O.C. and Stiggs

Robert Altman – 1987 – USA

Shot in 1983 but not released until 1988 because the studio didn’t know what to make of it, and because the writers and producers hated it, O.C. and Stiggs is one of Robert Altman’s most obscure movies, most disliked, but also one that’s had a fanbase growing incrementally ever since it started appearing on cable TV and VHS soon after its brief theatrical release. Stories vary, but the film was either meant to tap into the then-hot “teen sex comedy” genre – i.e. movies like Porky’s, Goin’ All the Way and The Last American Virgin – or as a spoof of such movies. Either way, it doesn’t especially work. The two “hipper-than-thou" main characters aren’t likeable or interesting. Presumably, Altman figured that Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland in M*A*S*H, (the prototypes for O.C. and Stiggs), had very little background or character-development either, but they were Army doctors in the Korean War, not spoiled teenagers in 1980s Arizona, and therefore it was unnecessary to sell the idea that they were in a brutally absurd situation and could only respond with anarchistic humor. It felt like they’d earned it. O.C. and Stiggs, however, may endure soul-crushing misery at home or in school or in church, but we never see that. We just see them pulling pranks on all the squares in their town. Granted, Altman wasn’t interested in making a teen film that pandered to that demographic, but in that case, it would have been advisable for him to come up with a suitable point of entry for the viewer to latch onto. Having said all that, the film does work as a second-tier Altman film, meaning that all the things that any Altman aficionado loves – the chaotic soundtrack, observational style and satirical, anti-authoritarian sentiment – are all present and center-stage. Part of the film’s appeal is that it is so unlike anything else, unlike other youth-oriented films of the time and unlike Altman’s own films of the time, which were mostly dead-serious adaptations of stage plays, such as Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Streamers, and Fool for Love. It wasn’t until The Player in 1992 that he really returned to form with the perfect property suited to his biting humor and sensibility. O.C. and Stiggs is certainly a weird and uneven film, but this very spirit of lunacy that Altman fostered is part of what makes it resonate with a lot of people, and regardless of his real level of closeness with the material, he does successfully convey that he is very much in sympathy with the rebellious kids and against the bland, commodified world that they see as their mortal enemy. The problem is that you just watch them more than you root for them, but, as in most of Altman’s films, the real attraction is his roving camera zooming in and out of various complex tableaux, reflecting his interest in eccentric characters and surreal situations. In that sense, the film succeeds because there is never any confusion about whose film it is. It doesn’t feel like the confused product of warring interests – writers, studio and Altman. Altman won out and it’s entirely his film, and therefore worthwhile, even though it’s still a lesser and not completely satisfying one.