Nashville is a chaotic sprawling musical with satire at its heart and sedition not far away written by Joan Tewkesbury and directed by Robert Altman who'd made M.A.S.H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller and The Long Goodbye amongst other films before this.
Weaving between 24 characters including country and western singers Henry Gibson, Ronee Blakely, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, and Karen Black – political movers and groovers Ned Beatty and Michael Murphy, a mysterious motorcycle man – Jeff Goldblum and others – Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duval, Scott Glen and Keenan Wynn. It is distinguished by naturalistic improvised performances, a ground-breaking soundtrack, moving camera and long takes with Altman's distinctive overlapping dialogue plus 27 great songs and a stupendous climax.
It was a great film from a great decade of filmmaking and I saw it only recently terrified that it wouldn't stand up over time, but it's just as wonderful as it ever was. Five stars unhesitatingly, unreservedly and with wild enthusiasm.David's Comments: Altman's finest achievement, and one of the great American films of the '70s. It's vital to see this on the big screen (it looks nothing on TV) where the numerous characters juggle for screen time and you wish the film was an hour longer to accommodate them all. A wonderful satire not only on the music industry but on America itself, funny and painful and sometimes even shocking. Great ensemble performances. To be seen and seen again.
