Purely Joyful Movie!

Nice effects though.

The first must-see film of the year.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

My rendezvous with "Nashville" goes back to seven years ago, I could get any movie I wanted but "Nashville" resisted. I needed to see the fifth Best Picture nominee of 1975, this very movie Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael raved about, that topped both Ebert and Siskel's annual top ten, this American Film Institute's Top 100 entry that was a total mystery to me.It took seven years but better late than never… At first, I didn't get what was so brilliant about it but so many story lines and only one viewing? I saw it again. And then, I went like "oh, what the heck", a third time won't hurt. Three times in less than four days, could have been four or five times, as many as the stars in the American flag, that's how good it is. This is one flew over a cuckoo's nest you don't recover from, and the more ordinary people and situations are, the more extraordinary the journey is. Altman should be damned… if he wasn't such a genius.The film spans a period of five days during a country-music festival, coinciding with some populist politician's party rally, this is enough to have a panoramic view across the lives of dozens of characters who, through their considerable differences, reach ever possible dimension of the American spirit of 1975, and in such a way that I guess even a non-American can enjoy it. Well, there's me at least.So, what is "Nashville"? Simply, the Mecca of country music, the reason why everybody came in the first place and were reunited by the end.There are dozens of them but there's no small part in the sense that they're all equally small in the scale of the significance of music, the common thread, the real star. Some sing, some wish they could, some manage or look for singers, some screw or get screwed by them… or just pop up and aimlessly wander, like in real life, no one crosses your path who should necessarily has a significance.I wonder to which extent these fascinating hazards were part of Joan Tewkesbury's script or improvised by the actors… the same way they wrote their own songs.And not any songs, country songs… this is crucial because country music isn't just deeply rooted in American tradition, it is also the most cinematic of all forms of music: it tells stories.I can perhaps tell you the name of four or five country singers but I know a great deal about the way country music affects me, because any song I hear finds a powerful echo in my own memories. It is like this scene from "The Simpsons" where Homer leaves the house after an argument and hears Lurleen Lumpkin singing "Your wife doesn't understand you but I do". You listen to country music because you feel like 'it' has listened to you in the first place.Just compare the upbeat patriotic starting song from Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) "we must have done something right to last 200 years" with the neutral political slogans the loudspeaker keep on hammering all day, which one will reach the hearts first? Compare the obnoxiousness of the character played by Keith Carradine who seemed to have gotten half the female cast on his bed with the melancholic tune of his "I'm Easy" you can't even tell whether he has pride or contempt toward himself, but the gaze of Lilly Tomlin while listening to him says everything.Music is like the only way to arouse genuine emotions, in another powerful scene, a wannabe singer (Glew Welels) of mediocre talent gets booed, she can only indulge to a striptease to provoke the cheers. In another scene, a father doesn't even have the patience to listen to his deaf son's story as if silence was the antithesis of communication, and music its apotheosis.Many people communicate, others don't… some meet, others don't… I remember a girl in high school, we never talked together, never went in the same class, but for some reason, we always met in some place or another. When it became obviously repetitive, we smiled at each other; like a private joke. Just like in "Nashville", the more we meet these people, the more we care for them, as we care for ourselves.Only the New Hollywood period could have made this gem possible, a time where America was still mourning an innocence and where the baby-boomers like today's millennials (count me among them) were cherishing their childhood, a time without the Vietnam War, incarnated by a Wizard-of-Oz-like childhood, Kennedy's dashing smile, the very American Pie Don McLean said bye-bye to.And this end-of-an-era is magnificently captured by the performance of Roney Blakely (Oscar-nominated along with Tolmin) as a fragile and emotionally vulnerable country singer named Barbara Jean. She's a sweet and delicate flower with a ticking bomb of a heart, she faints at her arrival, in her first representation, she interrupts her songs to mumble about her childhood until her husband (Allen Garfield) takes her away, simply overwhelmed, and easily upset like a part of America is.But there's room for every possible identification: capitalists, disillusioned soldiers, drifters, lunatic, has-beens, romantics and losers, this is a microcosm of America, all in characters and emotions, for the sake of laughs, anger, tears, frustration, the spirit of a country in a nutshell and its heart is Barbara Jean, whose "Idaho Home" song awakened again that symptomatic feeling of millennials: being nostalgic over eras we didn't live.And if I could keep one image from these 240 minutes, I'd keep the sight of the American flag gently rippling under the wind while Barbara Jean sings "we were young then, we were together. We could bear floods and fire and bad weather", hell, how can I seriously write a thousand-word review when this image alone speaks for a thousand words.

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....................................................

