Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mash-director-robert-altman-dead-of-complications-from-cancer Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Maverick filmmaker Robert Altman passed from complications due to cancer Monday night at a Los Angeles hospital. Altman's work included landmark movies such as "MASH," "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "Gosford Park." Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY BROWN: Robert Altman's career in filmmaking spanned more than 50 years and 40 pictures. His signature style — using large, ensemble casts, intricately enmeshed in complex dramas — was first seen in two 1970s classics: "MASH" and "Nashville."Ann Hornaday is a film critic for the Washington Post. ANN HORNADAY, Washington Post Film Critic: "MASH" really came out of the gate as one of those bellwether films. It was set in the Korean War, but it was an allegory for the Vietnam War.So the subject matter was edgy and confrontational, but it was really Altman's filming style, the ensemble of actors, the overlapping dialogue. He would record people on Lavalier mics, much like this one, and then edit the sound to create overlapping dialogue. And it was a revolutionary stylistic innovation that he hewed to for the rest of his career. ACTOR IN “MASH”: We need some suction. ACTOR IN “MASH”: Yes, it's fine. ACTOR IN “MASH”: Can I pick up… ANN HORNADAY: "Nashville," very much the same. I mean, I think it took the style one bit further. That came out in the mid-'70s and dealt with the country music scene in Nashville and was one of the great inside dramas of great inside showbiz dramas still.It still stands as a classic and also stands as an example of his some would say maddening and others would say innovative approach to narrative, which isn't always necessarily very linear. He was more of a tone-setter and mood-setter.