Nashville, 11/4/12, Best Original Song 1975
Nashville was directed by Robert Altman, who also directed MASH, Gosford Park, Prairie Home Companion and more. Like many of those movies, this was an ensemble piece, with so many actors and storylines going on, you really need a program (or Wikipedia) to follow along. Watching the movie twenty years later, it was fun to see who was in it then and think about what they are doing today: Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Keith Carradine among others. There was also a certain irony in that it was the week of election day that I watched it, and the connecting theme in the movie was the presidential election of 1976 and unseen candidate, Hal Phillip Walker of the Replacement Party, campaigning through Nashville connects the characters. The characters are all somehow connected to country music, and there are plenty of songs throughout the movie, several written by the actors. There are country star wannabes, new country stars and legendary stars all intertwined with a culminating political event. Some of the characters are quirky, like Geraldine Chaplin’s BBC correspondent who is star struck by anyone touched by fame; the waitress who wants to sing so badly…and she does, she’s horrible, but has no clue; Shelley Duvall’s character…I’m not sure exactly what her role was. And that’s kind of the problem with this movie, and some of Altman’s other films, there is so much going on, it seems that some plots or characters are superfluous and really don’t add anything to the story. At a movie clocking in at over 2 ½ hours, you really don’t need superfluous. I did like the movie and was more interested in certain plots than others (really, why was Shelley Duvall’s character in the movie?), like the fragile country star, Barbara Jean, who seems to have a breakdown every other scene she is in and her rival. I liked the movie, I have enjoyed many of Altman’s films (Gosford Park for one), the ensemble casting and the subtle nuances that show the humanity in the characters, but you may have to watch them more than once (and I have 800 plus films to watch, so I don’t have time). Altman never won an Oscar for directing, and this year he was up against One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but the movie did win for Best Original Song ‘I’m Easy’ written and performed by Keith Carradine (who plays a kind of sleazy folk singer who can’t keep his pants on). It was a good song, but I don’t know how it beat out ‘Theme from Mahogany(Do You Know Where You’re Going to) sung by Diana Ross, which is an awesome song. If you liked Prairie Home Companion (Lily Tomlin is in that, too), MASH or Gosford Park, or if you like country music (circa Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette) this is definitely worth a watch.
