Review of Nashville (1975) by Chris W — 15 Oct 2011

Okay so I just finished this a bit ago, and it hasn't all quite sunk in yet, so my review might not be the best. Perhaps I should let it sink in for a while first and maybe even give it a rewatch, but I don't really have time to do that so take my review with a grain of salt.

First off, this film is somewhat overlong and a tad too meandering at times, and maybe just a bit pretentious, However, it carries a lot of influence (particular on the works of P.T. Anderson) and it is a rather incredible experience. This is an ambitious, sweeping epic look at America and the state of American life and culture on the cusp of the bicentennial filtered through the lens of around 24 characters who, despite having their own specific storylines, all interweave to form a narrative surrounding the effort to put on a concert rally for the state's presidential primary for a populist fringe candidate running on the Replacement party ticket. The film has an overall running time of 2 Hours, 40 minutes, with an hour of that time devoted to musical numbers (all songs written by the cast and some of the crew).

This is a broad mosaic of a film, but despite some of the heavy subject matter it is played out in Altman's loose, heavily improvised and mutilayered style. It's one of those movies where you can probably pick up more and more with each viewing, but is also a great sort of hang out film where, kinda like a crowded party, you can just sort of filter in and out of various conversations or moments and still pick up the gist. The film is rather successful at this for the msot part, though it took me a bit to really get inot it. Once I did though, things got really cooking, and I found this to be quite a film that says a lot without really saying or doing too much when you get right down to it.

I'm not going to list all of the 24/5 main actors, but I will say that most do a really good job. I wish they al lwere uniformly great, but hey there's so much going on here that the goods outweigh the bads. I think Lily Tomlin probably stuck out as the best for me though. I used to not pay her much mind, but she's really quite a wonderful actress. I knew she was good, but now I realize she's great.

You don't have to enjoy country, folk, or gospel to like this movie, but it obviously helps if you at least appreciate it. LIke I said, the film is overlong and rambling, but I was engaged for most of it. I think it works better as an experience more tha na proper film, but there's nothing wrong with that. This is a wonderful document that really captures the zeitgeist of the times, and is easily one of the best film of the 70s, which is really saying something given that the 70s was the best decade for cinema. I'm still not quite sure what to make of this movie, but as for right now, I'm quite impressed.

You should really give this one a look. It's a really well done and significant work of art.