The Player (1992)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers (WGA):

Michael Tolkin (screenplay)
Michael Tolkin (novel)

Release Date:

10 April 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The Best Movie Ever Made!" - Griffin Mill

Plot:

A studio executive is being blackmailed by a writer whose script he rejected but which one? Loaded with Hollywood insider jokes.

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Blackmail | Screenwriter | Murder | Investigation

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Tim Robbins	...	Griffin Mill
Greta Scacchi	...	June Gudmundsdottir
Fred Ward	...	Walter Stuckel
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Detective Avery
Peter Gallagher	...	Larry Levy
Brion James	...	Joel Levison
Cynthia Stevenson	...	Bonnie Sherow
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	David Kahane
Dean Stockwell	...	Andy Civella
Richard E. Grant	...	Tom Oakley
Sydney Pollack	...	Dick Mellon
Lyle Lovett	...	Detective DeLongpre
Dina Merrill	...	Celia
Angela Hall	...	Jan
Leah Ayres	...	Sandy
Paul Hewitt	...	Jimmy Chase
Randall Batinkoff	...	Reg Goldman
Jeremy Piven	...	Steve Reeves
Gina Gershon	...	Whitney Gersh
Frank Barhydt	...	Frank Murphy
Mike Kaplan	...	Marty Grossman (as Mike E. Kaplan)
Kevin Scannell	...	Gar Girard
Margery Bond	...	Witness
Susan Emshwiller	...	Detective Broom
Brian Brophy	...	Phil (voice)
Michael Tolkin	...	Eric Schecter
Stephen Tolkin	...	Carl Schecter
Natalie Strong	...	Natalie
Peter Koch	...	Walter (as Pete Koch)
Pamela Bowen	...	Trixie
Jeff Celentano	...	Rocco (as Jeff Weston)
Steve Allen	...	Himself
Richard Anderson	...	Himself
Rene Auberjonois	...	Himself
Harry Belafonte	...	Himself
Shari Belafonte	...	Herself
Karen Black	...	Herself
Michael Bowen	...	Himself
Gary Busey	...	Himself
Robert Carradine	...	Himself
Charles Champlin	...	Himself
Cher	...	Herself
James Coburn	...	Himself
Cathy Lee Crosby	...	Herself
John Cusack	...	Himself
Brad Davis	...	Himself
Paul Dooley	...	Himself
Thereza Ellis	...	Herself
Peter Falk	...	Himself
Felicia Farr	...	Herself
Katarzyna Figura	...	Herself (as Kasia Figura)
Louise Fletcher	...	Herself
Dennis Franz	...	Himself
Teri Garr	...	Herself
Leeza Gibbons	...	Herself
Scott Glenn	...	Himself
Jeff Goldblum	...	Himself
Elliott Gould	...	Himself
Joel Grey	...	Himself
David Alan Grier	...	Himself
Buck Henry	...	Himself
Anjelica Huston	...	Herself (as Angelica Huston)
Kathy Ireland	...	Herself
Steve James	...	Himself
Maxine John-James	...	Herself
Sally Kellerman	...	Herself
Sally Kirkland	...	Herself
Jack Lemmon	...	Himself
Marlee Matlin	...	Herself
Andie MacDowell	...	Herself
Malcolm McDowell	...	Himself
Jayne Meadows	...	Herself
Martin Mull	...	Himself
Jennifer Nash	...	Herself
Nick Nolte	...	Himself
Alexandra Powers	...	Herself
Bert Remsen	...	Himself
Guy Remsen	...	Himself
Patricia Resnick	...	Herself
Burt Reynolds	...	Himself
Jack Riley	...	Himself
Julia Roberts	...	Herself
Mimi Rogers	...	Herself
Annie Ross	...	Herself
Alan Rudolph	...	Himself
Jill St. John	...	Herself
Susan Sarandon	...	Herself
Adam Simon	...	Himself
Rod Steiger	...	Himself
Joan Tewkesbury	...	Herself
Brian Tochi	...	Himself
Lily Tomlin	...	Herself
Robert Wagner	...	Himself
Ray Walston	...	Himself
Bruce Willis	...	Himself
Marvin Young	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Althea Gibson	...	Herself (uncredited)
Ted Hartley	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Jack Jason	...	Himself (uncredited)
James McLindon	...	Jim the Writer (uncredited)
Derek Raser	...	Studio Mail Driver (uncredited)
Scott Shaw	...	Himself (uncredited)
Patrick Swayze	...	Himself (uncredited)
Dan Twyman	...	Funeral Guest (uncredited)

Directed by
Robert Altman

Writing credits (WGA)
Michael Tolkin		(screenplay)
Michael Tolkin		(novel "The Player")

