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Farewell Robert
November 21, 2006

Robert Altman died yesterday. Altman was the gifted director of the movie M-A-S-H, and several others including Nashville, Gosford Park, and most recently A Prairie Home Companion.

Thinking back to 1970 when I first watched M-A-S-H in a theater, I’m reminded of the profound effect that movie had on me and my generation. It was a thinly veiled anti-war film with characters so endearing and familiar it inspired a weekly television series that lasted 11 seasons. The finale became the most watched television episode in U.S. history.

Thirty years later when I added M-A-S-H to my DVD movie collection, my 20-year-old daughter told me she had never heard of it. After watching it together, she also became a Robert Altman fan.

The enduring theme and message of the movie was still as relevant in 2000 as it had been in 1970, the year it was released. Thanks Robert. You gave me a gift I could re-gift without a guilty conscience to my daughter. This Thanksgiving weekend I’ll thank you again while we watch A Prairie Home Companion (after M-A-S-H, of course).

It seems sad that current generations of teens and young adults will miss out on so many of the great movies that influenced our thinking and our lives in earlier years. I'm speaking of movies like The Flight of the Phoenix; The Bridge on the River Kwai: The Inn of the Sixth Happiness; Heaven Knows Mr. Allison; Lawrence of Arabia; and many others that championed values like courage, honesty, commitment, morality, devotion and perseverance.

Tonight’s movie? Toss a coin. The choices are Midnight Cowboy or Brokeback Mountain. On second thought; forget the coin. I’ll watch Midnight Cowboy. I always preferred actors who could ... act.

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