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Sunday, March 9th, ‘25

The Player

USA, 1992, Color, R 124 min

Directed by Robert Altman; starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward

Have you ever felt threatened for not returning a call? Threatened anonymously. Threatened with death from a distance… but the threats are getting closer. Oh well, we’ll get back to that.

The Player, 1992 American. Directed by Robert Altman, written by Michael Tolkini, stars Tim Robbins, et al., is frequently described as a scathing, cynical, satirical black comedy/mystery. The film opens with a historic sustained eight-minute unbroken tracking shot. What follows is a retrospective Bonfire of 1980’s Vanities.

Robbins plays Griffin Mill. The name, perhaps an ersatz of sorts; Cecil B De Mille and DW Griffith both spring to mind. However, I invite you to consider this as our first step into Altman’s paradigm. Whatever else Griffin Mill is, the name is a transparent allusion to a grist mill. Hollywood grinds them up and spits them out, as it were. Through Mill, Altman opens a peep hole into the world of Hollywood’s ultimate insider. It’s as though Altman himself is saying, “Do you see what I gotta deal with here, folks?”

Griffin Mill, a Hollywood studio executive, deals and schemes his way to the top as he flows through the Hollywood elite in his casual 90’s double-breasted suits as over-sized as his ego. His dubious moral compass gives us a glimpse into the heart of darkness that is the legendary studio system. Griffin’s nature is displayed in how he treats his employee/love interest, Bonnie. Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson), a sweet, smart, direct, honest, energetic, young professional becomes perfect fodder for the Hollywood Grist Mill. Griffin Mill needs Bonnie. He uses her for her brains and ideas, for romance, and as a substitute for his own humanity as he sluffs off unwanted assignments and solicitors for her to handle. Bonnie is just a placeholder for Griffin. She’s there until he spies someone new, June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi) the girlfriend of David Kahane (Vincent D’Onofrio), Mill’s imagined nemesis.

Now, getting to those threats I mentioned. Griffin is taunted by “death” threats via postcards and phone messages. Threats that most people with a clear conscience would find nonsensically weird but maybe intriguing. Not so with Griffin. He panics. Although the list of possible suspects is quite long, Griffin stalks and murders his very first suspect, David Kahane with his bare hands. What in the orange-juice-after-toothpaste world is happening here? We sure didn’t see that coming.

Perhaps there is no place for perfection in this world, but surely there is room for mastery of technique. Let’s consider the technique of the cameo; the placement, the purpose, and the flirt with breaking the fourth wall. Wikipedia says that The Player contains 65 cameos of Hollywood actors. These cameos are masterfully used, masterfully placed, and masterfully woven into the story. Then there are the other cameos, the secret cameos - just for us insiders. I’ll give you a tip a few paragraphs down.

But first, let us consider if an actor is not merely appearing, but rather is scripted to play themself, is it really then, a cameo? The Player certainly has actors cast in regular parts and a fair amount of true cameo appearances. There are also actors cast to play themselves as actors playing a role. But then there are some actors in “cameo” roles with scripted dialogue. You just know that at some point in Cher’s scripted dialogue, the director said, “CUT”. And then proceeded to explain to Cher how to say something the way Cher would. And then she says, “I’m Cher. I think I know how I talk.” And then Altman says, “I need you to say it like..” Cher, putting her hand up to shush him, “I’m Cher.” Altman, “Yes, but..”

Moving on, let’s talk meta.

Meta /mëtę/ adjective

1. Making or showing awareness of reference to oneself or to the activity that is taking place, especially in an ironic or comic way.

2. Self-referential; at a higher level.

The Player is a layer cake of meta. Much like being in a cult (I’m told), this particular system of Meta doesn’t go higher up, it only goes farther in. Let’s look at a few instances:

During the opening tracking shot, Walter Stuckel (Fred Ward), studio security chief, has lines referencing several other films renowned for their tracking shots. META film nerd.

The name-dropping starts during this opening shot. Julia Roberts’ name is dropped conspicuously more than once. A few seconds later, during the title sequence, Lyle Lovett’s name appears in the credits. The very Lyle that Julia marries in real life only months after the film opens. Julia Roberts only appears as an actor in the movie-within-the-movie portion of our film, she and Lovett had no scene together. Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins's power couple partner in real life also makes an appearance in the movie-within-the-movie scene. META-nepotism.

Speaking of nepo-babies, Greta Scacchi and Vincent D’Onofrio play the oddly paired couple June Gudsomething and David Kahane. They also had absolutely no scenes together. In the last scene of the film (said to have been shot in the summer of 91), Greta, now with Griffin, looks to be full-term pregnant. In real life Scacchi and D’Onofrio actually were a couple, actually having a child together the year The Player was released. Supercalifragilisticexpi-META-docious.

At the funeral of Mill’s murder victim, David Kahane is eulogized by Phil (Brian Brophy). Phil is dressed and styled exactly like Craig Schwartz will be in the 1999 film, Being John Malkovich. John Cusack, a cameo in our film, will play Schwartz in an iconic high-level self-referential film with several cameos. Both of these films were shopped around for years. Imagine yourself pitching both of these films to studios. Give me your 25-word log line. Meta-within-Meta.

At 1 hr, 25 minutes in, the camera pans over the gala crowd, it rests on Cary Brokaw who sits among other true Hollywood insiders. This secret cameo is the ultimate self-reference. Cary Brokaw, a total Hollywood player, is CEO of Avenue Pictures and Executive Producer of The Player. He rejected the script twice, in 1989 and 1990. By 1991, however, he went forward with the project, rescuing it from being shelved. META insider bucks.

If you were to rate Hollywood cheese on the tier list of cheesy, from an exquisite raw milk Beaufort d’Ete of Savoie to Kraft individually wrapped shingles, where does this land? At 1 hour, 43 minutes in, while wooing Greta, Griffin lists the essential elements of what makes a movie. Towards the end of his list is SEX. Then bam! Fade to his sex scene with Greta. That’s right, he listed his elements of a Hollywood movie in their order of appearance in this very movie. META in a nutshell. (PW)

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