A parody and satire of the U.S. political scene of the time, HealtH is set at a health food convention at a Florida luxury hotel, where a powerful political organization is deciding on a new president. The election is rife with backroom deals and scandal; a businessman, Colonel Cody, is out to rig the votes and the outcome. Dick Cavett and Dinah Shore, two television talk show personalities of the time, are mentioned prominently in the film.
HealtH was made by Robert Altman's company, Lion's Gate Films (no relation to Lionsgate Films), in early 1979. It was the director's last film for the 20th Century-Fox studio, which shelved its official release for over two years.[3] Despite this, it received festival showings and a brief Los Angeles run during 1980. The film was broadcast on various U.S. television stations over the years, including The Movie Channel and Fox Movie Channel, but it has never been issued on home video.
Plot
Bearing similarities to Altman's 1975 film Nashville,[6] along with a plotless structure,[1][7]:128HealtH chronicles the progress of a health-food convention held at a luxury hotel in St Pete Beach, Florida. As the convention takes place, the members of an organization called HealtH hold a campaign to find out who will become its President. (Their name stands for "Happiness, Energy and Longevity through Health";[3] it also serves as their slogan.[8]:113) The candidates are Esther Brill, an 83-year-old afflicted with narcolepsy who calls herself "the first lady of health"; Isabella Garnell, who is serious against commercialism and materialism; and Dr. Harold (Gil) Gainey, a salesperson-turned-independent.[1][4]:82[8]:113
On the first day of the conference, The Steinettes (a female quartet dressed in green and yellow) introduce Dick Cavett, who is hosting his show on location and covering the details of the event.[9] He interviews Gloria Burbank and Esther Brill, two of the candidates competing for the new Presidency of the HealtH organization. Burbank, a White House representative, has been sent to this venue on the President of the United States' behalf. Later that day at the hotel lounge, Burbank's ex-husband[8]:113 Harry Wolff plans to reschedule the Cavett interview, due to difficulties with Brill during her profile. The moment Burbank heads to her room, Gil Gainey (a minor candidate) stops her and debates on the worth of her strategy.
On the morning of the second day, several conventioneers notice a seemingly dead body sunk to the bottom of the pool from their balconies. Harry Wolff and the President's advisor on health, Gloria Burbank, are chatting by the deep end of the pool. Gloria then dives into the pool, not realizing there is a body floating on the bottom. As she approaches it, she finally sees it and screams in fear, heading back to the surface. Some other men dive in to rescue the drowned body, but it turns out that Gainey had been using an oxygen tank in order to play a publicity stunt.[8]:113
That night, Garnell announces a serious message from the top of the hotel through her loudspeaker; many guests take notice, and some complain. Around that time, a businessperson named Colonel Cody arrives at the conference, and heads to Garnell's room to interrogate and find out her plans.
Next morning, Harry finds out that Burbank is beginning to support Garnell, and thinks that this is not right. Later on, while discussing breastfeeding and abortion with Brill, Burbank is astonished that Garnell and Brill were actually born male. After serving in the Navy, both had sex change operations in 1960. Bobby Hammer, a dirty tricks specialist, actually concocted this revelation to trick Burbank.[4]:82
After another discussion with Brill, Burbank enters the empty convention hall, where Cody interrupts her. He finds her title, and the ideals of the HealtH organization, worthless. Ashamed and in tears, Burbank is shocked that he controls not only HealtH, but also the ongoing election; he even plans to rig the votes and the outcome. She runs back to tell Wolff on Cody's scheme. As the couple start making love, Burbank is worried that it will be all over for her if Garnell wins. Harry, however, assures her that Garnell is still a woman anyway.
On the fourth and final day, the results of the HealtH election are announced live on Cavett's show, and Esther Brill comes out as the victor. Burbank and her ex-husband watch on from their balcony outside, and also take a glimpse at Cody proposing an offer to Brill. Some time later, Cody, who turns out to be her harmless nut brother, gets into a fit of anger, knocking down everything in his path, and demands to get away immediately.
With the HealtH convention over, another one involving hypnotists is taking root at the hotel.[10]:385 Before he and the candidates leave, Cavett briefly greets Dinah Shore,[11]:476 the host on hand for this event.[10]:385 As the HealtH sign is taken down in front of the hotel, the Steinettes perform a Broadway-style show tune that closes the film.
