Movie: 'Popeye' (1980)

(AKA "Distorted time and the weirdness that is 'Popeye'")

Is it possible that life on a constant diet of 'The Incredible Hulk', 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' and 'Man from UNCLE' dvds as well as 'Sensational She-Hulk' comic books is warping my sense of time and space? If we add the long hours spent playing 'Drift City' does it make it any more credible? Hmmm. How can it be a Friday? Let's review a movie.

'Popeye' was made by auteur director Robert Altman and released in 1980. It is a movie that is adapted primarily from the comic strip by Segar and the classic cartoons from the Fleischer studious in the 1930s and 1940s, and represents one of the most faithful cartoon adaptations ever to make it to cinema. This faithfulness or fidelity to the source material is both it's virtue and it's failing. Robin Williams gives a classical impression of Popeye the Sailor Man but seems lost in a sea of mannerisms in a meandering plot, while Shelley Duvall is similarly stellar as Olive Oyl but is stalled under a conflict of character and plot. Everyone else is accurate if a little bland in their roles, with the weakest parts being those of Bluto and Poopdeck Pappy (Popeye's father). Bluto especially is miscast and strangely silent and angry for someone so loquacious and cunning in the cartoons. Poopdeck Pappy is just plain crazy.

Perhaps it's best to start with something overwhelmingly positive about this movie: The production values are incredibly good, and the production design is amazingly scenic. If it were all a little more colourful it would be perfect. Perhaps that's the problem with the movie, as it feels like everything needs to be more colourful.

The main problem, and I hold this to be in common with the few Altman movies I've seen, is the lack of depth to the movie. It essentially runs as a series of sketches with bad connectivity and wonky musical interludes. There are sight gags aplenty but not enough of a narrative thrust running through. There's more of a narrative thrust to 'The Incredible Hulk' episode running to my right, despite the blatant man in a gorilla suit. I'd like a gorilla suit. Anyway, this 115 minute has all the plot of maybe two 5 minute old cartoons and that's the problem. Repeating catch phrases ad nauseum and sticking massive forearms on Robin Williams does not a movie make.

What about the lead character? He's a cipher throughout all this, interacting barely at all with anyone else, muttering and singing odd songs and swinging massive forearms with little consequence. In fact, even in the seemingly massive truncated final showdown with Bluto he seems under-represented on screen and the iconic spinach sequence occurs off screen and underwater! UNDERWATER! We don't see the spinach sequence! Perhaps in 1980 it would have looked ridiculous but I think the main problem was that Popeye already was stylised through most of the movie when perhaps he should have looked more normal and then bulked up for the final spinach sequence. We don't see the spinach sequence.

Overall, this has the seeds of an excellent movie. Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall could have carried a blockbuster but ultimately there's not enough story, there'e not enough colour, the songs are dull and we don't get pulled through as we would in a good movie. Perhaps they needed Bill Bixby and a man in a gorilla suit.

Oliver.