Review of Nashville (1975) by Michael C — 24 Mar 2009

I know Robert Altman is considered one of our legendary American directors, but in general he doesn't wow me that much. This film, often regarded as his masterpiece, truly bored me and oddly enough, as little as I care about the country music genre the music performances were what I enjoyed most about the film.

I get that the constant scenes of characters talking over one another in a naturalistic, overlapping manner is meant to create a sense of realism to the scene, but it doesn't make for pleasant viewing and sound.

Watching an Altman film often feels like trying to hear someone clearly over tons of people screaming at a noisy, crowded night club. This is made even more frustrating by the fact that in the rare moments where characters are is isolated by themselves and given opportunities to perform without this aural distraction, some very compelling performances can arise and some of these truly human moments have the power to stick with you.

And the fact that Altman's technical style of filming shows he has skill; there are some zoom outs in this film that really seem to make the more beautiful and pitch-perfect songs come to life. The film certainly have points that are a delight to see as the viewer, but unlike Altman's older and better film MASH they are spread much too far apart.

The shocking ending does give it a little bit of a ratings boost, but.