"Nashville" (9/10)

[notchreturns]

Nashville 1975
Directed By: Robert Altman
Written By: Joan Tewkesbury
Starring: Keith Carradine, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Henry Gibson, Karen Black, Geraldine Chaplin, Ronee Blakley, Shelly Duvall, Scott Glenn and Jeff Goldblum
Rated R 159 Minutes

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6305918708.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


Robert Altman has made a career out of getting together huge casts and telling their stories.With "Nashville" Altman might have created his best story."Nashville" is certainly not for everyone.It's long, has an insane amount of characters to follow and has many musical moments involved with it.But if this is your type of film you will surely be pleased in the end.It's mixes satire, comedy and human drama with the best of them.


"Nashville" tells the intersecting stories of various people connected in the muscic buisness, twenty-four to be percise.Barbara Jean(Ronee Blakley) is the reinging queen of Nashville, but is near collaplse.Linnea(Lily Tomlin) and Delbert(Ned Beatty) Reese have a shaky marriage and a handicapped child.Opal(Geraldine Chaplin) is a british journalist touring the area.Tom Frank(Keith Carridine) is a young, reckless country star who looks for a "date" whenever he can.These and other stories come together in a dramtic climax.Although Nashville may look like a film about the music industry, deep down it is a profound and honest statement of the 70's and where the world is heading.Nashville was a important film for it's time and it still should be looked upon a lesson for all of America to see.This Robert Altman classic has drawn many comparisons to such films as "Magnolia" and "Boogie Nights".There stories and structure are similar and in the end, there is hell to pay for all.If you are a fan of any of these films it should be your duty to go out and rent Nashville, in my eyes an American classic.

Acting
An excellent ensemble cast.Lily Tomlin, who was oscar nominated, I believe gives the best performance.She gives much heart and character to a mother and performer.The rest of the cast is equally good.Keith Carradine, Ned Beatty, Henry Gibson and Karen Black are all good in their roles.

Writing
It's hard to explain, but when you see a film that is able to blend a huge amount of characters and stories and it does it so fluidly you know you have a great script.Their a lovable, mean-spirted, odd and slefish characters to boot.

Directing
A brillant job.Certainly one of the ten best of the 70's.His use of overlapping dialouge(his trademark) and by encouraging improvisation by his actor, Altman creates a perfect blend of humor and drama.The story is so well told and blended, going through each characters trials and tribulations it's as if your watching a tennis match where play doesn't stop.It just goes back and forth with relitive ease.

Overall
A great piece of American life.A true mosiac of a film.Nashville blends artful direction, superb performances and a real, touching script like no other.A true experience from the funny opening scene to the chaotic, dramtic climax.

"Nashville" - 9/10 or ****

[Fergus]

Nashville has got to be one of the best movies I have ever seen, it is a shame that it gets little recognition today than it should.

I look at the film as a brilliantly constructed "mosaic" of life at that time and period in the 70's. I didn't realize it until the end that the script and Altman was giving a character to each and every different type of person present, in Nashville at the time. What makes it so amazing is how he nearly makes all 24 characters round and sympathetic. You never get the sense that this is a Hollywoodization of the times, but this is REALISTIC. Altman directs it in a free form style, nearly a psuedo-documentary style, which give it its realism. I've said this before, but Altman has a way of capturing the action on film, but never fully immersing us (the audience) in the action. Each character is given enough screentime. Some more than others, but there is no possible way to get all the characters in with the same amount of screentime, I don't think it could've worked as good.

I know the film's name IS Nashville, but I didn't expect there to be that much music in it. I mean, there was a lot of music. Not that it was bad; I must admit, I liked it. I do believe that Keith Carradine's song "I'm Easy" was my favorite of them all, and it won an oscar, so I don't think that I'm alone on this. Ronee Blakely had some good numbers, and she is quite a talented singer (unless someone dubbed her voice behind my back and forgot to mention it to me). Even though I never experienced that time and place, I got a sense of the experience. And you think that for a film like this, that there wouldn't be a decent wrap-up because you know, life goes on. But I found the ending to be surprisingly powerful, and it made sense with the rest of the film, and represented the human beings that we are. One of the all time great movies, and in my opinion, Altman's best. He is a master of his art.

5 stars or a 10