Nashville

Review Title

Nashville is considered to be the quintessential Robert Altman film, and now having seen it, I can’t really argue with that. Nashville is a nearly three hour film, filled with a primary cast of about twenty-four characters, that focuses on a period of about twenty-four hours in Nashville, TN. Many of the characters are country singers, some famous, some not so famous, some are involved in politics and some are just regular folks. A film about music succeeds not only on the quality of the actors performances, but also the quality of the music, and the music in Nashville (most of which was written by the actors for their characters) is very good. Of course, that assumes you like or can appreciate country music, and if you can’t you’d be best to stay away from Nashville, as it’s filled with it. Altman somehow manages to juggle all the characters, all the performances and the story demands. At times it’s very successful, at times not as much, but the film is certainly an experience, and by the time it reaches it’s shocking conclusion, it’s hard to not be at the very least impressed with what Altman and company have pulled off.