Robert Altman’s sad, semi-hallucinogenic tale of three soulless souls offers an acting field day and a reflective view on the nature of scarred psyches in 3 Women. A mood piece of some distinction but with a rather rambling and sometimes unsatisfying incompleteness, 3 Women certainly grips the viewer who takes the time to be intrigued by these women who, lacking forceful personalities, manage to cope with an indifferent world through a variety of offbeat strategies.
3 Women (Blu-ray)
Directed by Robert Altman
Studio: Criterion
Year: 1977
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 124 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: PCM 1.0 English
Subtitles: SDH
Region: A
MSRP: $ 39.95
Release Date: September 13, 2011
Review Date: September 10, 2011
The Film
3.5/5
When youthful innocent Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek) comes to work at California’s Desert Springs Rehabilitation and Geriatric Center, she’s put under the watchful eye of chatterbox Millie Lammoreaux (Shelley Duvall). Millie’s unending line of chatter turns off everyone in her path, but she seems not to notice everyone’s indifference, and Pinky’s fascination with her affectations leads Millie to ask Pinky to move into her apartment as her roommate. As the days pass, the blank-eyed Pinky begins to assume more and more facets of Millie’s personality while Millie begins to become more unsure of her own identity and self-worth. When Millie finally brings home the married husband (Robert Fortier) of a local mute artist (Janice Rule), people Pinky had considered friends, something inside Pinky snaps causing a complete alteration in all of the relationships between these people.
Robert Altman based his screenplay on a dream he had, and that dreamlike tone pervades every frame of the movie. The three central women of the title are all unusual variations of ciphers either to themselves, the co-workers and apartment dwellers around them, or to the people who matter to them most, their parents or loved ones. An unsettling mood of sadness hangs over the entire film as we watch these desperate, damaged people attempting to deal with the complexities life throws at them with only the simplistic homilies of commercials, print ads, and junk mail as their coping mechanisms. At the same time, the eerie murals being painted by Janice Rule’s Willie portray an eroticism and anger that Altman exploits later in the movie as things take a one hundred and eighty degree turn after a suicide attempt transforms one of the characters. Altman has made all of the film’s male characters either unfeeling or selfish or on the make, all the better to bring home the film’s surreal coda which finds the women morphing into personalities that don’t require a male presence in order to meet life’s demands. The transitions between the film’s second and third acts aren’t handled felicitously, and watching the transformations happening might have been a worthwhile use of time had Altman chosen to show them. It would have made the shocking state of affairs at the end a bit more understandable and less abrupt, too.
Knowing how much Altman prizes improvisation from his actors, one wonders just how much of the endless string of dialogue Shelley Duvall spouts came from her own mind rather than the script. Regardless, she’s simply astounding as the clueless Millie filling the poor woman with characteristic touches (constantly fluffing and curling her hair, always letting her dress get caught in the car door when driving somewhere, keeping her face cheerfully immobile when she’s cruelly ignored by everyone). She didn’t get a much-deserved Oscar nomination, but she won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Actress. Sissy Spacek is also impressive removing every trace of sophistication from her persona and then building it up little by little as she assumes Millie’s identity only to segue to something more radical late in the film. She, too, failed to earn an Oscar nod, but she won the New York Film Critics Award as the year’s best featured actress. Janice Rule gets third billing as one of the title characters, but she’s undeniably less important through much of the movie though she earns her keep in the harrowing birth scene late in the movie. More vital to events in the film is egocentric Robert Fortier playing a one-time Hollywood stunt double now relegated to owning an apartment building and a saloon and coasting along on his own faded glory. Ruth Nelson and John Cromwell have some poignant scenes as Pinky’s parents with the woman in the duo once again assuming the leadership role in the relationship.
Video Quality
4/5
The original theatrical Panavision aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is faithfully presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Though the Fox title card has scratches and looks frighteningly worn (suggesting the print might be in bad shape), the film actually has a solid look and feel with a pleasing softness at times and a clear, clean image for most of the rest of the running time. There are a few random dust specks late in the movie, and black levels are never very pronounced. Still color saturation is just fine, and flesh tones are natural. The film has been divided into 18 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The PCM 1.0 (1.1 Mbps) audio track is very typical of its era. Dialogue has been well recorded, and the very eccentric, sometimes atonal Gerald Busby music score mixes well with it and the various ambient sounds (gunshots, splashing water, Altman’s famous overlapping dialogue), all blended into the center channel. Engineers have cleaned the soundtrack quite nicely so there are no aural artifacts such as hiss, pops, hum, or flutter.
Special Features
2.5/5
The audio commentary is provided by Robert Altman who plods determinedly through the movie talking about everything he can think of concerning its making (it was recorded in 2002, but his memory is rather remarkable) and even gets cross with himself when he attempts to explain what the movie is supposed to mean.
A stills gallery contains dozens of character portraits, movie stills, and behind-the-scenes shots with the stars, the crew, the sets, and those amazing Bodhi Wind murals.
There are two theatrical trailers: a teaser trailer which runs 1 ½ minutes and the theatrical trailer which is 3 ¼ minutes long. Both try to make the film into a more traditional scenario than it actually is. They’re in 1080i.
Two television spot ads run ½ minute each. They’re both in 1080i.
Enclosed in the case is a fold-out brochure with cast and crew lists, some illustrations, and an essay on the movie by critic David Sterritt.
The Criterion Blu-rays include a maneuvering tool called “Timeline” which can be pulled up from the menu or by pushing the red button on the remote. It shows you your progress on the disc, the title of the chapter you’re now in, and index markers for the commentary that goes along with the film, all of which can be switched on the fly. Additionally, two other buttons on the remote can place or remove bookmarks if you decide to stop viewing before reaching the end of the film or want to mark specific places for later reference.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
An art film that offers a melancholy look at three damaged women coping with life’s perplexities as best they can, Robert Altman’s 3 Women comes to Blu-ray looking the best it has ever looked on home video. The feature package is surprisingly slim for the movie, and one might have wished for some comments on its making from its celebrated stars. Still, it’s a special film and one that may appeal to a filmgoer looking for something a bit off the beaten path.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
