Robert Altman –
1980 – USA
Famously declared by President Reagan the worst film he'd ever seen, after all this time H.E.A.L.T.H. still remains one of Robert
Altman’s least seen and least loved films.
Needless to say, I am in a minority opinion on this, as I find the film
chock full of all the things I love about Altman, and therefore thoroughly
enjoyable. Set – like many of his films
– in a confined locale that acts as a microcosm for American society, H.E.A.L.T.H. plants us in the middle of
a health food convention in a Florida hotel where a heated election for the
presidency of the organization is underway.
In contrast to the national election for the U.S. presidency then in
progress between Reagan and Carter, this convention is dominated by women. Lauren Bacall plays popular candidate Esther
Brill, a self-professed 83-year-old virgin, who goes into trances mid-sentence
at the worst times. Her opponent is Isabella
Garnell (Glenda Jackson), an icy intellectual who pontificates with as much
earnestness as if at the United Nations.
Carol Burnett plays a low-level White House representative come to wish
both candidates luck on the president’s behalf.
Alfre Woodard plays the manager of the hotel, who looks on the insanity
swirling around her with bemused disdain.
Altman’s weakness for cheap gags and strange moments of pathos and
metaphorical scenarios all make for a combination that many audiences reject as
violently as a body may reject an incompatible organ transplant. But for those of us who revel in Altman’s wry
humor, chaotic staging, overlapping dialogue, and his expressively roving and
zooming camera, H.E.A.L.T.H. is just
as satisfying as some of his more respected works like Nashville (1975), Short Cuts
(1993) or Gosford Park (2000).
