Popeye (1980)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

Popeye (1980) – R. Altman

I loves me some Popeye and so, inevitably, I finally decided to watch Robert Altman’s live action musical based on the Fleischer cartoons of the 1930s (and Segar’s comic strip before that). Amon (aged 9) watched with me.  It is a well-known flop but Robin Williams (still starring as Mork on TV at the time) perfectly captures the Sailor Man and his constant under-the-breath muttering and poor pronunskiation and who else could play Olive Oyl except Shelley Duvall (also in The Shining released the same year)? Yet and yet, Robert Altman is an interesting choice for director – as in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, there is a large cast of characters (only some of whom have recognisable parts – such as Wimpy or Bluto) and they mill about the single set town engaging in business not quite directly for the camera and with the director’s trademark overlapping (and sometimes hard to make out) dialogue. The pacing is all wrong for the first third of the film – too slow and taking too long to develop the characters we know and love – but eventually it finds its groove and even the meandering pace feels okay as the characterisations take hold and the cartoonish action sequences appear. The plot seems an amalgamation of a few Popeye tales – his search for his Pappy, the discovery of baby Sweet Pea – laced with some really lackadaisical songs (by Harry Nilsson). So, not really a success, but a seventies-feeling oddball. At any rate, Amon laughed when Popeye finally ate his spinach and bested Bluto with a truly gigantic punch.