Produced by
Cary Brokaw	....	executive producer
David Brown	....	producer
Scott Bushnell	....	co-producer
William S. Gilmore	....	co-executive producer
David Levy	....	associate producer
Michael Tolkin	....	producer
Nick Wechsler	....	producer

Original Music by
Thomas Newman		(music by)

Cinematography by
Jean Lépine		(director of photography) (as Jean Lepine)

Film Editing by
Maysie Hoy
Geraldine Peroni

Production Design by
Stephen Altman

Art Direction by
Jerry Fleming

Set Decoration by
Susan Emshwiller

Costume Design by
Alexander Julian		(wardrobe designer)

Makeup Department
Deborah K. Larsen	....	makeup artist (as Deborah Larsen)
Scott Williams	....	hairdresser

Production Management
Jim Chesney	....	production supervisor
Tom Udell	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
C.C. Barnes	....	second assistant director (as CC Barnes)
Allan F. Nicholls	....	first assistant director (as Allan Nicholls)

Art Department
Matthew R. Altman	....	set dresser (as Matthew Altman)
John Beauvais	....	scenic painter
Peter Borck	....	leadman
Charles Bragg	....	title painting
John Bucklin	....	set dresser
Thomas Calloway	....	carpenter
Sydney Cooper	....	artwork
Loren Corney	....	construction coordinator
John Evans	....	carpenter
Kenny Funk	....	carpenter (as Kenneth Funk)
Michelle Guastello	....	art department coordinator (as Michele Guastello)
Julie Heuer	....	assistant property master
Justin Kritzer	....	carpenter
Darryl Lee	....	carpenter
Chris Marneus	....	carpenter
Patrick Maurer	....	construction foreman (as Pat Maurer)
James Monroe	....	property master
Mario Pérez	....	swing gang (as Mario Perez)
Ricky Riggs	....	painter
David Ronan	....	set dresser
Daniel C. Rothenberg	....	swing gang (as Daniel Rothenberg)
Jim Samson	....	set dresser

Sound Department
Kenneth R. Burton	....	sound effects editor (as Ken Burton)
Robert Deschaine	....	foley mixer (as Bob Deschaine)
Rich Gooch	....	recordist
Joseph Holsen	....	dialogue editor
Paul Holzborn	....	foley artist (as Paul Holtzborn)
Matthew Iadarola	....	re-recording mixer
David Jobe	....	foley recordist
Stanley Kastner	....	re-recording mixer
Edmund J. Lachmann	....	dialogue editor (as Ed Lachmann)
John Post	....	foley artist
John Pritchett	....	production sound mixer
Michael P. Redbourn	....	supervising sound editor (as Michael Redbourn)
Joel Shryack	....	boom operator
Emily Smith-Baker	....	cable puller
Bill Ward	....	assistant sound editor
John Rotondi	....	sound engineer: Y4 (uncredited)
John Soukup	....	sound transfer (uncredited)

Special Effects by
John C. Hartigan	....	special effects (as John Hartigan)

Stunts
Greg Walker	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Robert Reed Altman	....	first assistant camera
Robert Bruce	....	electrician
Andy Day	....	best boy electric (as Andrew Day)
Val DeSalvo	....	electrician (as Val De Salvo)
Kevin Fahey	....	grip
Michael James Fahey	....	best boy grip (as Michael J. Fahey)
Craig Finetti	....	third assistant camera
Scott Hollander	....	grip (as Scott 'El Gato' Hollander)
Anthony T. Marra II	....	key grip
Daniel Cary McCrystal	....	second assistant camera (as Cary McKrystal)
Tom McGrath	....	electrician
Don Muchow	....	gaffer
Tim Nash	....	grip
Chris Reddish	....	electrician
Lorey Sebastian	....	still photographer
Wayne Stroud	....	dolly grip
Scott Hamilton	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Al Luis	....	electrician (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Angela Billows	....	wardrobe assistant
Vickie Brinkford	....	wardrobe assistant (as Vicki Brinkkord)
Lydia Tanji	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Alisa Hale	....	second assistant editor
Bob Hart	....	negative cutter
A. Michelle Page	....	assistant editor
Mike Stanwick	....	color timer (as Michael Stanwick)
Dylan Tichenor	....	apprentice editor

Music Department
Bill Bernstein	....	music editor
Thomas Pasatieri	....	orchestrator
John Vigran	....	music scoring mixer

Transportation Department
Chris Armstrong	....	driver (as Christopher Armstrong)
Ron Chesney	....	driver
Steve Earle	....	driver
Don Feeney	....	driver
D.J. Gardiner	....	driver
Derek Raser	....	transportation coordinator
J.T. Thayer	....	transportation captain (as 'J.T.' Thayer)
Gregg Willis	....	driver (as Greg Willis)

