Robert Altman was certainly awfully busy in the 1970s – he had started as a director-for-hire in the late 1950s, but it was only when he made MASH that he started to take on something of an authorial voice as both a writer and a director. Over the course of the following decade, he’d make a film every year, sometimes even doing multiple annually. This ultimately meant that the quality was not always particularly strong, but they were (at the very least) deeply compelling, even when they weren’t reaching the heights of some of his others. Few directors managed to make as many strong films within as short a time as Altman, which is precisely why he remains one of the most compelling directors of his generation. In fact, he was so good, he managed to take a relatively weak screenplay by Joseph Walsh, and turn it into a wonderful and endearing comedy. California Split does occupy a relatively paltry space when discussing the director’s best work, but it is nonetheless an entertaining, captivating dark comedy with strong performances and a terrific sense of humour, which is a lot more than can be said about several other films produced around the same time. Telling the story of a pair of gambling addicts who befriend each other by chance, the film is a riveting tale of companionship, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing society, one in which certain flaws without the country were starting to become more evident. It is far from his best work, but it does see Altman doing something slightly more intimate and subdued, and while it does lack the spark of some of his own screenplays (especially since Walsh was clearly a novice), the overall film is a terrific diversion, and a solid entry into the director’s impressive and expansive body of work that was hitting its peak around this time.

Without getting too sidetracked by discussions around matters that bear only marginal relevance to this subject, we have to look at one concept in particular, which is an influence on much of the work of Altman and his contemporaries. The Vietnam War changed the way stories were told, particularly in how they evoked conversations around masculinity, as well as patriotism. The lustre of the American Dream and the promises of a Norman Rockwell-esque existence shattered the moment it became clear that men were viewed as expendable, a far cry from the supposed heroism that they encountered when returning home from the Second World War (which also had its enormous challenges, and was far from as smooth a transition as history would suggest), and culturally, we saw a shift in how institutional beliefs were handled. Altman was a notoriously vocal liberal, and while many of his films addressed this in their own way (even those set in the past, with his westerns in particular being amongst the finest pieces of revisionist history committed to film), there were some that were built from the more subtle aspects of such situations. California Split is very much about the kind of men who were viewed as failures under the stringent, fiercely patriotic system – slackers who would rather spend their day gambling away, rather than finding work. However, rather than viewing them as incompetent, the focus was shifted to looking at such people as the working-class heroes, the unconventional idols that went against draconian principles and found ways to further their development without needing the support of systems designed to oppress. It’s a fascinating concept that Altman frequently explored, and while it is not entirely clear from a cursory glance, the more we look beneath the premise and interact with its more abstract themes, the further we find ourselves able to understand precisely what was being conveyed throughout the story.

Gambling is a subject that film has periodically touched on, particularly when it comes to either glamorising the high-stakes world of competitive betting, or serving as a cautionary tale about how foolish it can be to invest in something that is essentially nothing more than wasting money on chance. California Split manages to do both, situating itself squarely in the middle, and thus never being entirely sure on where it falls between the two, but rather aiming to look at it from both angles. It’s not necessarily a film that glamourizes the supposed art of gambling, nor is it interested in investing too much of its time in peeling away the layers of how complex an activity this is. However, it also doesn’t seem to be intending to berate those who find comfort and solace in these activities – and herein is the key to the film, where it looks at the people at the heart of the practice, rather than gambling itself. Two wise-cracking fools are the perfect vessels for such a story, since neither of them are family men (and thus there is never any need for us to feel bad for the constant loss of their money, since there isn’t any sensation that they are impacting other people other than their fellow gamblers), and their approach is one in which their decision to gamble is borne from boredom more than it is desperation. It allows for a very funny commentary on the world of gambling, without actually ever having high stakes, instead choosing to look at a pair of mediocre men who are skilled enough to earn a decent amount through their bets, but still too incompetent to avoid the temptation to continuously chase that feeling of euphoria. It converges into a very funny story that takes us on a journey as unpredictable as these bouts of gambling, which makes for a thoroughly entertaining couple of hours.

However, as much as we can focus on the mechanics of the commentary of gambling, California Split is really a film about friendship more than anything else. The two protagonists are painfully lonely middle-aged men at the start of the film, and as the film progresses, they find themselves enjoying each other’s company, to the point of feeling a sense of belonging and companionship that they had yet to encounter. Altman is very good at telling stories of lonely people finding themselves drawn together by some bizarre coincidence or simply occupying the same space at the right moment – and California Split manages to almost perfect these ideas, filtering them into a fascinating and deeply compelling series of moments shared between the protagonists. In bringing this story to life, Altman employs two great actors, namely Elliott Gould and George Segal, who were at the peak of their popularity at this time, and the rare kind of actors who could do both comedy and drama with equal aplomb. This is vital to the construction of this film in particular since so much of the story grapples the boundary between tones, some parts being wildly funny, while others are more melancholy – and both individually and together, the leads are fantastic, capturing the spirit of each moment and playing it to its fullest extent. They also have impeccable chemistry, playing off each other consistently and with a lot of sincerity, which is integral to the success of the film, and one of the primary reasons it succeeds so remarkably well. Altman always had a way with actors, and even when working with gifted performers in their own right, the director could extract strong work from his actors, and while it is a slightly smaller production, California Split is not close to an exception.

When it comes to Robert Altman, there’s very little room for error when we are venturing into one of his films. Some of them may be slightly less effective than others, but for the most part he was a director who produced solid entertainment as well as thought-provoking concepts that were interwoven deeply into the fabric of his stories. Whether working with his own writing or taking on screenplays written by others, he constantly produced a high calibre of work, and California Split easily fits into this description, being the kind of easygoing, fascinating character study that Altman seemingly mastered without any difficulty. It’s still a relatively early work in the director’s peak, but it still contained many of the aspects that made his work so fascinating. Deeply compelling and always well-crafted, its difficult to not feel like we are in good hands while watching the story of these eccentric gamblers and their various misadventures – but as much as it entertains us, the film also offers very deep meditations on subjects surrounding masculinity and the role of the average person in a society driven less by compassion and more by impossible ideals. Hilariously funny, and deeply compelling, California Split is a strong, reliable film that proves that even with a relatively paltry script and not many resources, Altman was capable of exceptional, well-crafted work that proves his mettle as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation.