User Reviews

This is an audacious undertaking by Robert Altman: I've seen a lot of films with a single setting, but rarely one confined within literally a few square feet (of an army barracks). Altman succeeds in making this intimate, and sometimes intense, rather than simply claustrophobic, though there aren't really any new insights here about either homosexuality or the army (the movie's two chief topics). The performances are all excellent and justifiably praised (and awarded). Altman has done better, but he has also done a lot worse; "Streamers" is at the very least worth one viewing. **1/2 out of 4.

Showerin': Get used to this one. The pre-'Nam cadets in Streamers seem to like showering a lot. Especially mid-conversations. Now, you don't see too much, if that's why you're watching this, you perv, but it might have some special meaning that I didn't catch.

Suspectin': Picture it, 1983 is when the film came out, but it was based during the Vietnam War. We have a FLAMING homosexual that even the similar time framed The Boys in the Band would reject and all the other characters do for an ungodly amount of time is to question if he's gay or not. Fine. Perhaps eyes weren't wide open as they are today…but do you need to wear a pink triangle on your sleeve to drive the effeminate flirting – with the same sex – home?

Smokin': Duh. It's a war-themed movie. Duh. It's about Vietnam. That was almost a prerequisite for making a 'Nam picture: actors must smoke. If they don't in their everyday life, they'll need to start the habit for realism.

Swearin': See above.

Sexuality: Though the movie, directed by Robert Altman, screams the director's other movie: M*A*S*H, I was thoroughly impressed he took this former play and brought the seldom spoken topic of homosexuals in the military. Kinda. But, still, people were pretty backwards in the early 1980s and I was happy to see someone taking a stand against homophobia, long before it became the norm.

Suicidin': These things happen. And I'm sure they happen more when someone's being forced into a seemingly unending conflict – er, war.

Stereotypin': Not as bad as the previously mentioned Boys in the Band reference, but still. The movie's not all about crushing homophobic idiocies, it's also about the different sides of racism. In fact, the movie's pretty evenly split between the two "lessons." That all said, both the black men and the (potentially ONE) gay person were so obvious to us, if they were men of the cloth, they would've most certainly be wearing a clerical collar, no matter the religion.

Switchbladin': This fits in with the one above. Of course, every tough black male carries one of these and swishes it proudly. No, I don't believe that, but pre-smart Hollywood would love you to identify the black male as the tough knife-wielding dude.

Stagin': This movie SCREAMS theater. As already mentioned, this was a play-turned-film. It wasn't the first to make the transition, and it most certainly wasn't the last. It was, however, TOO MUCH OF A PLAY. Every actor shouted, even when unnecessary, as if they were on a stage without mics. This went hand-in-hand with the constant overacting. I can tolerate some of that, but gimme a break; it's nearly two hours of it.

Stabbin': I should add another 'S' here for SPOILER (alert.) Don't read on, if you haven't already decided the movie's just not worth it. Nutzo character (heck, at least I wouldn't reveal who) stabs and stabs. Could be for toughness, but more likely just a mental breakdown. UH…they haven't even made it to the "conflict of 'Nam" that would most certainly damage them ten times more so than the murders he commits. On a side note, as I am sure, Director Altman had some credit to his name, but the "CSI" scenes following the murders were not only hilarious but were written and filmed pretty amateurish. I'm sure even as "prehistoric" as 1983 was, they still had better methods of collecting evidence than picking up the weapon with bare hands, or tracking the blood across the room, or moving the body, or the worst: simply stating within seconds: "Yep, they're dead, let's get 'em outta here." Really?

I went to Viet Nam in 1971 as a replacement. I spent time in just such a scenario and except for the gay issue which would not have been discussed so openly, it was very realistic in it's description of the emotional interaction of the soldiers.

I felt they put more focus on the gay issue than needed. there should have been more focus on the war and how they expected to react in it. I don't think we know what their occupational specialties are but these soldiers are not all green trainees. a couple have been in a while and have rank and qualifications as Specialist 4.

It is a great character study in any case.

"Jesus H Christ. You know what I'm doing? You know what I'm standing here doing? I'm a 24 year old college graduate. God damn intellectual type. And I got a knife in my hand, thinking about coming up behind one black human being, and I'm thinking, I wanna cut his throat! That is ridiculous, man! You think I need a reputation as a killer? You want to be a bad ass animal, go! Get it on! But I wash my hands, man! I'm not human as you are!" – Mathew Modine (Streamers)

Like "Secret Honor", "Come Back To The Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean" and "Fool For Love", "Streamers" is another Robert Altman film based on a stage play and filmed almost entirely indoors at a single location.

The film focuses on a group of US soldiers who are waiting to be shipped out to Vietnam. Altman's camera prowls their cramped barracks, watching as they struggle to pass the time. They argue, joke and throw insults, but the script is flat and the cast only comes alive, spectacularly so, during a couple explosive scenes.

What's most interesting about the film is Mathew Modine's character. Modine plays Billy, a smart kid who sees himself as existing "outside" of the other men. While the other soldiers are black, homosexuals or come from low income families, Billy is middle class and well educated.

Toward the end of the film, Billy is killed by one character who despises Billy's aloofness. Billy can't stand the other men, their latent homosexuality, their poverty, their drunkenness, the way they readily give in to desire, and so essentially seems to have been killed because his very existence shames the other men.

So Mathew Modine essentially plays the same character here that he plays in "Full Metal Jacket"; the outsider on the inside, though in Kubrick's film he further protects himself with a "jacket" of ironic detachment. That film was about a very specific type of disassociation; killing but not perceiving oneself as partaking. Murdering, but interpreting such actions as righteous kills.