A candidate for the HealtH election, and a White House representative. She becomes sexually aroused whenever she is frightened.[10]:383 Burnett appeared in another Altman film, 1979's A Wedding.[12]
An 83-year-old virgin[8]:113[10]:383 who is the most popular pick for the election; her motto is "Feel Yourself".[10]:383 Suffering from narcolepsy, she drifts into sleep every time she tries finishing a sentence, and also believes that orgasms shorten a woman's life by 28 days.[10]:383
Brill's rival in the HealtH campaign,[10]:383 she borrows her speeches from Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson[8]:113 and commits her thoughts to a tape recorder.[10]:383
A salesperson for "Vita-Sea", a powdered kelp product.[8]:113 Twice in the film, he pretends to drown in a pool in order to receive publicity, after his part in the campaign gets little attention.[10]:383 His character is similar to John Triplette in Altman's Nashville.[8]:113
Dooley co-scripted HealtH along with Altman and Barhydt.[4]:82
An African-American, and the hotel's public relations director.[10]:383 At one point in the film, she observes that the convention's guests may not be as healthy as they seem.
Appears at the end of the film in a small cameo, as she prepares for a hypnotists' convention.[10]:385
Nancy Foster
Gilda Hoffintz
A Jewish model who is also Bobby Hammer's girlfriend
Nathalie Blossom
The Steinettes
An a cappella quartet from Greenwich Village, New York,[13]:1-D who are dressed in different outfits during the convention. Gerard Plecki calls their songs "ironic commentary on the health crisis implied in the film".[8]:113
Under the supervision of Alan Ladd, Jr., head of 20th Century-Fox,[7]:128 director Robert Altman made HealtH for US$6 million[2]:84 through his Lion's Gate Films company (unrelated to the present-day firm based in Vancouver).[7]:xxviii At the time, Altman had commitments to deliver films for Fox until 1981;[8]:113HealtH was his fifteenth feature project.[12] "[Alan] had great faith in me," he told David Sterritt in 2000; "he put his own job on the line."[7]:128 Of the film's timing, he said, "HealtH could have only been made when it was made, and that was the end of the Carter era."[6] This and 1979's Quintet were Altman's first collaborations with writer Frank Barhydt;[11]:608,612 the two would later work on the 1988 HBO miniseries Tanner '88,[7]:xxxiii as well as 1993's Short Cuts[7]:xxx and 1996's Kansas City.[7]:xxxi
In response to the diminishing box office returns of his last three efforts (A Wedding, Quintet and A Perfect Couple), and in case any delays could put a damper on his financing, Altman rushed HealtH into production.[4]:81[11]:475 The film was shot in sequence[8]:113 at only one location:[14] the Don CeSar Beach Hotel in St Pete Beach, Florida.[8]:113 Production began on February 20, 1979,[12] and continued for three months.[8]:113[15] The crew chose the Don CeSar, said Altman, because "we felt [this] would be fun, with lots of crazy situations and off-beat characters."[12]Joseph Byrd worked on the music score,[11]:612 along with supervisor Allan Nicholls.[11]:474
To capture the authenticity of the convention in the movie, art director Bob Quinn and co-writer Frank Barhydt visited an actual one in Boston, Massachusetts before shooting.[12] Over one hundred health food companies contributed to the set.[12] One of them, Sovex Granola, participated during the shoot; their scenes did not make it into the finished film, but they received end-credit billing.[16]
Robert Altman was known to wear different hats on every new production of his;[17] on the set of HealtH, he wore a straw one.[13]:3-D While filming, Altman got into a conflict with members of the local Teamsters branch,[18] and had to pay "outrageous salaries" for certification.[11]:486
Garner recalled "we had a lot of fun making it... I loved Bob Altman."[19]
New York's Film Forum screened HealtH in April 1982.
