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