Robert Altman’s ‘Short Cuts’ Is a Blunt Attack on Women

Kenneth Turan, in his review of Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” raises concerns about the extensive female nudity in the film, which he terms gratuitous (“Robert Altman Finds His Way to Carverville,” Calendar, Oct. 8).

I was pleased to see that this was a concern of his, since after seeing the film, it concerned me as well. But after thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that nudity was not, in fact gratuitous, but that it was included for a purpose. I then began to analyze the specific instances (there were many) in which it occurred, and I began to see a pattern emerging, a disturbing pattern.

Altman has been accused of misogyny in past films and I have usually not concurred with this accusation. In fact, I’m a big fan of his films. To me, to be misogynistic, a film must convey misogyny in its central message.

As I re-evaluated “Short Cuts,” I could not help but come to the conclusion that its central theme was misogynistic. The message conveyed is that men are powerless in the face of women’s sexuality, and that women are to be resented and blamed for this.

This is an old theme, one that has been used in many cultures, including ours, to undermine women.

In each relationship portrayed in the film, with the exception of the one between the characters portrayed by Bruce Davison and Andie MacDowell (who is played as devoid of sexuality, and therefore as not threatening to her husband), the man is weakened by the woman, and a woman’s nudity is often used to exemplify this point.

In the best example, Matthew Modine confronts his wife (Julianne Moore) and accuses her of having had an affair. He is sitting, cowering and pathetic, as she walks around the room wearing no panties, flaunting her sexuality in his face and making him feel even more powerless.

Tom Waits is driven crazy by the fact that other men are admiring his wife, Lily Tomlin. Peter Gallagher resorts to destroying his ex-wife’s possessions.

While Tim Robbins is a blatant philanderer, Madeleine Stowe is portrayed as the powerful one in the relationship. She knows he will lie to her and she purposely baits him so she can laugh at him behind his back. Jennifer Jason Leigh talks dirty on the phone to strangers in front of her husband, played by Chris Penn, and seems essentially to hold him in contempt. She holds all the cards in the relationship and he resorts, first, to voyeurism (watching Lori Singer’s naked body from behind a fence) and, later, to more extreme, and deadly, actions.

And there are other examples. The fishermen are initially completely helpless in the face of a naked, dead, female body. When Matthew Modine walks in unexpectedly as Madeleine Stowe is posing, nude, while her sister paints her, he is naturally uncomfortable, but the two sisters do nothing to help him feel more comfortable. Rather, Stowe remains seated in her seductive pose, and the two sisters laugh at him as he leaves the room.

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This is a film that has been endlessly critically praised and I find it disturbing that critics have not picked up on what I see as its blatant message of men’s powerlessness in the face of women, and in particular in the face of women’s sexuality.

I kept hoping to read an article critical of the film on this basis. I’m not quite sure what is more disturbing, the misogyny in the film, or the fact that it has not been recognized.