Distributor 20th Century-Fox originally planned HealtH for a Christmas 1979 release.[21] But by the time editing was complete,[20]:17 a change of management took place at the studio,[1][11]:474 and Alan Ladd, Jr. was among those to leave;[4]:84 as a result, Fox shelved the film. After canceling plans for a March debut in January 1980,[22] they moved it to their summer schedule;[20]:17 Altman's strategy was to have the film released in time for that year's presidential campaign.[1][6][20]:19
Before that could take place, the company's new president, Norman B. Levy, planned an April 1980 run in St. Louis, Missouri.[2] Altman went against it[2] and suggested test runs in four markets instead: San Francisco and Sacramento, California; Houston, Texas; and Boston, Massachusetts.[2] The resulting previews played to poor audience response,[2] and some time later, Fox deemed it uncommercial for release.[4]:82 In the end, the company replaced it on their schedule with Oh! Heavenly Dog, a crime comedy starring Chevy Chase and Benji the dog.[20]:19
Save for Sherry Lansing, who loved the film, Robert Altman had a fallout with Fox personnel over their handling of HealtH.[2][23] After filming Popeye, Altman tried to contact Norman Levy on its status. The filmmaker complained, "[Levy] didn't return my phone calls for seven weeks. That's just basic rudeness. I don't think he knows what a movie is anyway."[2] Moreover, he said of the studio's distribution unit: "Norman Levy and the rest are scum. [...] They're not interested in movies. They're interested in ski lifts and Coca-Cola."[2]
Amid this situation, Altman began to distribute HealtH on his own[10]:329–330 by taking it to the film festival circuit.[8]:115 The comedy was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival in August 1980,[24] and later appeared at Telluride[2]:84 and Venice.[8]:115 Of the response at those venues, the director said: "It has a love-hate reaction—but what's wrong with that?"[2]:84
By September 1980, the festival exposure prompted 20th Century-Fox to hold over a month[2] of preview screenings at the UA Theater[25] in Westwood, Los Angeles;[2][8]:115 a nationwide release was also considered.[26][27] Despite even worse acclaim this time,[2] Altman remarked that this run "did respectable business, considering that there was no advertising. But it's finished, dead, buried."[2]:83–84 Ultimately, HealtH would be Altman's last film for Fox;[4]:81 his experiences would later convince him to skip major distribution for Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.[8]:129
The film was released in at least two European markets: in Germany under the title Der Gesundheitskongress,[29] and in the United Kingdom, where prints ran a few minutes longer than the original U.S. cut.[4]:131,135
On the day of the film's Los Angeles opening on September 12, 1980, a review from Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "essentially a revue sketch, giving the boys and girls of the chorus a chance to dress up funny and mill about. All a revue sketch needs is a thin premise, a point of view and an exit line. But having only one out of three won't make it for a movie." He concluded, "If indeed Altman weren't so original and so talented, an indulgent mess like HealtH would merely be another unsuccessful film in a bad year. It is instead mournful and exasperating in about equal measure."[33]
At the time of the Film Forum premiere, The New York Times'Vincent Canby wrote: "HealtH is, I suppose, a mess, but it is a glorious one in the recognizable manner of a major film maker who sometimes gets carried away—by his subject, by his own enthusiasms and those of his actors, and by the collaborative creative process he loves. As do so many of his films, HealtH gives one the feeling of being on a nonstop party with the people who made it." He added that it "is no masterpiece, but it is one of the most appealing entertainments that Mr. Altman has ever put together".[1] In a later article, he declared: "HealtH deserves to be seen by anyone interested in the career of this most eccentric and unpredictable of contemporary American film directors."[23]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune called it "a pretty bad movie" and "anemic. Altman sets himself up as superior to his insipid characters, laughs at them, and invites us to do likewise. That's not much of an achievement."[28]Leonard Maltin gave HealtH two stars out of four in his Movie Guide, and added: "Non-Altman fans may love this more than devotees; Woodard steals the film—no easy feat considering that incredible cast—as [the] hotel's ultra-patient manager."[3]Halliwell's Film Guide referred to it as a "zany satirical all-star romp on the lines of A Wedding but by no means as likeable or laughable, considering its cast, as it should be".[34] The Film Bulletin called it a "misfired satire", and commented that its "major stars [...] are otherwise wasted".[35]
In a 1985 book on Altman, Gerard Plecki called HealtH "a humorous companion piece to Nashville", adding that it "was certainly a major improvement over his two previous films".[8]:113 In regards to the studio shelving the film, Plecki remarked that it "certainly deserved mass marketing and a large promotion campaign".[4]:115
On June 12, 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan screened the film at Camp David during stormy weather. In his diaries that day, he called it "the world's worst movie".[36] On the other hand, director Martin Scorsese named it one of the "85 Films You Need to See to Know Anything about Film".[37]
Themes
