One of my favourite directors is the controversial, unique Robert Altman. He died in 2006 at age-81.

That started after I saw his 1970 anti-war, anti-establishment film M*A*S*H. It’s has had a big influence on me ever since.

The filming process was difficult due to tensions between the director and his cast. Donald Sutherland has stated that he was the only member of the principal cast and crew not using drugs during the filming.

During principal photography, Sutherland and Elliott Gould spent a third of their time trying to get Robert Altman fired.

Altman, relatively new to the filmmaking establishment, at that time lacked the credentials to justify his unorthodox filmmaking process …

Altman later commented that if he had known about Gould and Sutherland, he would have resigned. Gould later sent a letter of apology and Altman used him in some of his later works, but he never worked with Sutherland again.

Sutherland has already impressed me as Sgt. Oddball in the anti-war movie Kelly’s Heroes.

(M*A*S*H) won the Grand Prix at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Sally Kellerman) and Best Film Editing, and won an Oscar for its screenplay.

Wikipedia