"Nashville" is simply a stunner! Every time I finish watching I'm left feeling like I just had a true *EXPERIENCE*!!! It's a beautiful, funny, and amazing masterpiece of cinema, and I think it may actually be the greatest film ever made (however, my personal favorite will still always be "Eraserhead")!Throughout "Nashville", there's an amazing spirit to it all! You can tell that it is a very "alive" piece of filmmaking. A lot of it is shot like a documentary with many fascinating cinematic techniques used throughout. I'd really recommend watching the commentary of "Nashville" because, like most Altman films, there are many interesting behind the scenes stories. The way Altman and his crew made this film was very unconventional and original.With over 20 main character this ensemble piece is 160 minutes in length, but not one second of these 160 minutes is dull or boring in any sense of the word! Anyone who is afraid of long movies should watch "Nashville" regardless, because the film is so entertaining it doesn't feel nearly that long. In fact, I wish it was much longer! I managed to care about all of the film's many characters, and their own little stories help form to create one great, big story. A story about a place, it's music, and it's people. The mood of the film ranges from the hilarious and satirical to the emotional and tragic, and Altman captures each emotion with pure perfection. The ending sequence is particularly memorable. I won't spoil anything, but I will tell you that it is one of the most breathtaking conclusions in cinematic history!

What is this movie even about? I'm aware asking such a question is reductive in the face of such a vast and overwhelming cinematic accomplishment. Yet despite its melodious and melancholic emotional core and its initial impact as one of the defining films in a decade full of defining films, I still can't help but think Nashville is not meant to be interpreted. This poses a unique challenge for me as a semi-professional critic. The film is not only best appreciated by an audience that treasures experience over contemplation, emotion over logic, but gazes through the slice-of-life story with a lens trying to make sense of post-Watergate era Americana.The story, if one were to find one, follows the lives of numerous interrelated human-beings. All descend on the city of Nashville, Tennessee and all involved (or want to be involved) in the country music industry. Among the crowded field of primary characters is Haven Hamilton (Gibson) the presumed king of Nashville's music scene who also has political ambitions. There's Del (Beatty) and Linnea Reese (Tomlin) a struggling married couple; one's a lawyer the other a gospel singer. There's Tom Frank (Carradine), a self-absorbed folk-rock musician and Barbara Jean (Blakley), a famous and emotionally fragile country talent. Then there are the musical up- and-comers like Connie White (Black) and Tommy Brown (Brown). There are wannabes like Sueleen (Welles) and Albuquerque (Harris) and sycophants like Opal (Chaplin) and L.A. Joan (Duvall), all looking for absolution in a city that promises good times and possible fame.All the characters that I just listed are but a sample of the characters that drift and cross paths between Nashville's seedy nightclubs, cluttered highways and the pristine Grand Old Opry. But lest you think the narrative is too cluttered, every character has their moment to show the audience who they are and how they're changed by events larger than themselves. Meanwhile director Robert Altman captures the pathos of Nashville's microcosm in confident fashion. Characters make decisions that are at times solemn, desperate, tranquil, kind and despicable yet Altman's even hand and watchful eye looks on with fair-minded kindness and humanity.Many of Altman's detractors object to the directors presumed cynicism towards human nature which arguably interjects in some of the director's most famous works. One can't help but take a cursory look at films like M*A*S*H (1972) and The Player (1992) and wholly agree with such an assessment. Yet after my initial trepidation of consuming all things Altman, that criticism holds less sway. Altman seems to immerse and undermine systems not people. You only need to compare the visual hyperbole of M*A*S*H with the drowning pessimism of Catch-22 (1970) to see Altman doesn't dwell on the "insignificance" of man but rather the folly of social constructs. In M*A*S*H it's war; in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976) it's subjugation of native peoples; in Nashville it's dichotomic politics.In the case of Nashville, not only does Altman attack the binary of American politics in the story (fronted by an unseen pseudo-populist political campaign), he attacks it in how he tells he story as well. The film's narrative can be best described as post-structuralist narrative, that is to say not beholden to an underlying theme or framework. Any attempts to decipher the film would yield a bevy of contradictions that threaten to unravel any theory one can posit. Even if Altman is the director and ultimately the "author" to the film, all the music in the film was written by the actors themselves. The cacophonous sound design was the product of USC wunderkind Jim Webb who miked everyone to allow for a breadth of experience. The editing done by first-time Altman collaborator Dennis Hill gives perspective while restraining a point-of-view. Nashville gives the audience the feeling that no one is at the wheel. Even by approaching the film as a product of Robert Altman's assumed overarching modus aprendi to undermine systems has it's problems.Nashville transcends but not in the way you would expect. It accurately captures the antipathy, the uncertainty and most importantly the humanity of a certain place in time. The film has aged though in the way an autochrome photograph would. Modern audiences can appreciate it as a textured and awe-inspiring cultural accomplishment which dares to challenge film form, story structure and (maybe) the systems which bridles our lives. Without Robert Altman's subtle but indelible contribution to film, there'd be no Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch or Paul Thomas Anderson. Nashville showcases Altman's gentle hand, sharp wit and deep love of humanity which we all benefit from.