World Cinema: Films -- Nashville (1975)

"The funniest epic vision of America
ever to reach the screen."
—Pauline Kael

Nashville (1975)

Paramount.
Colour, 159 minutes.

Altman's country music epic, intertwining the lives and longings and loneliness of its twenty-four protagonists with exquisite free-form grace, can be faulted for trying to bring everything together at the end with an assassination making an arbitrarily resounding statement about showbiz and politics. Forget this and the film is a wonderful mosaic which yields up greater riches with each successive viewings, not least in the underrated songs, the superlative performances, and the open-mindedness of Altman's approach to direction. Immensely, exhilaratingly enjoyable.

—Tom Milne

American publicity poster
for Nashville

Robert Altman

Direction: Robert Altman.

Screenplay: Joan Tewkesbury.

Photography: Paul Lohmann.

Editing: Sid Levin, Dennis Hill.

Musical direction: Richard Baskin.

David Arkin.....................................Norman

Barbara Baxley...........................Lady Pearl

Ned Beatty............................Delbert Reese

Karen Black............................Connie White

Ronee Blakley.........................Barbara Jean

Timothy Brown.......................Tommy Brown

Keith Carradine...........................Tom Frank

Geraldine Chaplin................................Opal

Robert Doqui.....................................Wade

Shelley Duvall..............................L.A. Joan

Allen Garfield...................................Barnett

Henry Gibson......................Haven Hamilton

Scott Glenn.........................Pfc. Glenn Kelly

Jeff Goldblum............................Tricycle Man

Barbara Harris...........................Albuquerque

David Hayward.........................Kenny Fraiser

Michael Murphy.......................John Triplette

Allan Nicholls..........................................Bill

Dave Peel................................Bud Hamilton

Cristina Raines......................................Mary

Bert Remsen..........................................Star

Lily Tomlin...............................Linnea Reese

Gwen Welles.............................Sueleen Gay

Keenan Wynn................................Mr. Green

The cast of Nashville

""The feeling of real time and space stretching to contain the actions of so many people, without moralizing, is both beautiful and demanding....there are countless moments of felt but uncaptioned human interaction that few American films have been wayward enough to notice. The mosaic, or the mix, permits a freedom and a human idiosyncrasy that Renoir might have admired."

—David Thomson

"Altman's finest makes Ready to Wear look shabby"
by Geoff Pevere

Boxoffice Magazine review
Internet Movie Database
Mr. Showbiz Movie Guide