Review of Nashville (1975) by Alvin Y — 30 Aug 2012

Nashville, Great Movies.

Somewhere between *This Is Spinal Tap* and *Crash* is a little movie about the American people, American politics, and the American capital of country music. *Nashville*? is not a film that will likely appeal to everyone. It is over two and a half hours long with over an hour of country music numbers and a cast featuring 24 lead roles, so before watching this, I get to really start to pay close attention to all of the characters. The film is chaotic and muffled and difficult to follow. It's difficult to explain just how this movie works. It's a portrait of various people (mostly musicians) in all walks of life. The anchor of the film is the primary bicentennial election. A political rally for "Replacement Party" candidate Hal Philip Walker is about to be held at Nashville's replica Parthenon. A van travels around the city blasting his speeches about what's wrong with the government. His views, for the most part, are right on the dot, but we see through his representatives and spokespersons that he is just as brutal as corrupt as any politician. We never actually see Mr. Walker, or find out much about his politics, past his views on the smells of Christmas. From Director Robert Altman, best known for Korean War comedy M*A*S*H, does a superb job combining Hollywood craftsmanship with an independent edge. Nashville is highly stylized while brutally honest. The music is more than just a backdrop to the plot, it is part of the plot. For example, there is a scene in which Keith Carradine performs a song called "I'm Easy" in a bar. He says he wrote it for someone who just might be here tonight. Four different girls in the audience beam with the knowledge he wrote it for her. Keith Carradine's character is the most obvious example of a sexist in the picture, but sexism is one of the resounding motifs throughout the film. It explores the subtlety of the concept. Women in the film are appreciated for their looks or their talent but never for themselves. Such is the case during a scene when singer Barbara Jean (Ronnie Blakley) is in a hospital bed after collapsing. Half a dozen of her closest friends come in, talk to each other for about 3 minutes, then leave. Later her husband/manager tells her, "Don't tell me how to run your life." She realizes her only friends are her fans so during her next concert she compulsively makes small talk when she should be singing.

The film is basically a great opening, and an astounding ending, and tons of filler in between, but that filler is some of the most interesting film-making ever seen. This film provides no clear answers because that would just be more politics. And Yes once again the best film of 1975 along with films like *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*?, *Jaws*?, and *Barry Lyndon*? and one of the best and influential films of the 1970's about American life and the American culture that there is even though it is not set in Nashville.