Nashville



Nashville is a 1975 American satirical musical ensemble comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman. The film follows various people involved in the country and gospel music businesses in Nashville, Tennessee, over a five-day period, leading up to a gala concert for a populist outsider running for President on the Replacement Party ticket.

Nashville is often noted for its scope. The film contains 24 main characters, an hour's worth of musical numbers, and multiple storylines. Its large ensemble cast includes David Arkin, Barbara Baxley, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Timothy Brown, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert DoQui, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris, David Hayward, Michael Murphy, Allan F. Nicholls, Dave Peel, Cristina Raines, Bert Remsen, Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles, and Keenan Wynn.

Characters

 * 1) Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin)
 * 2) Delbert Reese (Ned Beatty)
 * 3) John Triplette (Michael Murphy)
 * 4) Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley)
 * 5) Barnett (Allen Garfield)
 * 6) Pfc. Glenn Kelly (Scott Glenn)
 * 7) Mr. Green (Keenan Wynn)
 * 8) L. A. Joan "Martha" (Shelley Duvall)
 * 9) Tricycle Man (Jeff Goldblum)
 * 10) Buddy Hamilton (David Peel)
 * 11) Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson)
 * 12) Lady Pearl (Barbara Baxley)
 * 13) Opal (Geraldine Chaplin)
 * 14) Tommy Brown (Timothy Brown)
 * 15) Connie White (Karen Black)
 * 16) Bill (Allan Nicholls)
 * 17) Mary (Cristina Raines)
 * 18) Tom Frank (Keith Carradine)
 * 19) Norman (David Arkin)
 * 20) Kenny Fraiser (David Hayward)
 * 21) "Albuquerque"/Winifred (Barbara Harris)
 * 22) Star (Bert Remsen)
 * 23) Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles)
 * 24) Wade (Robert Doqui)

Songs

 * "200 Years"
 * "Bluebird"
 * "Dues"
 * "For the Sake of the Children"
 * "Honey"
 * "I Don't Know if I Found It in You"
 * "I'm Easy"
 * "It Don't Worry Me"
 * "Keep A-Goin'"
 * "Memphis"
 * "My Idaho Home"
 * "One, I Love You"
 * "Rolling Stone"
 * "Since You've Gone"
 * "Tapedeck in His Tractor"
 * "The Day I Looked Jesus in the Eye"

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Robert Altman masterfully directed this artistically unique film, once again proving himself to be an original and influential artist. It's considered by many to be his masterpiece after a slow starter with years of TV episodes and a few minor movies that preceded the 1970 comedy M*A*S*H -- which introduced his personal style and launched the major phase of his career -- and a vast number of momentous movies.
 * 2) A lot of great humor that manages to be poignant at the same time. The film's power lies in its ability to be sarcastic, hopeful, and revelatory all at once as it manages to skewer and honor its subject simultaneously.
 * 3) Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the film is that it overall ended up containing no less than 24 main characters -- several who are country music performers -- and nearly all of their storylines are coherent and standalone despite the leads gathering at a Nashville political rally near the very end. Having the film over 2 1/2 hours at its disposal with enough time to flesh nearly all of the characters out and make them sympathetic (despite their shady actions) certainly helps. The two dozen characters comprise an eclectic catalog of loves, hates, hopes, fears, ambitions, and desires, turning the epic film into one of cinema’s very few meaningful microcosms of the American scene. The scarlet thread that ties the movie together is the gradually unfolding tale of a young man who’s edging his way toward assassinating a public figure. But the subsidiary stories are at least as effective, centering on everything from the mental instability of a singing star to the stream-of consciousness musings of a BBC reporter who doesn’t quite realize what a stranger she is in this strange, strange land.
 * 4) Great acting from pretty much everyone in the ensemble including Henry Gibson, Ronee Blakley, Karen Black, Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine just to name a few. Made even more impressive in that some of the actors -- in both major and minor roles -- had never been in a movie prior to this one.
 * 5) Good soundtrack despite it's many flaws (as listed below) with perhaps the most notable song on the list being Keith Carradine's "I'm Easy". The film turns America’s country-music capital into a colossal “Grand Hotel” bubbling with life, lunacy, and the pursuit of hipness. The soundtrack is assembled with equal virtuosity, marking a high point in Altman’s pioneering use of multiple recorded tracks. More genuineness comes from Altman’s decision to have the actors write their own songs for the movie’s many musical interludes. This angered some in the pop music industry, but it adds immeasurably to the authentic populism that informs both the subject and style of the film.
 * 6) Altman moseys through music-filled city of Nashville the way self-reflexive filmmakers have long meandered through Hollywood—peering curiously behind its billboards and facades, glancing wryly at the glitter but gazing intently at the humanity lurking beneath it. And while this won't be the last time Altman would use this treatment in one of his films, none of them would outdo this film for wit, insight, or audiovisual audacity. It brims with the bad and the beautiful, careening among comedy, drama, public spectacle, private angst, sociocultural commentary, and magic tricks—all without forgetting that the music is ultimately the movie’s heart and soul.
 * 7) On top of having a large ensemble cast, and long run time, the film also contains a cluster of social and political themes. The entire film centers around a political campaign with a man named Hal Phillip Walker as the candidate, and the Replacement Party being his cause. We never see him onscreen, but we hear a lot of his rhetoric, and some of it has an almost-makes-sense loopiness that recalls the goofy (il)logic of a Preston Sturges advertising parody, and also anticipates the real-life silliness of H. Ross Perot and his Reform Party campaign.
 * 8) *The film touches on moral issues but does little moralizing, preferring to let its audience draw their own conclusions. While its style is sometimes theatrical, it more often has a sense of documentary authenticity and improvisational spontaneity. Loose ends dangle from its fabric realistically, evocatively, mysteriously. The violent climax seems as inexplicable as it is startling and sad. Yet the movie’s final vision is at once wistful, hopeful, and—above all— affirmative of the pulsing social rhythms that hold individuals together in a media-drenched modern society.
 * 9) Creative camera work consisting of pans, tilts, zooms, tracks, and cranes the camera with boiling energy.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The narrative structure may get a bit scattered and unfocused at times, and Joan Tewkesbury’s screenplay dips now and then toward the sentimental and unsubtle. But then again, with a film having such a long run time, this was pretty much bound to happen.
 * 2) Rather than use existing country/western music, Altman elected to use new music. While this sounds like a decent concept, nearly all of the songs were written by the cast members and few, if any them are masterpieces, although this may be intentional considering Altman's intention was to represent a cross-section of the kind of music that emerges from Nashville, and not to develop a memorable or flawless soundtrack.
 * 3) With so many characters and plotlines occurring at the same time --especially with no less than 24 characters in the main cast alone-- it can be very difficult to keep up with with them all and one can easily miss out on an element of around first viewing. The viewers would have to watch the film more than once to fully understand its concept, especially with the long runtime.

Trivia

 * Director Robert Altman was inspired to make a film about the country music scene after reading William Price Fox's novel, "Ruby Red," which featured a fading country-western star. For the screenplay, Altman reunited with screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury, with whom he had previously worked on Thieves Like Us.
 * The part of "Haven Hamilton" was originally intended for actor Robert Duvall, who had worked previously with director Robert Altman and had expressed interest in the project. However, due to the low salary, Duvall dropped out and the part went to comedian Henry Gibson - known at the time for his work on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
 * Nashville marked the film debut of another star of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In - Lily Tomlin as Linnea Reese, a role which earned her an Academy Award@ nomination for Best Supporting Actress.