Nashville (1975)

Nashville (1975), directed by Robert Altman.

Thirty-five years later I've finally seen Nashville. I must not be an Altman fan.

It's a chore to get through, obviously made by people with little love for Nashville, country music or flyover country in general. To be fair, the contingent from California (Shelley Duvall) and Britain (Geraldine Chaplin) don't fare very well either.

Dozens of characters, most with fragmentary and unresolved story lines. Choppy editing with lots of bits that don't contribute anything. Now and then a song rises above the clownish and some of the background musicians take their work seriously.

A few threads are good:

In a bitterly comic scene, when Keith Carradine sings his big song (I'm Easy) several women in the audience think it is for them. Lily Tomlin is the one he's after that night and it works for him.

Casting Tomlin and Henry Gibson was pretty bold given the years they had spent on the pitiful Laugh-In series.

IMDB: 7.8. Rotten Tomatoes: 95% (Top Critics: 100%). Huge number of nominations and awards. People say it grows on you with repeated viewings.

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