Nashville (1975)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writer:

Joan Tewkesbury (written by)

Release Date:

21 September 1975 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Tagline:

Wild. Wonderful. Sinful. Laughing. Explosive.

Plot:

Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated individuals prepare for a political convention as secrets and lies are surfaced and revealed.

Plot Keywords:

Nashville | Reporter | Candidate | Assassination | Country Music

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 20 wins & 23 nominations

Cast

David Arkin	...	Norman
Barbara Baxley	...	Lady Pearl
Ned Beatty	...	Delbert Reese
Karen Black	...	Connie White
Ronee Blakley	...	Barbara Jean
Timothy Brown	...	Tommy Brown
Keith Carradine	...	Tom Frank
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Opal
Robert DoQui	...	Wade (as Robert Doqui)
Shelley Duvall	...	L. A. Joan
Allen Garfield	...	Barnett
Henry Gibson	...	Haven Hamilton
Scott Glenn	...	Pfc. Glenn Kelly
Jeff Goldblum	...	Tricycle Man
Barbara Harris	...	Albuquerque

Runtime:

159 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (magnetic prints)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:12 | West Germany:12 | UK:AA (original rating) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Company:

ABC Entertainment

Trivia:

After seeing the first footage of her work in the traffic jam scene, Barbara Harris reportedly ran out of the projection room, went home, and asked Robert Altman to meet with her immediately. Unhappy with her performance, Harris offered to put up her own money to have the scene re-shot. Altman told her no.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Mercedes bus (model O 309) breaks the gate-arm at the Nashville Airport (21:00 in), there is clear right-front damage, the bumper is bent, headlight broken, and there is no sign on the right side of the bus. But, at the freeway accident scene (22:12 in; on I-24 near Shelby Avenue), the passengers act like the damage just happened (saying: "Oh no." And looking at the damage), and now there is a sign on the right side that reads: "Connie White" and has her image.

Quotes:

Barbara Jean: [she finishes singing a song at her concert] Thank you. I wanna tell you all a little secret which you might not know, and that is that last night I thanked my lucky stars that I could be here at all to sing for ya. I heard on the radio this little boy, nine years old. Sometimes a deejay'll play a tune and ask everybody to phone in and say how they like it...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Outrageous! (1977)

Soundtrack:

Rose's Cafe

Altman's Masterpiece: "The Damnedest Thing You Ever Saw"

Robert Altman is an extremely divisive director in the sense that you either "get it" or you don't--and those who don't despise his work and take considerable pleasure in sneering at NASHVILLE in particular. But there is no way around the fact that it is an important film, a highly influential film, to most Altman fans his finest films, and to most series critics quite possibly the single finest film made during the whole of the 1970s.

According to the movie trailer available on the DVD release, NASHVILLE is "the damnedest thing you ever saw"--and a truer thing was never said, for it is one of those rare film that completely defies description. On one level, the film follows the lives of some twenty characters over the course of several days leading up to a political rally, lives that collide or don't collide, that have moments of success and failure, and which in the process explore the hypocrisy that we try to sweep away under the rug of American culture. If it were merely that, the film would be so much soap-opera, but it goes quite a bit further: it juxtaposes its observations with images of American patriotism and politics at their most vulgar, and in the process it makes an incredibly funny, incredibly sad, and remarkably savage statement on the superficial values that plague our society.

What most viewers find difficult about NASHVILLE--and about many Altman films--is his refusal to direct our attention within any single scene. Conversations and plot directions overlap with each other, and so much goes on in every scene that you are constantly forced to decide what you will pay attention to and what you will ignore. The result is a film that goes in a hundred different directions with a thousand different meanings, and it would be safe to say that every person who sees it will see a different film.

In the end, however, all these roads lead to Rome, or in this case to the Roman coliseum of American politics, where fame is gained or lost in the wake of violence, where the strong consume the weak without any real personal malice, and where the current political star is only as good as press agent's presentation. For those willing and able to dive into the complex web of life it presents, Altman's masterpiece will be an endlessly fascinating mirror in which we see the energy of life itself scattered, gathered, and reflected back to us. A masterpiece that bears repeated viewings much in the same way that a great novel bears repeated readings. A personal favorite and highly, highly recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer