STREAMERS

US, 1983, 118 minutes, Colour.
Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Guy Boyd, Mitchell Lichtenstein.
Directed by Robert Altman.

Streamers is an adaptation by playwright David Rabe of his successful 1976 Broadway play. It has been directed by Robert Altman (Nashville, Three Women, The Wedding) who showed his skill in filming a play cinematically with Come Back to the Five and Nine, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). The acting in this film is excellent - and the group of main actors were awarded the joint Best Actor prize at the Berlin Film Festival 1983.

While the acting is excellent, the melodramatic nature of the plot and the dialogue means that the audience is asked to respond at high pitch throughout most of the film. While the background of the film may be evident to Americans, it does not come across with such force to nonAmericans. The setting is the Vietnam war. The memories are those of the '60s. The film is a critique (and being filmed in the '80s it seems somewhat belated) of American militarism and involvement in Vietnam with its repercussions on its young soldiers. There are also themes of racism and sexual roles. The dialogue is reminiscent of those many plays after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with their 'get the guest! games.

The film is one to admire rather than to enjoy.

1. The work of Robert Altman? His interests, reputation, style? His ability to present a kaleidoscope of characters and events? Interweave stories successfully? His adaptation of a play to cinema?

2. The work of David Rabe: the impact of the play in 1976, the effectiveness of its staging? The translation to cinematic devices and to the screen in the '80s? How obviously a filmed play? Eliciting from the audience the response to a play rather than to a film?

3. The film as a piece of Americana? The U.S. in 1966? The army, the background of the Vietnam war and American involvement, the sending of so many troops, young men going to action, volunteers, drafted soldiers? The image of the American army? Fear? Despair? The young men, the older men with their memories of Korea, the training? Audience response to military training and military style? The atmosphere of death? The experiences of death in the barracks? The emphasis on macho and masculine images? Roles and sexual behaviour? Relationships? The use of homosexuality as a theme?

4. The title and the song - adaptation of 'Beautiful Dreamer'? The parachute not opening? The falling to death? The relevance of the title to the men in the barracks? In the Vietnam war? The importance of the credits and the marching - sounds, shadows, colours, rhythms, the sound of the boots, drill, design?

5. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the film? Remaining within the rooms of the barracks? Altman's use of the rooms, the mobile camera, the close-ups, the tableaux? Looking through windows? Out of windows? The viewpoint of the audience, of the director, of the characters?

6. The importance of words and images? The abundance of words? Their emotional content and style? Strain, shouting, roar and raucous language? Abuse, taunting? Negro jive? Swearing, sexual overtones? The relief of the silences? The play divided into acts? The dissolves for the passing of time? The time span of the play and audience involvement? Descriptions of action outside the barracks? The conversations?

8. The reality and unreality of the world? The situation of the weekend? The reality and realism of the characters, their behaviour? As symbols of attitudes? Games, outings, the dances? The attitudes of each of the characters? Carlyle and his jive? Madness and sanity? Ritchie and the reality or unreality of his homosexuality? Truth or using it as a taunt, for Billy, for Carlyle? Billy and his masculinity (or not)? Roger as pleasant, as unpleasant? The sergeants and their military background, their drinking, their games, companionship? The reality and unreality of life and death? The situation of the '60s - comparisons with the '80s?

9. The power of the interactions, the psychological and emotional credibility? Audiences identifying - or distanced?

10. The purpose of the film? For American audiences? Non-Americans? Men and women? Age groups? Race groups?

11. Billy as the ordinary American, straight up and down, exercising? Macho image? His trying to ignore Martin's slashing of his wrists? Taunting Ritchie? Being taunted? Exercising with Roger, playing ball? Talk? Background, study, the war? Friendly? Macho roles? His story about his homosexual friend - sportsman, dating, involved with a homosexual friend? His own reaction? Ritchie saying that the story could have been about himself? Tolerance? His going out with Carlyle, drinking? Carlyle and his jive? The return, the talk, the clash? Rivalry? Race antagonism? The discomfort with Carlyle, the clash, Carlyle's cutting his hand, slashing him? His death? To what purpose?

12. Ritchie: his presence in the camp, background, binding for Martin, acting up, talk, the shower and back, dressing, staying? Roger's curiosity? His drawing out Billy, evoking the story, turning it back on himself? His reaction to Carlyle and the interaction between the two, antagonism, provocation? Real or not? The homosexual emphasis? The flirtation attitudes? Authentic or not? A pose and a provocation? His weeping? His responsibility for the bloodletting? Grief? His presence in the military? Rich background? The ending and the rueful attitude towards Ritchie?

13. The presence of Roger with the white soldiers? The negro in the '60s, in the army? An ordinary man? Macho attitudes and behaviour? Exercise, the shower? The ball? Going out? Conventional attitudes? The fascination with the homosexuality? His going back? Carlyle seeking him out? Acting up with him, reacting? Death? Caught? Antagonism to Ritchie?

14. Carlyle: the sign of contradiction, his arrival, the importance of his jive - mask, pose? Push? Leaving, returning? Incessant talk? Drunk, bored? Madness? A needy man? Taunts, ugliness, his response to Ritchie, homosexuality? The violent antagonism towards Billy? The fight? The death? The sergeant intervening and his death? The mad reaction? Innocent or not?

15. The portrait of the two sergeants, older, together, a strange couple, their continual drunkenness. games. hide-and-seek? Their friendship and its basis? Mutual support, leaning on each other? Attitudes towards the younger men? Their Streamers song and its significance? The Streamers talk? Crudity? The murdered sergeant? The grief of the companion? The final soliloquy and song?

16. The presence of Martin at the opening, slashing his wrists? The reaction of the others? His moving out of the drama - yet his effect on people?

17. The realism and the symbolism of the boy under the blanket? The trick explosion? observation?

18. The girl and her being glimpsed? The boy? The photos? The only feminine presence. her red dress? Her being outside the barracks?

19. The ending and the officers coming in, the young doctors, the ambulance - and everybody trying to cope?

20. The military and themes of boredom? An unreal world, an enclosed world, reality and unreality?

21. The military in the mid-'60s - military service, Vietnam, the possibility of death, the foreign Asian wars, Johnson's stances and the attitude of the American government? The nature of death and heroism. The critique?

22. The male mystique - macho images, sexual talk, brothels, homosexuality, both real and symbolic? Role-playing, relationships? Standards?

23. Racial themes? The presence and dignity of black and white? Antagonisms?

24. The play written on the occasion of the American Bicentennial and its overall symbolism about the United States in the latter part of the 20th. century?