some distinctive voices speaking their own words stand out, among them actors Tim Robbins and Bob Balaban. This book makes me want to see many Altman films I missed (Fool For Love, Thieves Like Us, Brewster McCloud, etc.) and re-see ones I already knew (Popeye, MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, etc.) The book strongly underscores that adoration actors had for him and this seemed to arise from the freedom he allowed them, encouraging improvisation. Going off the script purposefully like that damaged his relationship with studios and backers. Hard drinking and obsessive work habits damaged his relationship with family and friends.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb oral biography of a true American original. I'll be honest: before picking up this book, I'd only seen a handful of Altman's films, but after only a couple of chapters, I knew I'd want to see more of them soon. I highly recommend the audiobook version, which makes the oral biography aspect of the book come to life.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a fondness for episodic backstories when it comes to film biographies. I count among my favorites King Cohn by Bob Thomas and The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood by Max Wilk. This work has the same feel, using interviews from family, friends, actors, actresses and Altman himself to give us a glimpse of his journey.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating biography, told appropriately in a chorus of voices, eminently readable. It's a fitting tribute to a brilliant director, maybe the best America has produced.

[Zach Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best biographies I have read and the oral format was an incredible achievement. What a complex man Bob was.

[Stewart Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Altman has become my favorite filmmaker of all time. His career is uneven and a good deal of his movies suffer from missed potential, but even at his lowest points, his work always feels sincere, interesting, and true to some part of himself rather than having been created to satisfy a studio or make a quick buck. I picked up this biography to learn more about the making of his films after watching nearly all of them for the last few months - I didn’t have much knowledge about him as a person, and his catalogue was my main point of interest.

I found myself completely enthralled in this biography from page one. It’s an oral biography comprised of excerpts from nearly 200 interviews as well as archival footage, acceptance speeches, and dialogue directly from Altman’s films. This collage of media is the only way to truly honor him stylistically, as it reflects the massive ensemble casts of most of his best work. His movies, specifically masterpieces such as Nashville and Short Cuts, are loosely plotted and meander, wandering from perspective to perspective in search of a truth greater than any individual story could hope to reach. This oral history works in a similar way, building a picture of the man and his life piece by piece, full of memories both fond and harsh, sometimes contradictory, sometimes not obviously related to any moment of his story, until something brilliant and beautiful surfaces from a sea of memories.

What makes Altman’s life so compelling beyond his films is just how enigmatic and grand of a human being he was. He was what revisionists call “complicated”, - sometimes a true piece of shit, an absent father, a cheating husband, a domineering figure demanding infinite love and attention from everyone in his field of vision and giving back scraps in return. To others he was the kindest man on earth, the most encouraging director to work with, his films were gigantic parties full of improvisation and artistic freedom; he was a rebel, bowed to nobody, famously difficult to keep on a leash, would berate massive studios and important Hollywood producers in the press, an enemy of screenwriters because he was never faithful to the words they had written, etc etc etc. He was and is all of those things and none of them, he is every etc and anecdote and acceptance speech and phone conversation and thought that is thunk of him, and that’s all captured in these pages. Reading this book, he appears to be the biggest man who ever lived - even in death it becomes impossible not to be pulled into his orbit.

A lovely book for fans of his films, or any films, or just looking for something to get lost in. And I have to hand it to Zuckoff for compiling this - it seems he had almost total access to everyone that Altman ever worked with, even actors dead at the time this was published. I was constantly amazed at the quotes and stories he pulled from the most unlikely of sources, and the way the many voices in here play off of each other is outstanding. Reading this truly felt like watching some great final film, and I’m so grateful that a document exists worthy of such a monumental subject.

[Brenden Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Altman was a genius. And he was an asshole.

While these claims may appear subjective, after you listen to the entirety of Mitchell Zuckoff's "Robert Altman: The Oral Biography" you are left with the reality that eventually subjective opinion becomes objective fact if enough people share that opinion. And pretty much everyone that Altman ever met would agree on both counts.

I am grateful that Mr. Zuckoff doesn't have the same need to endlessly wrestle with the idea that Altman was a great artist and not necessarily a great guy. So many people on Twitter do this as an unpaid full-time job, and it quickly becomes exhausting. For the most part, Zuckoff cordons off Altman's work and personal life, giving each their due time but being careful not to muddy the waters too much. And when one impacts the other, he analyzes the car crash and moves on.

Robert Altman was a bad father, a mediocre husband, and a fair-weather friend, but on-set he was something between a master and a god. Every actor loved working for him. His crews would die for him. And it seems that everyone involved in his filmmaking process enjoyed themselves except for most of the writers and, about half the time, the financiers.

Altman is beloved by champions of the auteur theory in part because he didn't think much of writers. While so many directors claim that their finished films depart from the script when the time comes to take credit for a successful film, Altman was one of the few in history who actually tended to leave the script behind in the making of his films. Sometimes, as in the case of "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "The Long Goodbye," the film that was made improved on the script-as-blueprint, but it was often the case that when Altman left behind his map, he got lost.

But, with Altman, the goodness of each individual film is not the point. He was an original and he did it differently than anyone who has come before or since. As such, he is worthy of study and admiration because his directorial style was one that used a totally different equation to get the right answers. And as such, it might be worth it for any director to take a peek at his notes.

I am personally conflicted about Altman because, as I do, he loved actors, but, he didn't have much use for writers. And well, that's how I make my money. But, to admire someone, you don't have to like them. And no matter what you think of his opinions, I don't know how you can watch a film like "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and not be curious how something so good and so unique came to be.

The fashionable obsession with the morality of our artists has always been a ridiculous artifact of post-Trump liberalism, and its day will come to an end. You don't have to look much further than Robert Altman. You don't have to like him. He wouldn't have cared one way or another. But, you have to admit he knew a thing or two about making movies. Even if he could be a real son of a bitch about it.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book written through the many voices of people who lived and worked with Altman.

