A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
Picture:
C Sound: B- Extras: B- Feature: B-
There is
a love of the old days of radio drama that just never goes away and frankly
will never die. Even after television
succeeded it, there is still nothing like it and we even get the occasional
revivals. Even older movies made
reference to that exciting artform in its time.
In recent years, a few name filmmakers have tried to deliver the
excitement in tribute to that era and all have at least done something with
heart and soul. George Lucas wrote and
produced Radioland Murders (reviewed
elsewhere on this site), Woody Allen gave us Radio Days and now Robert Altman has teamed up with Garrison
Keillor to deliver a feature film version of A Prairie Home Companion.
Keillor
created this retro network radio world years ago and in this version, the troop
faces its final broadcast as corporatizing forces and greed step into the
picture to take over and demolish what should be a landmark theater in town
where the troop plays. This time, they
are an all-star cast that includes Kevin Kline as Guy Noir, who has the
problems of the whole troop and the future of the broadcasts especially resting
on his shoulders. Tommy Lee Jones is
(appropriately) Axeman, Woody Harrelson & John C. Reilly are a joking pair
of guitar players, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep & Lindsay Lohan are a singing
family trio, Maya Rudolph is a pregnant coordinator and Keillor plays “G.K.” in
a story meant to echo Altman’s Nashville
to some extent and has the usual overlapping dialogue and off-beat situations
that made Altman a legend.
Since it
is a fictional radio broadcast, but one that is part of a revival, Altman gets
to have jokes and situations Lucas and Allen do not. This may be set in the present, yet it is
also set in the several pasts that mirror radio’s glory days. One of the most fun motifs which Altman uses
like the various performances of the theme song in The Long Goodbye is faux advertisements that made radio a hot
commodity. It would be fair to say
Altman understands what made radio great and the synergy he gets with the cast
and Keillor is better than you’d expect.
I was not happy with every aspect of the film, but it was the “Auteur
Altman” and his quirkiness that also shines, which is reason enough to catch
this disc. L. Q. Jones and Virginia
Madsen also star.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image was shot by Ed Lachman, A.S.C., on
digital High Definition video. It has
many limits versus film and he has shot amazing work for key films by Steven
Soderbergh (The Limey, Erin Brockovich), Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) and Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides), so there is no
doubt about his abilities to handle film.
The use of HD is at least interesting, but the transfer here has detail issues,
weak video black and color is slightly off, yet it is still oddly watchable. I still like 35mm better, though. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not bad,
dialogue-based as it is, but Altman was an innovator of multi-channel sound, so
that is no surprise. There is always
interesting character in Altman’s soundtracks and this is no exception.
Extras
include a preview of the soundtrack album, access to the specific music
numbers, extras scenes, a behind the scenes documentary and a really good
feature length audio commentary with Altman and Kline. This is a hit on DVD and that is no
surprise. It’s always good to see a
master like Altman have another hit.
- Nicholas Sheffo