CANON OF FILM: "3 WOMEN"

3 WOMEN (1977)

Director/Screenplay: Robert Altman

With every Robert Altman movie I see, I realize not just how great a filmmaker he was, but how never repeated himself. Yes, there are typical Altman characteristics in all his films, the overlapping often-improvised dialogue, the multi-narrative structures, the way the character connect with each other, the ease and flow of the way he shoots, etc., but he constantly takes these techniques that fascinate him, and places them in whatever film he happens to be making, whether it’s an anti-war satire with “M*A*S*H”, a western like “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”, film noir like “The Long Goodbye,” or even socially-elite murder-mystery satire, like “Gosford Park,” and even the multiple-narrative genre of films he created like “Nashville,” and “Short Cuts,” may be comparable in style, but in their subjects, they're vastly different. While traditional Altman trademarks pepper all his movies, he finds fascinating ways to take all his natural aspects and completely reinvent genres. 

“3 Women,” a movie that Altman claimed he got in a dream one night, could be considered his most intense thriller, or maybe it’s even a horror movie on par with Hitchcock or Craven. It’s also plays in many ways like a combination of Bergman’s “Persona,” mixed with “Single White Female,” and then throws in some David Lynch, just to make us more confused. By the end of the movie, I had no idea what just happened, but I was completely fascinated by it. Millie (Shelley Duvall) is a Cosmopolitan-obsessed talker who works at a bizarre retirement home/spa in the middle of the California desert. She lives in a singles complex owned by Willie (Janice Rule) a pregnant sand painter, whose husband’s Edgar (Robert Fortier) is a drunken former TV stuntman who owns an out-of-the-way bar in the middle of a desert where cops ride dirt bikes and an ammunition range is next to an abandoned miniature golf course. 

Millie eventually has to bring up a new co-worker, Pinky (Sissy Spacek) a Texas waif, who is quickly fascinated with Millie, but her fascination is eerie. It seems to erratically range from schoolgirl crush to obsessive mimic. Eventually, Millie and Pinky become roommates, and both become fascinated with Edgar, at different times, in different ways, and for different reasons. 

I’ve spent the last few minutes trying to figure out how to describe the rest of the events in the movie, but the more I think about it, it’s quite a useless exercise. The way one character in particular acts in ways that aren’t explained and they call into question whether or not a person’s personalities, behaviors and identities can be altered, or changed, or maybe even taken over by someone else entirely. Yet, certain actions and behaviors remain random and lead to events that are simply unpredictable.

At a certain point, right before the ending, you’ll come across a moment, where you’ll have absolutely no idea what will happen next, similar to the way the rules of a dream are non-existent. There is an ending to the movie that explains nothing. Is the film a dream? Did it ever exist? Do the weird paintings have anything to do with it, or is anything real, including the ending? Your guess is as good as mine; I have no idea what it means, but you will certainly come up with theories, and will definitely not forget the experience of watching this film. It’s a movie that constantly builds tension, even after the major climatic scenes have occurred, tension continues as ever-changing life cycles are lived and encompassed by these three women.