Based on an issue-length story in National Lampoon magazine, Robert Altman’s O.C. and Stiggs chronicles the anarchic , summer-long misadventures of high school juniors Oliver Cromwell “O.C.” Ogilvie (Daniel Jenkins) and Mark Stiggs (Neill Barry). The majority of their exploits consist of wreaking as much havoc as humanly possible for the Schwab family, whose paterfamilias, Randall Sr. (Paul Dooley), is so blithely bigoted that he won’t even eat colored ice cream. A running gag has the man’s wife, Elinore (Jane Curtin), getting soused in secret by using a bewildering variety of hidden flasks and bottles. Randall Jr. (John Cryer), for his part, is prone to reading porno mags while sleepwalking.
Much like M.A.S.H., another hired-gun job during which Altman departed radically from another writer’s script, O.C. and Stiggs unfolds as a series of humorously chaotic set pieces, some featuring a majority of the cast interacting within a confined space (one of the filmmaker’s most recognizable trademarks). The run-and-gun nature of the social satire certainly aligns both of those films with the noir parody of The Long Goodbye and the Hollywood poison pen letter of The Player. Here Altman relentlessly pillories the John Hughes school of teen comedy, which places O.C. and Stiggs much closer to Heathers than Sixteen Candles.
This is also one of Altman’s most doggedly intertextual films. He calls back to himself by having The Long Goodbye’s Nina van Pallandt play a character called Clare Dejavue, and Hal Phillip Walker (Thomas Hal Phillips) from Nashville turns up on the TV espousing an even more radically ultra-conservative political philosophy, which of course makes a big hit with Randall Sr. And then there are gags that riff on classic Hollywood: A tap dance routine between O.C. and Michelle (Cynthia Nixon) comes straight out of Top Hat, and a Mexican vendor quotes the “stinkin’ badges” line from Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
But the most sustained parodic nod goes to Apocalypse Now, whose politics and aesthetics Altman found distasteful. Vietnam vet and photojournalist Sponson (Dennis Hopper) emerges from his house to the opening notes of the Doors’s “The End.” And when he and his partner (Alan Autry) swoop down in a helicopter like the (Air) Cavalry to rescue our amoral duo, it’s done to a remix of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”
O.C. and Stiggs aren’t exempt from becoming subjects of satire either. This is most obvious in the film’s treatment of race and sexual orientation. In an apparently ad-libbed moment, Wino Bob (Melvin Van Peebles), who may seem to fit the stereotype of the wise Black man they boys believe in, says, “Enough of this folklore, picturesque Uncle Remus bullshit!” And while O.C. and Stiggs blackmail a gay couple (Louis Nye and Dan Ziskie) into letting musician King Sunny Adé and his band take over from a regional theatrical production of Cactus Flower, the film takes the time to allow them moments of real affection and concern for each other.
O.C. and Stiggs was shot in the summer of 1983, but MGM didn’t release it until several years later. Its failure wasn’t hard to predict, as it departed too far from the source material for National Lampoon fans, and it ruthlessly sent up the kind of cookie-cutter teen comedies that its marketing led audiences to expect it was. Now, almost 40 years later, it’s high time for reappraisal as a vintage Altman satire of the 1980s that sits quite comfortably among the many acknowledged masterworks of his filmography.
Image/Sound
The 1080p HD transfer of O.C. and Stiggs, as provided for Radiance Films by MGM and Park Circus, looks great, nicely capturing the luminous cinematography of Pierre Mignot, which makes some especially breathtaking use of magic hour lighting. Colors are vivid, black levels are spot-on, and the fine details of the film’s elaborate set and costume designs stand out nicely. The Master Audio mono mix is certainly lively, though, given the typically chaotic sound design of an Altman film, toggling on the subtitles might not be a terrible idea.
Extras
The big extra here is Hunter Stevenson’s feature-length documentary The Water is Finally Blue, which exhaustively chronicles the making of Robert Altman’s film, with talking-head contributions from, among others, actors Daniel Jenkins, Neill Barry, Paul Dooley, Martin Mull, and Tiffany Helm, producer Peter Newman, and production manager Allan F. Nicholls. There are lots of great stories and some nice behind-the-scenes footage available here. There’s also a short interview with Robert Reed Altman, who talks about his experience working on the set of his father’s film. Finally, the package includes an enclosed booklet that contains two interviews with Robert Altman and an incisive essay on the film’s sociopolitical aspects by Brad Stevens.
Overall
Radiance’s gorgeous new Blu-ray makes Robert Altman’s anarchic O.C. and Stiggs available for some much-needed reappraisal.
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Huge Altman fan here who never missed an opening weekend starting in 75 w/ NASHVILLE. How the hell did I miss this one????
Because it was an embarrassing failure. Godawful film – avoid it like the plague.
Screw this contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism. This is a genuinely, thoroughly awful movie, a complete mess, Altman’s worst, and an embarrassment for all involved.