Robert Altman’s Soundtracks

Abstract

Abstract American director Robert Altman first came to national attention with the surprise blockbuster M*A*S*H (1970) and directed more than thirty feature films in subsequent decades until his death in 2006. In addition to his feature films, Altman worked in the emerging field of cable television, as well as in theater, including opera.Robert Altman’s Soundtracks considers Altman’s celebrated, often innovative uses of music and sound in several of his most acclaimed and lesser-known works, including McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Nashville (1975), Popeye (1980), Short Cuts (1993), Kansas City (1996), Gosford Park (2001), and A Prairie Home Companion (2006), his final film. In so doing, these case studies serve as a window into not only Altman’s considerable and varied output but also the evolving and interwoven industries of film, popular music, and media over nearly four decades, from the heyday of the New Hollywood in the late 1960s through the “Indiewood” boom of the 1990s and its bust in the early 2000s. As its frame, the book considers the continuing attractions of auteurism inside and outside of scholarly discourse by considering Altman’s career in terms of the director’s own self-promotion as a visionary and artist; the film industry’s promotion of Altman the auteur; the emphasis on Altman’s individual style, including his use of music, by the director, critics, and scholars and within the industry; and the processes, tensions, and boundaries of collaboration.

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