:
George Segal,
George Segal,
Elliott Gould,
more...
:
Robert Altman,
Robert Altman
see all cast/crew...
: 
: Columbia TriStar
: 105 min.
: English
: English, Japanese
see additional details...
This title is currently out of print.
|
|
The most narratively loose of Robert Altman's '70s films, California Split details the haphazard lives of two compulsive gamblers searching for that ever-elusive big score. Newly single and soon-to-be-unemployed Bill (George Segal) joins live-wire pal Charlie (Elliott Gould), as the pair moves from Fruit Loops with Charlie's hooker roommates Sue (Gwen Welles) and Barbara (Ann Prentiss) to bets on horses, backroom card games, boxing, and basketball. They make it to Reno, but Bill comes to realize that even the big score may not be the answer to the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life. For Charlie, however, that's all there is. Infusing his episodic narrative with an equally laid-back attitude towards events and emotions, Altman produces a "celebration of gambling" that is in itself something of game, filled with random incidents, trivial and serious, amusing and not, that emphasize the essential rootlessness of the gambler's life. Altman's signature mosaic of sound, produced for the first time through a multi-track stereo soundtrack, layers dialogue, gambling announcements, and Phyllis Shotwell songs to evoke the chaotic gaming atmosphere as authentically as possible. Gambling may seem more exciting than the depressive Bill's drab office job, but its pleasures are strictly temporary. Everything becomes transient, whether luck or marriage or even friendship between like-minded pals. California Split did not have much of an impact on the movie-going audience, but it marked Altman's move away from taking apart old movie genres (the war movie in MASH (1970), the Western in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), the detective movie in The Long Goodbye (1973), the gangster movie in Thieves Like Us (1974)) toward breaking down conventional storytelling in general, pointing the way toward the even more complex narrative experiments of his 1975 masterpiece Nashville. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
|
| Place Your Bets
by randomcha
July 18, 2005 - 11:29 AM PDT
|
|
|
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
|
| I was very excited when this came out on DVD; I'd never had the chance to see it. Wow! Another Altman gem unearthed! This is the most empathetic film I've ever seen about compulsive gambling, and yet it's completely unsentimental. It's alternately hilarious and harrowing. Elliott Gould's freeform description of the characters gathered at the high-stakes poker game in the film's final sequence is a delight; the expression on George Segal at the film's conclusion is shattering. Ann Prentiss (who looks just like her sister Paula!) and Gwen Welles (also in Altman's "Nashville) are just right as their gal pals, hookers who take chances of their own every day. Very highly recommended. |
|
|
GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.23)
52 Votes
add to list 
|
|
|
Your cart
underdog
Pluplat
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.