I always hate it when a film, that is regarded as a classic by many, bugs me, for whatever reason. I feel that I’m missing something, or that I am completely clueless -- or perhaps I’m just smarter than everybody else! Well, probably not......

The “classic” in question is Nashville, one of Robert Altman’s numerous films from the 1970’s that was praised by many critics even while audiences apparently stayed away. The film is admirable in many ways, and it’s quite amazing to see what a major studio would actually attempt to release back in those good old days, but, like I said, something about this movie just bugs me........

Nashville the movie takes place, naturally, in Nashville the town; the country music capital of the world. The events of the movie take place over a few days, and follow at least 24 characters as they either seek fame or are already famous. The film is tied together by both the American Centennial and a presidential campaign for the “Replacement Party” candidate; we see the campaign van driving around town, and hear recorded messages from the candidate. The messages sound, to me, like wishful thinking, mixed in with some appeals to antigovernment kooks and populist sentiments -- included is the idea that Congress is run by lawyers (some laughable anti-lawyer statements here -- “You ask a lawyer how to get to Mr. Jones’ place; you got lost, didn’t you?”, etc.), and how nobody understands the lyrics to the national anthem, and should be changed.

There are too many characters to discuss in depth here, but I will say that the huge cast involves people such as Ned Beatty, Lily Tomlin, Karen Black, Micheal Murphy, Gereldine Chaplin, Shelly Duvall, Keenan Wynn, Ronee Blakley, Jeff Goldblum, Alan Garfield, and many others. Not all of the characters have equal screen time, or equal impact; characters such as Blakley’s (who plays Barbara Jean, a famous country star who suffers from a breakdown, among other things) have some show-stopping scenes, while a character like Goldblum’s (who plays some weird guy with funny glasses, a bike that looks as if it were stolen from the Easy Rider set, and card tricks, who just passes through a number of scenes, and who doesn’t have a word of dialogue) wanders into a few scenes, does one’s thing, and goes off again, adding to the local color but little else.

There is a lot of music in this movie. Interestingly enough, most of the music was written by the cast members, including Keith Carradine, who wrote (and, in this film, performs) the Oscar-winning song “I’m Easy”. The funny thing is that most of these songs are good, or are at least interesting; they sound very much like old-fashioned country music of the 1970’s. None of the songs are “brilliant” this is a realistic movie, not a concert film, but that realism makes us feel as if we really are looking at the Nashville music scene, and not a recreation of it. I liked Ronee Blakley’s songs; there’s something about her voice in a number of passages that intrigues me, not in an emotional way, but in an aesthetic way. Henry Gibson’s song at the beginning suits his character; the song is an arrogant, patriotic song, and the man is an arrogant, egotistical little man, whose gentlemanly manners have a whiff of phoniness.

The only songs that are truly bad are the ones performed by Gwen Welles, but they are “supposed” to be bad; Welles plays a woman who desperately wants to become a country singer, but who would be a strong contender for the rejection portion of American Idol. Her voice is horribly nasal, and her song lyrics have that sort of bland raunchiness that is utterly lacking in any real emotion or insight (of course, the voice, and her performing style, don’t help much).

Nashville is quite possibly the zenith when it comes to “plotless” movies. While I am of the notion that every piece of art attempts at the very least to tell us something, even if it does so in a fashion that doesn’t fit the common folk’s notion of “storytelling” or “plot”, I can understand why some people will be quite put off by Altman’s movie. The movie rarely kicks in, because we keep switching back and forth, and there’s too many things going on. We can’t get involved in most of the plot lines, because we don’t stick with them for a long enough time, so, with a few exceptions, we don’t get involved in their little dramas. People are seen in glimpses, in snatches, in snippets, and while some of them are either good, truthful, real, or all of the above, they don’t all add up to a full-bodied, compelling drama. Or maybe I’m just mentally lazy.

The exceptions, however, are quite strong. The best scene in the entire movie involves Barbara Jean, the big country starlet, slowly cracking up on stage (as the movie begins, she returns to Nashville after a stint in rehab). After singing two songs, she lets her mind wander, telling the audience pointless stories about her childhood, while frustrating her band, which is just wanting to start the next tune. The entire scene gives me that discomfort and embarrassment that I can get when I witness something that is, well, discomforting and embarrassing.

Another scene that is equally cringe-worthy is when Welle’s character finds out to her horror that the old men at the political fundraiser in which she is invited to perform don’t want to hear her atrocious singing but want to see her strip. She ends up doing so, only on Micheal Murphy’s promise that she’ll get to sing with Barbara Jean at the Centennial. She strips, but her expression and demeanor straddles the line between disinterest and utter contempt, or perhaps she isn’t any good at stripping either. Certainly, there’s nothing sexy about this striptease, and there shouldn’t be either, as she’s being completely exploited; there’s no chance in hell that she’d ever sing with a famous singer.

As well, the ending is quite shocking, but I won’t reveal it, of course

Nashville is admirable in many ways; the whole idea of throwing dozens of characters into a relatively small space, and letting them do their thing, sounds promising. The fact that all of these characters cross each other’s paths, even while living their own individual lives is far more true than telling stories that are distinctively separate from each other. In real life, every person has their own story, while at the same time, are a part of the story of everybody that that person has ever encountered, and, at the very least, Nashville attempts to portray this reality on film.

Such an undertaking can work. Why, Altman himself has done it many times, from M*A*S*H onward. One of my favorite movies is Short Cuts, from 1993, which also contains about 25 central characters, but is far more entertaining and easier to follow. The reason for this may be because it is based on a number of Raymond Carver short stories, so there was more of a story structure to begin with. Nevertheless, the movie’s structure is much like Nashville; every character, or group of characters, has their own story, yet each story is affected by events and characters from any one (or more) of the other stories. Short Cuts is the better film, however, because the overall project feels tighter, while Nashville feels random, like a very loosely structured documentary, which may be the point, but didn’t get to me nearly as much as the later film did. It’s not so much that I couldn’t follow Nashville; I “got” most of the characters and events -- I just uncontrollably resisted to the randomness of Altman’s style, here. Oh well!

I’ve heard rumors that Altman had planned on making a mini-series out of this material for ABC (who bankrolled the project), and had more than nine hours in the can. I actually think that might have made a better movie. There probably would have been a lot more info about the characters; more that would have made us care about them. In this final form, there are many characters that we can barely connect to, because they literally are just passing by.

So while there are many good points about this film, and Altman’s effort must be commended, Nashville is far from a favorite of mine, despite the good press. I’m not too disappointed, however, as Altman has done good work in his career, and even this effort is more daring than most Hollywood features would ever try to be. My best bet, however, would be Short Cuts. But that’s just me.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above