America is a mosaic of different people, different ideologies, different hopes, and different dreams. Attempting to capture these essential American attributes in one film is bold; successfully capturing the quintessence of America in a film is masterful. Robert Altman's 1975 film, Nashville, encapsulates the pent-up feelings and weight of what it means to be an American with a pastoral lens that focuses in on the country's sub-conscious.
The film takes place in a post-Vietnam, post-Watergate world, where American idealism is not nearly as shiny as it once was; the dreams of fame and political righteousness may be more than what we bargained for. If you're looking for a plot description, you aren't going to find it. The film takes place over five days and follows over 24 characters ranging from, singers, journalists, fame seeking waitresses, politicians, veterans, and even Elliott Gould. Nashville weaves through the lives of these characters, giving you insight into their lives and the darkness that bubbles underneath. The thread that connects these characters is the campaign for presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker and the Tennessee primary which looms over the town. Well, that and the music of Nashville.
The film, its naturalistic acting, and the seemingly improvised script are clear influences on such current film luminaries like Paul Thomas Anderson, Richard Linklater, and Quentin Tarantino. At points the film almost feels like a D.A Pennebaker documentary on music in Nashville. It is hard to believe an actual script was ever written. The rawness of the dialogue can be attributed to writer Joan Tewkesbury, who was asked by Robert Altman to go down to Nashville for a while with a diary before she wrote the script. According to Altman, much of the film's scenes come from the notes in that diary.
Nashville is the type of film that you could watch 100 times and still get something new out of it the 101st viewing. Please join Boston Public Radio next Thursday for our Cinema Classic Challenge with film critic Garen Daly, and tell us if you think Nashville has stood the test of time.
