Episode 284: THE PLAYER (1992) with Benjamin Savard

Trylove

With returning guest, master’s degree holder, and Trylon volunteer Benjamin Savard (@ItBenjaminScott)!

After POPEYE (1980) squashed the ‘80s for director Robert Altman, he came back with a wry, cynical film adaptation of Michael Tolkin’s 1988 novel, “The Player”. In the resulting movie of the same name, Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a bigshot Hollywood producer whose decency streak is lined with writers whose ideas prides himself on turning into box office hits without compromising their artistic integrity. A series of threatening postcards from a disgruntled reject sends Mill into a tailspin, testing the limits of his paranoia, calling into question his loyalty to the moviemaking craft, and the malleability of his very moral center.

The worst part? It’s all got a happy ending.

In this special guest episode with recent Minneapolis repatriate Benjamin Savard, we discuss the artistic politics at the heart of THE PLAYER, the essentiality of the film version, and how much fun there is to be had at the surface level of the movie that turned Robert Altman’s career around. Oh, and Popeye Village.

Find Ben…

• On Twitter at @ItBenjaminScott
• On Trylove episodes about himself, CHRISTINE (1983), and CRUISING (1980)
• At the Trylon, where he volunteers regularly

References:

• “The Player: Robert Altman and Michael Tolkin’s Glorious Hollywood-Caricature Cinema” by Dan Howard for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• “Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath.” by Bob Aulert for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• Popeye Village
• “Myth Today” by Roland Barthes from “Mythologies” (1957)

Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

#TheLongTake #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [e-mail] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing music: "The Player" by Thomas Newman from the THE PLAYER soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 284: THE PLAYER (1992) with Benjamin Savard

3:49 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

6:04 - Ben’s connections to THE PLAYER

14:54 - Reflecting on THE PLAYER as Altman’s cynical return to Hollywood

28:59 - Portraying the gross, money-driven world of American moviemaking

34:24 - Tim Robbins as Griffin and “softening the turn” from affable businessman to greasy corpo

46:29 - The fun on top of the metatext

55:46 - And more metatext

1:04:54 - The Junk Drawer

1:26:20 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1992