Since its release, HealtH has been viewed as a parody, and satire, of the U.S. political scene at the time of its filming;[3][6] critic Daniel O'Brien also noticed "the parallels between the [HealtH] election and the U.S. Presidency explicitly spelt out (several times)" in the film.[4]:82 In his book A Cinema of Loneliness, Robert Phillip Kolker stressed this aspect, writing that "Altman creates a world that is a parody of a political phenomenon that is itself already a parody of show business, for political conventions always mediate the realities of power with the signifiers of spectacle. [HealtH] is, finally, a representation of a representation."[10]:384
Kolker also observed Altman's use of the carnivalesque, a style from Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin that the filmmaker employed in many of his productions.[10]:382 O'Brien called this the film's "strongest asset [...], complete with hucksters and suckers (a handy metaphor for most aspects of American society".[4]:84
In Kolker's words, HealtH is "a hilarious documentation of politics and culture at the end of the Carter era when passivity began to disguise itself as self-satisfaction and marginal interests requested majority attention".[10]:382 The convention in the film "becomes a small mirror of larger political follies, of silly, self-serving people so convinced of their importance that they take for granted the fact that major significance attends their ridiculous activities".[10]:382
O'Brien noted that in HealtH, "most of the main characters exhibit the expected Altman eccentricites", including the candidates in the election. "All this comes across as a little forced," he continued, "recalling the random weirdness of Brewster McCloud rather than the carefully etched idiosyncrasies of The Long Goodbye or Three Women."[4]:84 Moreover, someone says "Hit it!" just before the convention band replaces the opening Fox fanfare.[10]:384
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era known directing subversive and satirical films with overlapping dialogue and ensemble casts. Over his career he received several awards including an Academy Honorary Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for seven competitive Academy Awards.
Quintet is a 1979 American post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Robert Altman. It stars Paul Newman, Brigitte Fossey, Bibi Andersson, Fernando Rey, Vittorio Gassman and Nina Van Pallandt.
Elliott Gould is an American actor.
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is a 1982 comedy-drama film and an adaptation of Ed Graczyk's 1976 play. The Broadway and screen versions were directed by Robert Altman, and stars Sandy Dennis, Cher, Mark Patton, Karen Black, Sudie Bond, and Kathy Bates.
Richard Alva Cavett is an American television personality and former talk show host. He appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States from the 1960s through the 2000s.
The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced the types of film produced, their production and marketing, and the way major studios approached filmmaking. In New Hollywood films, the film director, rather than the studio, took on a key authorial role.
A Wedding is a 1978 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman, with an ensemble cast that includes Desi Arnaz, Jr., Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Lillian Gish, Geraldine Chaplin, Howard Duff, Nina Van Pallandt, Amy Stryker, and Pat McCormick. The story is told in typical Altman style, with multiple plots and overlapping humorous dialogue.
Popeye is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions. It is based on E. C. Segar's Popeye comics character. The script was written by Jules Feiffer, and stars Robin Williams as Popeye the Sailor Man and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. Its story follows Popeye's adventures as he arrives in the town of Sweethaven.
Ronald Mann is a Canadian documentary film director.
Lamberto Bava is an Italian film director. Born in Rome, Bava began working as an assistant director for his director father Mario Bava. Lamberto co-directed the 1979 television film La Venere d'Ille with his father and in 1980 directed his first solo feature film Macabre.
Jo Ann Pflug is a retired American film and television actress.
3 Women is a 1977 American psychological drama film written, produced and directed by Robert Altman and starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule. Set in a dusty California desert town, it depicts the increasingly bizarre relationship between an adult woman (Duvall), her teenage roommate and co-worker (Spacek) and a middle-aged pregnant woman (Rule).
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson is a 1976 revisionist Western film directed by Robert Altman and based on the 1968 play Indians by Arthur Kopit. It stars Paul Newman as William F. Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, along with Geraldine Chaplin, Will Sampson, Joel Grey, Harvey Keitel, and Burt Lancaster as Bill's biographer, Ned Buntline. It was filmed in Panavision by cinematographer Paul Lohmann.
M*A*S*H is a 1970 American black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner Jr., based on Richard Hooker's 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The film is the only theatrically released feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise.
Thomas Pierson is an American composer, conductor and film director.
The Steinettes were an a cappella doo-wop street quartet from Greenwich Village, New York, formed in 1978. The group appeared in HealtH and Popeye, two films from director Robert Altman that saw release in the early 1980s.
Richard Reicheg was an American television, stage, and film actor, musician and a Grammy-nominated songwriter. His career spanned a period of over sixty years.
Robert Phillip Kolker is an American film historian, theorist, and critic. He has authored and edited a number of influential books on cinema and media studies. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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