Streamers | 
| Director: Robert Altman
Actors: Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Mitchell Lichtenstein, David Alan Grier, Guy Boyd
Studio: Parade Video
List Price: $5.98
Buy Used: $3.79
You Save: $2.19 (37%)
Used (7) Collectible (1) from $3.79
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 29924
Format: Color, Ep, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
UPC: 071083058431
EAN: 0071083058431
ASIN: B000006CPD
Release Date: November 11, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Tape is in very good condtion, plays great! Box artwork has considerable color fading, some wear/bends on corners/edges and a couple of pen marks. Great tape, fast shipping!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Pull cord... September 9, 2007
Aco
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Somehow it's almost terrible that every cover for Streamers has a picture of Matthew Modine on it. One even features him gray haired, looking like the middle aged guy he presently is. Because this isn't merely his film, or a showcase for his talents, etc. After all, with Robert Altman directing and David Rabe writing from his stage play-no slouches needing the face of a star to sell their works, this needs to be represented in a better, broader, more poetic way.
Like Coppola, Altman's 1980's were peculiar, a seemingly odd period; HealtH, Popeye, Jimmy Dean, O.C. and Stiggs and Aria come to mind as "those other Altman movies." He also made Secret Honor, another play, Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, the TV series Tanner '88, and Streamers, all interesting, distinct, good fare.
Exclusively held in a barracks of a base near Washington, D.C. Streamers is a difficult story to pinpoint as being about one or two distinct things. Because it's essence winds and twirls within the struggles of the characters to figure out who they are, as isolated Spec. 4's, alone at the end of a half empty barrack, having no duties and left to dangle or fall within the Army's world, purposeless and expendable. Perhaps that is the vision, Rabe being a vet who wrote several searing Vietnam based plays-usually cynical, angry, psychologically tormented, though funny and even when set on the homefront, male stories. But it's success lies in it's open endedness.
Modine is Billy, a white Wisconsiner, straight and direct, the vision of Americana. David Alan Grier is Roger, a black urbanite, who has been able to straddle both white and black worlds, less likely to confront and amiable. Mitchell Lichtenstein's Richie is either an insane white kid trying to get out of going to 'Nam by feigning homosexuality or someone truly coming into his own as a maturing gay man. It is never clear why these three are held together, but Richie's fey behavior is blatant, and the subject which spells them into questioning each other. Carlyle, marvelously played by Michael Wright, comes from another part of the base, maybe a soldier, or a drifter, or a transient, or some angel; a black man, tortured and violent, who's presence propells the action towards a visceral, powerful conclusion.
That's all I can say regarding the story. The first hour plus was often slow, and I was sometimes bored or irritated at the lack of direction. But the last half hour is very strong, all the performances grow with the intensity of the circumstances, inclusing the two Sgt.'s Rooney and Cokes, played by Guy Boyd and George Dzundza, respectively.
I'd recommend this for devout Altman fans. Stage to screen adaptation lovers. Vietnam-era story admirers and fans of quality acting, minus spectacle. There is much strong imagry here and the closing shot is great too.
 Harrowing Depection of War Away From War April 15, 2007
Tom O'Leary (Los Angeles, California)
This movie by Robert Altman is one of the best adaptations of a play into a movie ever filmed. Everything is top notch starting with the deeply moving script by David Rabe. I can't think of another movie or play that deals with homophobia, racism and the senseless horror of war in one story. Altman films this firecracker story with great delicacy, as usual. The acting is absolutely out of this world. Matthew Modine has never been more moving. This movie is perfection.
On the big screen it was potent and powerful as any January 19, 2004
Thomas Lapins (Orlando, Florida USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
On the big screen it was potent and powerful as any film I had seen. The tension created kept me on the edge of my seat. Maybe as a gay man I perceived something of the conflict between myself and this rigid frigid military environment that crept into many a nighmare of mine. It had a live stage feel to it. Many emotions and personal historys were left up to the audience to interject, kind of compressing many diverse backgrounds into a short though volitale interaction. It remains one of my favorite films and I would very much like to see it on dvd.
 Another mess by Altman May 26, 2001
Stephen G. Knapp (NYC, NY USA)
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
How can the man who directed M*A*S*H* and Nashville have directed this drek?The characters are unbelievable, their actions unmotivated and the storyline hopelessly unrealistic. What's most annoying is that there are brilliant images and ideas in this "almost movie" that will never be seen by most people as they will not have the patience to suffer through the worst parts. The movie (based on a play) takes place entirely in a barracks as these Airborne soldiers are waiting to ship out to Viet Nam. Richie (played by a beautiful Mitchell Lichtenstein) is a young soldier who claims to be "queer" and keeps making accusatorial comments to Billy (played by a young and attractive Mathew Modine) There is apparently a story there but we never hear it. Guy Boyd and George Dzundza, both talented actors play two sergeants who act totally out of character. (Grown men playing "Hide and Seek" in the rain after drinking all night?) They do have some great moments when they talk about paratroopers whose chutes don't open, but even then there are continuity and reality problems. David Alan Grier (who went right on to play Corporal Cobb in A Soldier's Story) plays the only black soldier in the group until Carlyle (Michael Wright lately seen on HBO's OZ) shows up. Carlyle ends up stabbing both Billy and Sgt Rooney and nothing is resolved. Overall the movie is not worth a waste of two lives (even fictional lives) and certainly not worth the 90 minutes I spent watching it.
Excellent adaptation of a brilliant play November 26, 2000
Joseph "God" Jordan (Bronx, NY United States)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Ever since I read "Hurlyburly" about five years ago, I have been a fan of David Rabe. When I became aware that "Streamers," possibly his best play, was made into a film, I wasted no time in renting it. I found the it to be true to the original script, with minor additions that do nothing to help or hinder the play's dramatic impact. The plot concerns the interaction of six men in a desolate army barracks. It is only days (weeks?) before the men are to be shipped out to vietnam, where they will, most likely, die. This tentative, chilling circumstance is the impetus for the story's action. The central characters are Billy, a moralizing, confused college graduate, Roger, a street smart black man, Richie, who is an uninhibited homosexual and Carlyle, a lonely and paranoid psychopath. The diverse nature of these individuals makes symbiosis difficult, and their respective tensions and prejudices culminate in a nihilistic and violent explosion that metaphorically represents the conflict in vietnam, and the conflict inherent in mankind. Streamers is an intelligent, claustrophobic and highly disturbing film that I emphatically reccommend to any who appreciate good cinema.
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