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NASHVILLE
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars:
Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Geraldine
Chaplin, Barbara Harris, Karen Black, Michael Murphy, Shelley Duvall, Jeff
Goldblum
Director: Robert Altman
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic
Transfer
Studio: Paramount
Features: Audio Commentary,
Interview with Robert Altman, Theatrical Trailer
Length: 160 Minutes
Release Date: August 15, 2000
Film ****
"We wonder what this year's gonna bring," muses the
voice of a country singer, somewhere in the background, but still sounding out a
sentiment most of America was feeling in 1975.
For a decade, it seemed our country was losing more and more of her
innocence. There was the
assassination of Kennedy and other political and social leaders. Then the escalation of the war in Vietnam, and the brewing
conflict it brought about here on the home front. And, of course, the most current dark chapter of the time was
when President Nixon resigned his office in the face of a scandal that would
forever change the way we looked at politics in our country. And out of this climate of chaos and uncertainty came a movie
that both reflected upon and rose above the troubled times:
Robert Altman's masterpiece, Nashville.
What a big, beautiful, glorious, ambitious, funny, touching
and unforgettable film this is! Nashville
is a picture with so much going for it, the very energy and life seems to
break out and spill over the aperture borders and into your heart and mind.
It takes twenty four simple people and makes them each larger than life
in his or her own way, creating what is actually an epic in the body of a more
grass roots style movie.
What Altman has created, in fact, is the ultimate cinematic
balancing act. The film blends
music and politics along with comedy and tragedy.
And if these mixes weren't delicate enough, along comes the multitude
of characters! Each one has a story
and something to say, and somehow serves to comment upon the strange political
environment of the film in one way or another.
How can a director possibly control so many varying, and in some cases,
conflicting elements? The best
analogy I can give is that of a lion tamer walking into a cage where the lions
far outnumber him. If he's
talented and patient enough, and manages never to lose control over any of the
elements surrounding him, it's a breathtaking and spectacular show.
Make one slip, and the results can be very messy indeed.
Let it be clearly stated that what Robert Altman created
with Nashville added a new, fresh, and
soon to be oft-repeated style of filmmaking to the cinema vernacular that would
forever be associated with his name. In
recent years, successful directors like Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas
Anderson have taken this same structure for their foundations, each building
upon it in his own way. There have
been just as many, if not more, failed attempts to mimic this style of
moviemaking. Not even Robert Altman
has always been successful in making a Robert Altman film.
But every imitation, be it good or bad, serves to forever proclaim the
singular, classic greatness of Nashville.
So, what exactly IS Nashville?
A friend of mine from work asked me that very question when I
excitedly delivered the news that I would be reviewing this disc.
I gave him the short answer: "It's
about politics and country music." "Two
things I can't stand," was his reply.
Truth be told, I'm not much into them, either.
But in the film, the music and the politics cleverly play off of one
another: sometimes in unison,
sometimes in conflict. Sometimes
the music ironically reflects the mood of the characters or the action unfolding
before our eyes. Sometimes the
political aspects, which are really the backbone of the film, seem to be almost
an intrusion upon the stories, like a distant voice with SOMETHING important to
say, but where nobody is paying attention anymore.
After a brilliant title sequence that seems to rip off
those old K-Tel record commercials, we are introduced to a politician who is
never seen. His name is Walker, and
most of his presence in the film comes from a gaudily decorated van with booming
loudspeakers, playing recordings of his speeches. Walker is head of the newly formed Replacement Party.
He wants change in this country, starting with removing the lawyers from
Congress ("Have you ever asked a lawyer for the time of day?
He told you how to build a watch, didn't he?") to changing the
national anthem, which is too hard to sing and nobody knows the words to,
anyway.
Walker has invaded Nashville in an attempt to win the
ever-important state of Tennessee. He
seems to be straining to get his message heard over the music that flows
endlessly from the town. Nashville
is not a town with a political agenda, but more like a microcosm of Los Angeles.
Young kids with stars in their eyes get off the bus there day in and day
out, though their dreams are of music, not of movies.
But though some would rather squelch the politics, they remain the center
of the film, and everyone and everything in the story moves in a slow current
toward Walker's big rally at the movie's climax, where foreshadowing has
hinted to us that a major event will unfold.
Each character has his or her measure of importance, and
thankfully, Altman found ways to give each one a moment in the sun, but
instinctively allowing certain moments the time and space to breathe and
develop, rather than feeling an urgent need to cut, cut, cut back and forth.
The story is easy to follow when you watch it, but rather difficult to
describe, as are the complex inter-relations with the characters.
I'll happily leave those for you to discover.
Stylistically, Altman is successful in bringing his
characters together in believable collages.
Take the opening welcome-back rally for the injured Barbara Jean (Blakley).
