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This is
an Altman film. Its artistic in its format, i.e. it doesn't have one that you
can identify.
The story details the haphazard lives of two compulsive
gamblers searching for that ever-elusive big score. Newly single and
soon-to-be-unemployed Bill (George Segal) joins live-wire pal Charlie (Elliott
Gould), as the pair move from Fruit Loops with Charlie's hooker roommates Sue
(Gwen Welles) and Barbara (Ann Prentiss) to bets on horses, backroom card
games, boxing, and basketball.
They make it to Las Vegas, but Bill comes
to realize that even the big score may not be the answer to the meaning (or
meaninglessness) of life. For Charlie, however, that's all there is.
Altman produces a "celebration of gambling" that is in itself something
of a game, filled with random incidents, trivial and serious, amusing and not,
that emphasize the essential rootlessness of the gambler's life. |
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| California Split is
one of Altman's trademark character-driven films. It is less concerned with
plot than behaviour as we watch the friendship between Bill and Charlie develop
over a mutual love of gambling. As the film progresses and the two men hang out
more, Bill starts to become more addicted to the gambling lifestyle. He blows
off work early to meet Charlie at the track and sells his possessions for
money. Bill and Charlie are gambling addicts who ride the high arcs and the low
valleys, never passing up a bet. At a boxing match they put money on the
outcome of the fight with a fellow spectator. |
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| Plot
Synopsis: A down on his luck gambler (George Seagal) links up with free
spirit Elliot Gould at first to have some fun on, but then gets into debt when
Gould takes an unscheduled trip to Tijuana. As a final act of desperation, he
pawns most of his possessions and goes to Reno for the poker game of a
lifetime. A film set mainly in casinos and races, as the two win and lose (but
mainly win), get robbed, and get blind drunk. |
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| Director |
Robert
Altman |
George Segal |
William
Denny |
| Writing |
Joseph
Walsh |
Elliott Gould |
Charlie
Waters |
| Cinematography |
Paul
Lohmann |
Ann
Prentiss |
Barbara
Miller |
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Gwen
Welles |
Susan
Peters |
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