Streamers
by Robert Altman
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: David Alan Grier, Guy Boyd, Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell LichtensteinDirector: Robert Altman
Cinematographer: Pierre Mignot
Producer: Robert Altman
Producer: John Roberdeau
Producer: Nick J. Mileti
Producer: Robert Michael Geisler
Producer: Scott Bushnell
Writer: David Rabe
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, EP, NTSC
Running Time: 118 minutes
Release Date: 1998-11-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Parade Video
Studio: Parade Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Streamers
Movie Review: Pull cord...
Summary: 3 Stars
Somehow it's almost terrible that every cover for Streamers has a picture of Matthew Modine on it. One even features him gray haired, looking like the middle aged guy he presently is. Because this isn't merely his film, or a showcase for his talents, etc. After all, with Robert Altman directing and David Rabe writing from his stage play-no slouches needing the face of a star to sell their works, this needs to be represented in a better, broader, more poetic way.
Like Coppola, Altman's 1980's were peculiar, a seemingly odd period; HealtH, Popeye, Jimmy Dean, O.C. and Stiggs and Aria come to mind as "those other Altman movies." He also made Secret Honor, another play, Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, the TV series Tanner '88, and Streamers, all interesting, distinct, good fare.
Exclusively held in a barracks of a base near Washington, D.C. Streamers is a difficult story to pinpoint as being about one or two distinct things. Because it's essence winds and twirls within the struggles of the characters to figure out who they are, as isolated Spec. 4's, alone at the end of a half empty barrack, having no duties and left to dangle or fall within the Army's world, purposeless and expendable. Perhaps that is the vision, Rabe being a vet who wrote several searing Vietnam based plays-usually cynical, angry, psychologically tormented, though funny and even when set on the homefront, male stories. But it's success lies in it's open endedness.
Modine is Billy, a white Wisconsiner, straight and direct, the vision of Americana. David Alan Grier is Roger, a black urbanite, who has been able to straddle both white and black worlds, less likely to confront and amiable. Mitchell Lichtenstein's Richie is either an insane white kid trying to get out of going to 'Nam by feigning homosexuality or someone truly coming into his own as a maturing gay man. It is never clear why these three are held together, but Richie's fey behavior is blatant, and the subject which spells them into questioning each other. Carlyle, marvelously played by Michael Wright, comes from another part of the base, maybe a soldier, or a drifter, or a transient, or some angel; a black man, tortured and violent, who's presence propells the action towards a visceral, powerful conclusion.
That's all I can say regarding the story. The first hour plus was often slow, and I was sometimes bored or irritated at the lack of direction. But the last half hour is very strong, all the performances grow with the intensity of the circumstances, inclusing the two Sgt.'s Rooney and Cokes, played by Guy Boyd and George Dzundza, respectively.
I'd recommend this for devout Altman fans. Stage to screen adaptation lovers. Vietnam-era story admirers and fans of quality acting, minus spectacle. There is much strong imagry here and the closing shot is great too.
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