Although this film was part of my blind spot series of 2015, I didn’t get around to sharing my opinion about it. I chose this because a colleague of mine advised it and many reviews praised the film. I didn’t know any of Robert Altman’s work, so I was interested to check out his style.
Nashville is a film that is just hard to describe because it doesn’t really have a story. Over several days, a large group of characters is followed during several performances in Nashville, against the backdrop of a presidential campaign. The bulk of these characters have something to do with the local “music scene” of country singers. You’ll see how a famous singer is forced to rest a few days, how a waitress is trying to make it as a singer and how certain secrets are become known by others amongst other things.
Nashville is clearly not a film for me. First, I had couldn’t stand the music in this film and when music performances are an extremely large part of the total running time, then it quickly becomes a drag to watch. Because of that I cared less about the characters and the small parts of people’s lives you see seem to have little connection with the rest of the film. Towards the end you see connections and actually I think a second watch would make the movie more interesting, but I’ve decided I’ll just stick to watching it once.
I have not seen the film. I do like country & western but as it was in the 60’s and before. There is a Tee Vee series called Nashville however; I do not like most of the songs. The C & W music of Patsy Kline & that category is what I like best. Those are the songs that you could listen to and afterwards you could at least remember the melody.
Yeah, I know of that show, but have never seen that.
Sorry you didn’t take to this movie. I’m not a fan of country music either but I think Nashville is an excellent picture and it’s one of my favorite Altman films.
Maybe his style is not for everyone then?
This was one of the first films I watched on my original blogging project. I was revisiting it 30 years later and i discovered why it had been 30 years since I saw it. Not a pleasant experience.
So I’m not the only one who didn’t like it much
Wow, this is your first Altman film?
I would’ve recommended McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Player as better introductions though I do love this one.
Yeah, pretty unbelievable isn’t it…even after all these years blogging. Will check out The Player as I’m not too keen on westerns. Thanks!