The Player (1992) Dir. Robert Altman

If you want to know all about the dark side of the Hollywood film industry, then The Player is the film for you. Not only is it informative it's also highly imaginative and has an excellent cast.

The opening of the film is inspired by Orson Wells' Touch of Evil (1958), the voyeuristic camera work almost hints that there is a sort of moral God watching everything that is going on.

The saddest message that the camera work reflects is that this God, is a fickle one. Leaving the chaos alone and merely just watching, perhaps for entertainment value.

The plot is as follows; An ambitious movie executive starts receiving death threats from an angry writer whom he had brushed off in the past. This becomes the execs nagging moral conscience throughout the film.

In order for the exec to keep his professional life safe, he murders a writer whom he suspects is sending him the letters. The exec is in utter panic when he receives another letter informing him he killed the wrong guy.

In exchange the exec promises the mysterious writer that he will make his film, in return for his silence about the murder he has committed. As the film progresses the audience quickly comes to terms with the idea of the obsession with greed in Hollywood. Our exec looses his morality completely and settles down with the dead writers partner.

The screenplay in The Player is wonderfully witty with lines like;

"I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here."

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