Nashville (1975)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Director Robert Altman impressed me with this two earlier directorial efforts M.A.S.H and McCabe and Mrs. Miller, but I believe he really comes into his own with 1975's Nashville. The way he directed his movie and the way he made it a very intelligent movie with many important themes but can be understood by the general public is just outstanding. However, if you don't keep up with the movie, you can be sure to get lost in the overload of information Altman throws at you. On paper, the film may seem like a mess but it's really not. The film really does not have an overall plot, but it has interwoven segments that are related with each other and I'll discuss a little bit later on. This film is full of unique performances from an unusually large cast. It's not unusual that there are many characters, but how many major characters there are. There are approximately 25 major speaking roles, and that has to be some sort of record. But all the performances are wonderful and unique and you feel for each character in the country music setting of Nashville.So what exactly is this film about? Well, that's really hard to pinpoint as there is no one big linear plot line. It is essentially about a group of people living life in Nashville during a political-happy time (kind of reminds me of the current 2016 political race). But let's break down the plot into the little segments. We have Barbara Jean (Ronee Blackley) who is the current reigning country queen of Nashville, but health problems is causing her to fall apart and she also later becomes a symbol for political assassination. Then we have Delbert (Ned Beatty) and Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin) who live a rather sad life because of a failing marriage and trying to take care of two deaf children. Delbert is involved in a politics as he is trying to bring politics and country music together. Then we have a British journalist named Opal (Geraldine Chaplin) who decides to get into the thick of events within the Nashville scene. As the famed movie critic Roger Ebert paraphrases what this movie is about, it's many things. A musical, a docudrama about life in Nashville, a political story that was influenced by events like the Watergate scandal, and it is also a satire about country music.With such a large ensemble, I was surprised how much Altman was able to get from all of his characters. They were superbly written and the performances were genuine. Many of the characters do their own singing, and you can tell they are not professional singers. While the voices may not be the best ones ever, I loved the raw, edgy sound with added to the realism of the performances. The film is not composed of big stars (at the time or even by today's standards), but they often hit the spot. I loved Ronee Blackley's performance as the country queen, Barbara Jean. Her singing is decent, but she brings a sensitive side to her character and she is involved in a big political showdown at the end of the movie. She reminds me of a similar real-life country singer, Loretta Lynn. Lily Tomlin delivered one heck of a impressive performance as the mother of two deaf children. I relate to her character because I suffer from partial deafness myself and I understand her pains. She brings such vulnerability to her character. Ned Beatty does a good job in playing the asshole husband who doesn't care about his family but only about his job. We have very early performances from future stars from the likes of Jeff Goldblum, Scott Glenn, and Keith Carradine (who was impressive as a rock singer). Henry Gibson does a solid job as another famous country star named Haven Hamilton (and did have a good voice).So there were many aspects to the plot I thoroughly enjoyed. I enjoyed the rather brutal satire on country music which gathered criticism from people within this industry. But my favorite was the political aspect of the movie. Maybe its because history and politics go hand in hand or maybe we are living in a political-happy environment at current time, but I feel like the politics aspect hold up strongly. I like the random scenes where we have this political party in support of a candidate named Hal Philip Walker whom we never meet, but his presence is always known. His politics and the country stars end up clashing in the end for a very powerful ending.Overall, I really enjoyed Nashville. I don't think it's good of a masterpiece of Altman's earlier McCabe and Mrs. Miller but this is his more mainstream effort. But use that word "mainstream" lightly because Altman brings his complicated style of directing to this movie. His use of the actors and his political and social commentary is widely shown throughout the film. As I say for most of Altman's films, they are not for everyone. This film has excellent performances from everyone with my favorite performance coming from Lily Tomlin. There is an hour of music recorded for the film and despite the inexperience of the singers, the music mostly works with the film. Nominated for 5 Oscars and a 9 Golden Globes (a record that still holds today), Nashville is a solid work of filmmaking.My Grade: A-

I've seen a few Altman films now, the first ones being those ones from the '90s and of which 'Short cuts' will remain a very impressive one. Later on, I noticed how not every film was as good, but mostly there was plenty to enjoy, still. Only more recently have I been looking up his older work, such as 'The long goodbye' (pretty darn good, getting better every time I watch it), 'Images' (disappointing as an effective horror drama, but still not bad), 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' (a little disappointing in some way, but still pretty good, intriguing and one I will definitely will try again) and '3 Women' - an excellent, spellbinding piece of alternative American cinema and a personal Altman favorite at this point.'Nashville', I'm sorry to say, did disappoint me also, this first viewing. A day later, a lot of scenes and characters and the overall atmosphere of the country music does stick with me in a positive sense. I guess this is one I will try again sometime, too, but not for a while.A character like Goldblum's really didn't seem all that necessary to me, while the story, consisting of many pieces of personal lives all over Nashville, combined with a 'real-life voice-over' (the politician speaking) lacked a certain amount of coherence for me, if many parts were cleverly connected. Perhaps I'll get a better sense of things another time around, but a first viewing is always important to me (if I wasn't drunk or stoned or otherwise preoccupied at the time, of course).I'll leave it at a good 7 out of 10, because there was plenty to enjoy, in all departments.

I love country music and I know movie piled up many awards and it is considered one of the greatest American movies in 70's, I understand social criticism... but I can not remember if I ever saw anything this boring. I hate to give up and I always watch movie till the end even if I don't like it, but this time I had to gather all of my energy and power of will to endure first of 3 hours and finally I gave up. I wouldn't recommend this even to enemy. It's torture....................................................

Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated individuals prepare for a political convention as secrets and lies are surfaced and revealed.I like to picture Hal Phillip Walker as an early Alex Jones (as seen in the films of Richard Linklater). Traveling around, blasting his unorthodox views to his unsuspecting audience. Is this a southern thing, or just a coincidence?The music is both central and completely unimportant; on one hand, it is Nashville and music is what defines the city. But on the other hand, it is the relationships that really make this film -- the songs could have been anything. Indeed, Altman says that the cast wrote their own songs without any regard for whether they would be good or bad. This was unimportant (and Altman, oddly enough, was never a fan of country music).What makes the movie real is that much of the film was spontaneous and improvised... actors were given a basic plot and scenario, but actual conversations were largely unscripted. Altman says the film is what it is because of the casting -- had Robert Duval been cast rather than Henry Gibson, that character would have turned out completely different.Karen Black shows where the music meets the casting. She wrote her own songs and performs them remarkably well. She could have the best performance of the film, and it could be her best performance of any film. Had another person filled her shoes and wrote her songs, it could have been different.Oddly, Gary Busey wrote one of the songs and was supposed to be in the film, but was picked up for the television series "The Texas Wheelers" alongside Mark Hamill. Never heard of this show? Me, neither, and it disappeared after eight episodes.The film itself is rather divisive among viewers. Pauline Kael described the movie as "the funniest epic vision of America ever to reach the screen", and both Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin gave the film four-star reviews and called it the best film of 1975. In his original review, Ebert wrote, "after I saw it I felt more alive, I felt I understood more about people, I felt somehow wiser. It's that good a movie." Not sure I loved it on quite that level. While I think there is a lot of good in it, there is a lot of... well, just things I did not care about. Could this have been trimmed down to two hours? Probably. Did it need twenty-four main characters? Probably not.