Stephanie, if it's not too crass, perhaps you might list your five or ten favorite Altman films. 'The Player' is one of my all-time favorites; 'Gosford Park' is wonderful; and the first hour of 'M.A.S.H.' is one of the greatest ever. Yet 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller' is totally unknown to me; and I wonder what other treasures I've been missing all these years. Thanks for ALL your work; and by the way, I totally agree that Diana Rigg's Mrs. Peel is the most intriguing and enjoyable of all the 60's secret agents (as well as the most beautiful woman ever on TV).

There was no one else like him no matter how many tried and tried to imitate him. How is it possible to list my favorites? Even when he was off he always created a work of interest. among my personal favorites: McCabe & Mrs, Miller, Nashville, Buffalo Bill and the Indians (magnificent and vastly under-rated), A Wedding, The Caine Mutiny Courtmartial, 3 women, The Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us...

Its sad to see him go, but I'm glad I was able to experience these great films when they were first released. I remember seeing Nashville back in 1975 and it was truly unlike anything that had been done before. Although a work very much of its time it still resonates 30 plus years later...and it still has one of the most profoundly affecting endings ever. You could feel the joy his work gave him.

We will miss you Mr. Altman.

Of the six Altman films I've watched, all but one proved to be an unwatchable exercise in pretentious, unrealistic dialogue. Most featured gratuitous female nudity; many bastardized their source material, like Raymond Carver's stories and A Prairie Home Companion. The exception, Gosford Park, was a decent film at best, and all one needs to know about Altman and women is in Dr. T and the Women.

For me, the significance of Altman's work was in our cultured society's response to it. The fawning praise heaped on film after film that simply did not work demonstrated our willingness to subjugate our impressions and instincts to the voices of authority, be they those of established media, critics or professors.

I had no ill will for the man personally; those close to him have my condolences. But now that he's gone, so, too, is the director whose work had the greatest disparity between its critical perception and its actual quality. Cameron Crowe now takes his place.

My favorite Altman film will always be "Nashville," but I'd also like to put in a plug for a trio of the master's more obscure efforts, including "That Cold Day in the Park" ( a minor masterpiece of psychological horror starring Sandy Dennis and Michael Burns), "Three Women" (perhaps the closest thing to pure poetry by a major American director), and "Streamers" (a samll film that explores big issues, like the reasons why men go to war). Finally, I'd like to add a special word for "Buffalo Bill and the Indians," if only for the classic billing of Frank Butler, husband of Annie Oakley, as the "world's handsomest living target"!

the problems you see in his films, such as sexism, pretentiousness, etc. are there because he allowed his characters to exist, with warts, with dignity (even the most vile characters), because he was first and foremost a humanist.

It would be quite a dull cinematic legacy we'd have if only anteseptic, PC drivel were allowed to make it to the screen.

One final note: M*A*S*H* is one of my girlfriend's favorite movies ever, likes it even more than I do (I'm a LONG GOODBYE man), and if you say she's some backward, seen and not heard type, say it to her face at her next roller derby bout.

That you impotent f*cks choose a eulogy to start your bathroom wall, free-for-all Altman bashing is pretty revealing as to why you're not a fan of his work.

That was a tad over the top. My apology. I'm just a fan and saw a big heart in the old guy that I guess not everyone else saw.

When a group of students (I was fortunate enough to be one of) brought Robert Altman to Ann Arbor, Michigan in the late 1970s his first statement on stage at Hill Auditorium was, "I don't know why you're all here, I've got nothing to say."

Typical Altman--ubiquitous in his movies. Tossed out facile, but curious, annoying, provocative; endlessly fascinating. If one of Altman’s character said he had ‘nothing to say,’ Elliot Gould’s Phillip Marlow in the Long Goodbye may have mumbled exactly that in his endless mutterings, you just knew Altman would have another character saying something else right on top of the first character.

Mike and the rest of us who were so interested in Altman 30 years ago might look prescient today, but it wasn’t so much that we saw greatness in Altman’s films, he had just finished Three Women, M.A.S.H. was already a classic, California Split and Nashville were already being discussed in film classes McCabe and Mrs Miller already being copied in period movies. We were loved his films mostly out of curiosity, the more we understood the more we understood his movies would never all be one thing. Even Godard is predictable compared Altman. Altman would never be ‘the great man.’ He would never repeat himself enough times to be summed up in one line.

Altman’s films are an endless puzzle, seemingly as random, as arbitrary and as messy as a Raushenberg Combine. Sometimes Altman’s movies truly are random, facile, clichéd. But always there is something in each--moments or the whole picture--so brilliantly constructed, you don’t know why you suddenly feel queasy and unsettled and sad or pleased. All you can do is watch it again and, something else will move you.

I’m not going to miss Bob Altman, I’ll just get the DVD boxed set. I gotta go feed my cat.