Other crew
Alison Balian	....	assistant: Nick Wechsler
Andrea Berty	....	craft service
Angie Bonner	....	production assistant
Paul D. Boydston	....	assistant location manager (as Paul Boydston)
Jim Brockett	....	animal trainer
John O. Brown III	....	production assistant (as John Brown III)
Betsy Chasse	....	assistant coordinator
Stacy Cohen	....	production secretary
Celia Converse	....	representative: Sandcastle 5
Signe Corriere	....	production assistant
Steve Day	....	production assistant
Kimberly Edwards	....	production accountant (as Kimberly Edwards Shapiro)
Judy Geletko	....	additional accounting services
Robin Hage	....	assistant: Cary Brokaw
Sheri Halfon	....	financial representative: Avenue
Pamela Hedley	....	production executive
Cynthia Hill	....	production coordinator
Kelly Householder	....	production assistant
Lawrence Karman	....	karaoke videos (as Larry 'Doc' Karman)
Jack Kney	....	location manager
Danielle Knight	....	assistant: Cary Brokaw
Cheryl Kurk	....	assistant accountant
Claudia Lewis	....	production executive
Stuart McCauley	....	craft service
James McLindon	....	assistant: Robert Altman (as Jim McLindon)
Tom Moore	....	set medic
Dan Perri	....	title designer
Carole Starkes	....	script supervisor
Andrew Varela	....	promotions arranger
Catherine Webb	....	post-production accountant
Michael Hubert	....	assistant coordinator (uncredited)
Julie Kuehndorf	....	unit publicist (uncredited)
Chris Paine	....	assistant to writer and producer (uncredited)

Thanks
Janis Dinwiddie	....	special thanks
Mark Eisen	....	special thanks
Morgan Entrekin	....	special thanks
Luis Estevez	....	special thanks
Bob Flick	....	special thanks: Entertainment Tonight
Suzanne Goldman	....	special thanks
Gerald Greenbach	....	special thanks: Two Bunch Palms
Ron Haver	....	special thanks
Randy Honaker	....	special thanks
Julie Johnston	....	special thanks
Patrick Murray	....	special thanks
Toyoko Nezu	....	special thanks
Mimi Rabinowitz	....	special thanks
Steve Trombatore	....	special thanks: All Payments

Production Companies

• Avenue Pictures Productions (as Avenue Pictures) (presents)
• Spelling Entertainment (in association with)
• Addis Wechsler Pictures (as David Brown/Addis-Wechsler)
• Guild (uncredited)

Distributors

• Fine Line Features (1992) (USA) (theatrical)
• Les Films Number One (1992) (France) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Voyager Company, The (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Image Entertainment (1997) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• New Line Home Video (1997) (USA) (DVD)
• Cipa (????) (France) (theatrical)
• Laurenfilm (????) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• LK-TEL Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• All Payments Services  special thanks (as All Payments)
• Artis Security  location security
• Bally  special thanks
• Baseline Type & Graphics  special thanks (as Baselne)
• Clein & White  publicity
• Clein + White  publicity (as Clein + White, Inc.)
• Design America  special thanks
• Entertainment Tonight  special thanks
• Film Finance  completion bond (as Film Finances, Inc.)
• GeoWorks  special thanks
• Land Rover of North America  special thanks (as Range Rover of North America)
• Les Hooper Orchestra, The  special thanks
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art  special thanks (as The Los Angeles County Museum Of Art )
• Los Angeles Marathon  special thanks (as L.A. Marathon)
• Magic Casting  extras casting
• Marchon  special thanks
• Marcolin Eye Wear  special thanks
• Mercer Titles & Optical Effects Ltd.  titles and opticals (as Mercer Titles & Optical)
• Reebok  special thanks
• Richard Feiner & Co. Inc.  special thanks: The Bicycle Thief
• Rick Brainin Catering Inc.  catering (as Rick Brainin Catering)
• Sinclair, Tenenbaum, Emanuel & Fleer  legal services (as Sinclair Tennenbaum & Co.)
• Skywalker Sound  re-recording facilities (A Division of LucasArts Entertainment Company)
• Spinneybeck  special thanks
• The Daiwa Bank Ltd.  financing provided by
• Two Bunch Palms  special thanks
• Varèse Sarabande  soundtrack (uncredited)
• Wyman & Isaacs  legal services

MPAA:

Rated R for language, and for some sensuality.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | USA:R (certificate #31599) | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-14 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Argyle Hotel - 8358 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

Avenue Pictures Productions

Trivia:

Julia Roberts - among others - did her cameo for nothing.

Goofs:

Continuity: Position of Griffin's tie while he's breaking up with Bonnie.

Quotes:

Detective Susan Avery: Mr. Mill, have you been going to detective school?
Griffin Mill: No, actually, we're doing a... a movie right now, called Lonely Room, and Scott Glenn plays a detective much like yourself.
Detective Susan Avery: Is he a black woman?

