Nashville (1975 film)
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| Nashville | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Altman |
| Produced by | Robert Altman |
| Written by | Joan Tewkesbury |
| Starring | Ned Beatty Keith Carradine Geraldine Chaplin Scott Glenn Shelley Duvall |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 11 June 1975 (premiere) |
| Running time | 159 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | USD$2,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Nashville is a 1975 film which mixes themes of U.S. presidential politics with those of the country music and gospel music businesses in Nashville, Tennessee. The large ensemble cast features David Arkin, Barbara Baxley, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Elliott Gould, Barbara Harris, David Hayward, Michael Murphy, Cristina Raines, Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles and Keenan Wynn.
The movie was written by Joan Tewkesbury and directed by Robert Altman. The film features the trademark Altman overlapping dialogue and huge casts. The actors and actresses were required to write and perform their own songs live for the movie, as opposed to the usual "playback" method of performing songs on film. Improvisation was also central to the making of the film. Several storylines are woven together, and by the final half-hour, they all coalesce in the final sequence at Nashville's Parthenon.
The film won an Oscar for Best Original Song (Keith Carradine for "I'm Easy"), and was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress (Ronee Blakley and Lily Tomlin), Best Director and Best Picture categories. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Carradine performed "I'm Easy" at the famed (and, as of 2005, still-extant) performance venue the "Exit/In". Most significant for the film itself, however, is its theme piece, heard sporadically throughout, and then brought to a climax at the end: "It Don't Worry Me", the refrain of which is clearly the unifying theme of the movie itself: "It don't worry me, it don't worry me. You may say that I ain't free, but it don't worry me."
Many of the characters in the film are based on real country music figures: Henry Gibson's Haven Hamilton is a composite of Roy Acuff, Hank Snow and Porter Wagoner; Ronee Blakely's Barbara Jean is based on Loretta Lynn; the black country singer Tommy Brown (played by Timothy Brown) is based on Charley Pride; and the feuding folk trio is based on Peter, Paul and Mary. Keith Carradine's character is believed to be inspired by Kris Kristofferson and Karen Black's Connie strongly resembles Lynn Anderson. The 1992 presidential campaign of H. Ross Perot was felt by many to be eerily similar to the campaign of the "Replacement Party" and its candidate in this film, Hal Phillip Walker, the fictional candidate even having a voice remarkably similar to that of Perot's. Likewise, the shooting of Barbara Jean by a deranged loner seemed to have foreshadowed the murder of John Lennon in 1980.
The movie was widely despised by the mainstream country-music community at the time, believing it was ridiculing their talent and sincerity. Since then, however, the songs (most of them composed by the film's actors themselves) have achieved a certain popularity in alternative-country circles, well away from the world of the music establishment. In 2002, a CD "Tribute to Robert Altman's Nashville" was released, featuring new interpretations of the movie's songs by the likes of such respected country figures as Carolyn Mark, Kelly Hogan, and Neko Case.
Altman had enough footage to produce a four-hour film, and he considered creating an expanded version of "Nashville" to be broadcast on ABC in two parts, "Nashville Red" and "Nashville Blue." Plans for the project were scrapped, and the additional footage has not been made available on DVD releases.
Plans were discussed for a sequel to "Nashville," set twelve years later and titled "Nashville 12," and most of the original players agreed to appear. In the script for the sequel, Lily Tomlin's character, Linnea, is running for political office.
