I think Robert Altman made "A Praire Home Companion" as a eulogy for himself

[charlie and algernon]

listening to "Goodbye to my Mama" the heartbreaking song Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin sing, i really think Altman made the movie as his personal eulogy. it's a movie about humor, about actors performing from a different time, about recolection of a time long past. It includes a man totally at peace with himself dying in complete happiness. And then that song, meant as a memorial to Streep and Tomlin's mom, but also the man that died. but i think that's also Altman's way of saying goodbye. Of saying how he misses his mom long past and longs to be reunited with her.

Good bye to my mama my uncles and aunts
One after another they went to lie down
In the green pastures beside the still waters
And made no sound

Their arms that held me for so many years
Their beautiful voices no longer I hear
Their in Jesus arms and he's talking to them
In the rapturous New Jerusalem

And I know their at peace in a land of delight
But I miss my mama tonight

Good bye Eleanor, and Aunt Frannie and Joe
Good bye Uncle Jim, and Elsie and Don
Good bye to my mama who went to lie down
And now is gone

Who's hands are these all rough and hard
Nails all torn from toil and care
Who cleaned the house and kept the yard
Touched my cheek and stroked my hair

Thank you mama the Lord give you peace
Bless your voice and the songs you sung
Bless your arms and your hands and your knees
How you loved us when we were young

The lord's my shepherd I'll not want
I have my mama my uncles and aunts
Water so still and pastures so green
Goodness and mercy following me
Goodness and mercy following me

[crim son]

1. Thank you for giving that movie a meaning that isn't as trite

and overused as the one I'd gleaned from watching it. I like your interpretation.

[fishwax]

2. I think you're right. When I heard he'd died, that was

my first thought. I'd just seen the movie a week or two before. It seemed very fitting as his last movie.

[ashling]

3. Interesting! you may have somrthing there

and I loved the movie.

[blogslut]

4. I saw it

..after he died and it played that way. I can't say if that was Altman's intent but I do think it was a film about death, loss and saying goodbye.

[hickman]

5. Bingo. Got it in one.

Are you always this wise?

[charlie and algernon]

6. lol, only at 2am

when i'm alone with headphones playing music.