Most of the people are there for the event--some as fans, as fellow
musicians Tom (Carradine) and Haven (Gibson), some as groupies, like L.A. Joan
(Duvall), and others working on Walker's political agenda, like Reese and
Triplette (Beatty and Murphy). Another
singer, Connie White (Black), shows up not in person, but in poster format!
Later, after a strange and funny automobile ballet, most of these
characters end up in a huge pile-up together on the highway, leading to even
more interaction. Altman also is
the only other major director I can think of apart from Orson Welles who
understood the true nature of dialogue: that
it doesn't start and stop in nice convenient phrases and rhythms.
In Nashville, people talk over
one another incessantly, like they do in real life.
It's a strange cacophony that few filmmakers have dared to experiment
with, and Altman pulls it off masterfully.
The characters, oddly enough, share one common denominator
despite their vastly varied backgrounds: they
are always 'on'. From the
singers who always wear their smiles and their down-home charm on their sleeves
to the loony star struck BBC reporter (Chaplin), who loudly vocalizes composing
a voice over in a junkyard to the images of crashed cars, to the politician's
assistants, always ready with a handshake and a promise.
Some of the stars are so 'on', in fact, they agree to perform at
Walker's rally provided that they NOT be associated with him politically,
without realizing that just by being there, they ARE making a public
association!
The cast of the film not only did their own singing; in
most cases, they also wrote their own songs as well. Henry Gibson, Ronee Blakley, and Karen Black boast the
movie's best voices, and a few well penned songs to boot. Others don't fare quite as well, though that's often the
point. Sueleen Gay (Welles) dreams
of stardom, but she can't sing a note. Yet,
our hearts are with her as she tries and tries again, and manages to keep a
smile on her face amidst the boos, and even when circumstances lead her into the
kind of show she'll probably never write home about.
And Keith Carradine wrote two of the film's best songs, the energetic
gospel tune that ends the film on a desperately positive note, "It Don't
Worry Me", and the Oscar winning "I'm Easy".
The music is important in a film like this, to be sure, and notice how it
can draw a nice laugh with a cheesy lyric like "the pilot light of our love
has flickered out". But note also when Gibson sings "for the sake of the
children, we must say goodbye", and how you can't help but remember that
line later during another emotional scene.
In the end, music, politics, story and characters all
converge at the aforementioned political rally in a way that seems effortless,
yet masterful, and leads to an unforgettable conclusion. One that makes as much a statement about our country's
political climate, interestingly enough, as it does the state of our music
industry: in the face of chaos and
tragedy, there is always someone waiting in the wings, ready to grab an empty
microphone and take a turn at realizing a dream.
Sometimes, in the face of insanity, that's the only sane option
afforded.
Video ***
My main complaint with the video for this disc is not so
much in the transfer, but in the state of the print that was used for it.
It's still mostly good, but has stretches where dirt, debris and
scratches, as well as bits of fading, manifest themselves.
A few darker scenes exhibit these the worst.
But for the most part, the quality is still admirable, with good sharp
images and excellent use of natural and well contained colors.
I noticed no grain or compression artifacts, save for a minor instance or
two of obvious edge enhancements. This
is a long movie, and the complaints I mentioned are quite few and far between.
Overall, a perfectly good, if not reference quality, viewing experience.
Audio ***
The disc boasts a remastered 5.1 soundtrack, and mostly
earns its points from the music. Most
live performances in the film sound like exactly that:
live musical experiences. This
includes using the rear channels for crowd noises and such, plus an extra nice
touch of letting the reverb from the vocals flow from the fronts to the rears,
like a real concert hall (this is duplicated, oddly enough, during one outdoor
musical scene...oh, well). The .1
channel isn't used much, if at all, but this isn't the kind of soundtrack
where you'll miss it. Dialogue is
always clean and clear, spreading mostly across the front stage; even Altman's
legendary multiple voice tracks come across with an impressive amount of
distinction. But the songs are at
the heart of the audio, and they come across nicely--enough said.
Features **1/2
The trailer is a hoot, and if you want a quick rundown of
the 24 main characters, here's your chance--just write FAST if you're
taking notes. It states the picture
is "for movie lovers" and gleefully proclaims it "the damnedest thing you
ever saw!". There is a 12-minute
interview segment with Robert Altman, which is short but informative in regards
to how the film came about and how some of the major players became involved in
it. There is also a commentary
track with Altman, which has some good information, but like most of his
commentary tracks, a bit sparse and full of gaps.
Summary:
Nashville is simply one of the greatest American films ever. It's an unforgettable mixture of humanity, humor, drama, politics and music, set against the south's premier city of dreams and heartache. It is indeed, as the trailer proclaimed, "for movie lovers" and "the damnedest thing you ever saw". It's the perfect title to own on DVD, because it's one you'll want to go back to time and time again.