The chronological approach works well, the portrait that emerges is that of a conflicted man with the temperament of a rascal and the ability to direct actors in a new and generous way. The choice of creating a complex, multifaceted portrait through many, sometimes contradictory points of view, is great and does Altman justice.

The many details about Altman's approach to filmmaking are fascinating and will likely be of interest to filmmakers, photographers and even writers.

BEWARE: despite its positioning as an "oral" biography, this book is best READ, not listened to in the audio version (which I did, but it was a mistake). The book may be based on recorded interviews BUT these interviews are not what you'll hear: in most cases you'll hear actors--not the original interviewees--READING the transcripts of the interviews, sometimes with wholly unconvincing British of French accents depending on who is meant to be "speaking".

This creates a very disturbing feeling as you listen on: while the grammar is oral, the words are clearly read, not spoken. It's a disaster. Presumably retrieving and using the original interviews was not possible, but the result is that you should probably READ this book, as the experience of listening to it may be, as it was for me, unnerving.

[Edward Champion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent oral history on one of my favorite filmmakers of all time. Zuckoff really gets into what made Robert Altman tick: his mercurial party guy vibes, his sensitivity with actors, his gruffness, his casual risk-taking, and his fierce determination to make the movies that only his sui generis personal vision could summon. There are remarkable anecdotes from every stage of Altman's incredible career (although I do wish Zuckoff could have examined Altman's ideas of loyalty a little more; we do learn why Keith Carradine never worked with him again -- because he was a new dad and needed the larger money he was getting on another project). It's astonishing how the studio heads robbed Altman of well-deserved financial success by cutting him out of the profit points for MASH. On the other hand, Altman's brash and belligerent words towards the studios didn't help. This fascinating and constantly entertaining volume truly reveals the life of a true and determined artist. And it's worth reading even if you're not an Altman fanboy. Though how could you love cinema and not love Altman?

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to as an audio book - which I highly recommend - since it should really be listened to, as opposed to read.

The oral narrative is read by the people who provided it. So we have the voices of Elliot Gould, Michael Murphy, Tom Skerritt, Julianne Moore, and countless others including Altman's family members. It's also told in much the same manner as Altman's films - allowing the participants to relate their experiences with Altman and personal take on the man without any censorship or editing really involved. As a result, we get a multi-faceted picture of Altman from those who adored him, and those who despised him. Along with a multi-faceted take on the films he made, the process involved, and how individual actors and filmmakers related to it.

It's a must for any Altman fan, and even those who aren't - or anyone interested in the craft of film making.

[Hogfather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mitchell Zuckoff's biography of Robert Altman is one of the first biographies that I've read which takes into account one of the main problems that arises in most biographies. Generally, a person's sins are magnified simply by being put in print, distorting the truth of their personage. Zuckoff's biography abandons the preconceived notion that exact balance is honesty and in doing so probably gives us the most honest portrait of the man that we'll ever get. I don't think that this is a perfect book; I would have liked to hear more about smaller, less successful projects like Tanner on Tanner or O.C. and Stiggs. But even if it's not a perfect guide to Altman's work, it certainly helps us to understand the man.

[Brian J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good series of recollections from friends and family of Robert Altman, with commentary on the filmmaker's life and artistry. This isn't the definitive biography Altman deserves or was planning at the time of his death, but it does shed some light on certain important events and films, focusing mainly on his attitude and style as a director, as well as his generosity and compassion for working with actors. The book glosses over a few films I would've liked to hear more detail on, and totally omits others, like Images. Still, this is probably an essential tome for Robert Altman fans. Recommended.

[Ronan]

A mostly thorough, neatly assembled, insightful look at a genius. The middle chapters, which go off the timeline and delve into Altman’s more difficult traits, really round this out - but to Zuckoff’s credit, he doesn’t silo the hard stuff; it’s everywhere. But so is the genius! People are complex.

I read this in the middle of a serious Altman binge, so I was probably bound to like it. Was glad to read so much about his early days in television, which are harder to access.

Some really terrific voices in here.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible. The full cast, which is great, if not a bit strange to get used to. Tackles a lot, I got through it in two parts, separated by at least a year while podcasts took over. So take that as you may. The second half focuses his films, one-by-one, which is great if you’re a fan. Maybe the chapters having titles would be nice. Wry sad ending, he sounds like a righteous dude, adored pretty much by all, especially his female cast, which is interesting given the constant remakes that his films are misogynist. They tackle that one well and truly.

[Aaron Linville · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting look at this iconic filmmaker. This dives deep into his upbringing, him deciding to go into filmmaking, his work, his fall, and his reemergence into the industry. The way he created films seem to have deeply impacted the people who worked with him, as evidenced by the long list of collaborators who contributed to this book. A very insightful look into a unique but masterful filmmaker.

[Pablo]

Biografía oral, escrita en 2009, tras el fallecimiento del maestro, que he disfrutado enormemente, especialmente por la parte menos cubierta de Altman y por la cantidad de detalles sobre el proceso de escritura de sus guiones y sus relaciones concretas con el sistema de estudios tras su resurrección. Un prodigio de buena documentación para despedir al maestro. Toca algunos asuntos personales y vicios privados, pero nunca con sensacionalismo.

[Rich Luty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for fans of Altman, very insightful look at his unique film making process and his personal life. I like that it covers his tv career, his short films and all his films, he was always working and such a creative genius.

[LorenzoT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book, very interesting life... Well written, well done...

[David Cervantes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great look at Altman's life and work, as told by friends, family, and people in the film industry.

[Nick Huinker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for both Altman and oral histories. tore through this