Though Kubrick scoured thousands of audition tapes when casting "Full Metal Jacket", Modine was the one actor he had mentally cast prior to conducting auditions. Kubrick was a big Altman fan and kept a close eye on the director's work. He cast Shelly Duvall in "The Shining" based on her performance in Altman's "3 Women" and is reported to have admired "McCabe and Mrs Miller". Both directors actually bumped into one another outside a theatre in England, Altman having just watched "Clockwork Orange" and Kubrick having just seen "McCabe and Mrs Miller".

A decade later Kubrick saw Modine in "Streamers" and immediately began enquiries about the actor. He learnt that Modine was currently working on Alan Parker's underrated "Birdy", another film in which Modine played a Vietnam soldier. Kubrick secretly sent Alan Parker a request asking for footage of Modine and received it several weeks later. Upon seeing the footage, Kubrick was convinced that he had found the right "Jokerman" for his "Full Metal Jacket".

What's interesting about Kubrick's casting methods is the way he, in a sense, casts archetypes (or rather, type cast actors). Jack Nicholson was cast in "The Shining" because his previous films had established him as a misogynist and psychopath. Modine was cast in "Full Metal Jacket" because he had established himself as a military outsider and intellectual jar-head. Tom Cruise was cast in "Eyes Wide Shut" because he had established himself as a egotistical, self centred little man, brainwashed by cults.

There's a practicality, a sense of machine logic, to the way Kubrick casts. Real couples play real couples. A real Jack and Danny play a real Jack and Danny. A real drill Sergeant plays a real drill Sergeant. Likewise, a Jewish film director famous for conspiracy thrillers (Sydney Pollack) plays a mysterious puppet master. And on and on it goes.

"Streamers" may not be a dramatically satisfying piece of work, but it is interesting in the way it positions itself within all the Vietnam movies of the 70s and 80s. For example, unlike the ultra macho Rambo, Altman treats his entire cast with a weird, sexual ambiguity. We get the sense that this small group of men has been assigned their own private barracks because they're all homosexuals or outcasts in some way.

There are also strange parallels with "Full Metal Jacket". Consider the way one homosexual in Altman's film tries to commit suicide, feeling too effeminate, too much of an outcast for the military. Kubrick's film does the opposite, a character called Pyle committing suicide as a result of sexual over-identification. One's too much of a wimp for the military, the other's too much of a killer.

In Altman's film, Billy also reluctantly visits a whorehouse. He has sex with a woman in order to prove that he "fits in" and is "one of the boys". This mirrors Joker's actions in "Full Metal Jacket", where Joker shoots and "rapes" a woman in order to "fit in". The irony of Altman's film is that Billy is trying to "fit in" with guys who are themselves repressing their homosexuality in the face of the military's grotesque hyper-masculinity; fitting in with those trying to fit in, all identity a performance, a sham. And of course this "masculinity" is often always a mask, the "soldier persona" a thin veneer over fragile personalities, wounded egos and personal neuroses. It's the lesson Billy learns by the film's end, as his veins empty blood.

6/10 - Cut 40 minutes from this film and you have a lean drama, with a couple explosive scenes. As it is, this is a dull stage play which only comes alive when Mathew Modine is on screen. Altman's camera work is ugly, his set is drab, his pacing awful and his caricaturing of homosexuals at times insulting.

In this film Altman is considering the Vietnam war but from the point of view of the young men who are drafted into that butchery without even having the slightest choice at their disposal. The war, the heroic war is supposed to bring the best of man in the limelight of their personalities. It sure brings the deepest layers of all human beings in the foreground. So imagine a bunch of macho young men, black and white, plus a few older Non Commissioned Officers who are having no real private life because they spend their life killing enemies they despise. Who would marry these men who are never home and who spend their time shoulder deep in blood? Their complicity becomes complacent and we can wonder what makes them go on behaving like bad boys who only want to play hide and go seek. The draftees are not better but they are younger so they don't know about bees and flowers and birds and flying fish. And their sexuality is both in great conformity with the standard public norm and absolutely uncertain and fuzzy. Bring one real gay man in that bunch and what was only vaguely misty in the background becomes sunny bright in the foreground. The college graduate who was cool about it turns aggressive and even violent. Unluckily a black hustler is a lot better trained at self defending himself. The young college graduate will die in his own running blood. One of the older NCOs will come along and, as drunk as a barrel of gin, he will run into the situation and against the hustler who will puncture him good and well, once and for all. It is then the survivors finally understand what they are in for. The gay young man will start crying – a cliché mind you – and the others will hide or try to ignore the mess. The only interesting element in this film is the acting of the bunch of actors who are holding the screen and the audience for nearly two hours. They act so well, so much like on an intimate theater stage, that we totally enter the game and believe it. Apart from that the male psychology is explored in details but it is not what it really is or the film has tremendously aged.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Four young trainee soldiers who are about to be sent overseas to fight in the Vietnam war are forced to deal with their own individual prejudices and different backgrounds after they start to suspect that one of them is gay.

Director Robert Altman relates the gripping story at a measured pace and expertly generates plenty of claustrophobic tension by keeping all the action inside of an oppressive army barracks. David Rabe's bitterly confrontational script addresses troubling issues pertaining to race, war, mortality, sexuality, and how both society and the military alike pit people against each other in an edgy and provocative manner. Moreover, it's exceptionally well acted by the four leads: Matthew Modine as sensitive intellectual Billy, David Alan Grier as the happy-go-lucky Roger, Mitchell Lichtenstein as the effeminate Richie, and Michael Wright as angry and antagonistic unhinged psycho Carlyle. Guy Boyd and George Dzundza provide darkly amusing comic relief as a pair of drunken and sadistic duty sergeants. An extremely potent and unsettling film.