Movie Connections:

References Ladri di biciclette (1948)

Soundtrack:

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

The Truth About The Hollywood Dream Machine

Come next year, when I am trying to devise a list of the best films of the 90's, Robert Altman's "The Player" will be near the top of my list. This film skillfully creates a central plot around Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) (who hears about 125 movie pitches per day), a studio executive who is being threatened by a writer whose script or idea he likely brushed off. But what is even more brilliant about "The Player" is everything going on peripherally to the main plot; all the references to studio techniques of film-making, foreign film movements, homages and Old Hollywood vs. New Hollywood. The film is multi-layered, yet everything that we view falls neatly into the formula which Hollywood film-making survives by. What we see in the duration of "The Player" would potentially make a perfect pitch for a movie. This may sound confusing, but watch the entire film, and you will immediately know what I mean.

The film begins with a stunning homage to Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope", an approximately eight minute long take where the camera moves freely around a studio encountering many people in the midst of their everyday routines. For example, we come across a couple discussing how Hollywood film is now much like MTV "cut, cut, cut". One of the characters even uses the example of "Rope" to illustrate his point. "Rope" is approximately a ninety minute film that appears to have been shot all in one take. Of course, it wasn't done in one take, as reels of film at that time were only ten minutes long. If one watches the film very closely, it can be determined where the cuts are made.

In the duration of the same take, we encounter Griffin Mill conducting business in his office. People walk into his office pitching movie ideas. It is here that we begin to learn about populist Hollywood film-making. Ideas, not stories or scripts are pitched to executives "in 25 words or less". Almost always, the ideas thrown out are based on previous films (e.g. "someone always gets killed at the end of a political thriller") and even combinations of previous films (e.g. "It's Pretty Woman meets Out of Africa"). When we see the usual films that are released into theaters each week, it is not difficult to believe that this is the way in which they are conceived. The usual Hollywood formula entails sex, violence, familiarity and most important of all "happy endings, a movie always has to have a happy ending".

"The Player" is filled with loads of Hollywood stars, most of them playing themselves. Jeff Goldblum, Malcolm McDowell, John Cusack, Angelica Huston, and Burt Reynolds to name a few. Many of them are encountered at restaurants during lunch and at night time Hollywood gatherings, where the topic of conversation is always movies. Near the beginning of the film, Griffin suggests that he and his lunch guests talk about something else. "We're all educated adults". Of course no one says anything. Their lives are so indoctrinated by Hollywood, they do not know what else to talk about.

Right from the beginning Griffin receives numerous postcards threatening his life. He begins to suspect a certain writer and goes to his house one night to confront him. The man turns out not to be home, but there is an incredible scene where Griffin talks with the man's girlfriend on the phone while voyeuristically watching her through the window. This is an extraordinary symbolization of the voyeuristic essence that goes along with watching a film, or the notion of scopophilia to be precise. The idea behind the concept of scopophilia is that the cinema constructs the spectator as a subject; the beholder of the gaze, who has an intense desire to look. The cinema places viewers in a voyeuristic position in that the viewer watches the film unseen in a dark room. While Griffin is watching the girl as he speaks with her, it is night time and he remains unseen to her. This scenario metaphorically represents the theater and the film.

In the duration of Griffin's conversation on the phone, he finds out that the man he is looking for is watching "The Bicycle Thief" in an art-house theater in Pasadena. This film in itself represents the first contrast to Hollywood that we see in "The Player". Vittorio DeSica's "The Bicycle Thief" was part of a movement that lasted from 1942 to 1952 called ‘Italian Neo-Realism", whose other main exponents were Rossellini and Visconti. Rossellini called neo-realism both a moral and an aesthetic cinema. Neo-realism, to a great extent owes much of its existence to film-makers' displeasure at the restrictions placed on freedom of expression. This film movement is quite different from the modern Hollywood formula of film-making. When Griffin first meets the man he suspects is sending the postcards, he suggests that perhaps they could do a remake of "The Bicycle Thief". The man responds with "yeah sure, you'd probably want to give it a happy ending".

Also interesting in "The Player" is one of the studio executives suggestions to newspapers as a source for script ideas. This serves to contrast Old Hollywood versus New Hollywood. In the older days of studio film, Warner Brothers (one of the studio's of middle-class America) would produce films with ideas seemingly drawn from real life or from the headlines of major newspapers. This gives us the sense that often Hollywood is stuck for original ideas, so ideas from the past re-circulate themselves.

I have touched on only a few of the many interesting references that run peripherally to the main plot of "The Player". The great thing is that even if you do not catch all the film references that I have been discussing, it is still enjoyable. When I first saw the film, I was really young and did not know much about movies, but yet I enjoyed it thoroughly. Now, it is one of my favorites. I definitely recommend it to anyone who has a keen interest in film.

**** out of ****