Nashville (1975)

Nashville is Robert Altman's triumph. One of the most complex pictures made in recent times, it sprawls over two and one-half hours and never flags as it successfully introduces and exposes 24 different characters so wonderfully that we never have the feeling we're watching a Tin Pan Valley soap opera, which, of course, it is. Altman cuts back and forth between the characters, but with such aplomb that the audience never loses track of the narrative, which all takes place on one climactic weekend in the Country Music Capital of America. The music is more a part of Nashville than it is in most films, and even if you do not cotton to country sounds, you'll still enjoy this.

Synopsis: A huge music festival is taking place in Nashville, and at the same time a political rally is slated to promote the candidacy of the never-seen presidential hopeful Hal Phillip Walker, who leads a new entity known as the Replacement Party. Although Walker's politics are not deeply plumbed, he sounds vaguely like George Wallace did when he was running on his third-party ticket. Walker's aides, John Triplette (Michael Murphy) and Delbert Reese (Ned Beatty) know what kind of people the candidate appeals to, and they prevail upon several of the top country music singers to help their cause. The singers Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson), playing a veteran performer who appears to be patterned after Hank Snow, is the gray eminence whom most of the younger performers venerate. Despite his down-home smile as he sings, Haven is a mean, rotten, self-serving man who would sell his mother for a gold record. Also in the top echelon is Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley), a nervous young folk singer who has just recovered from a mental breakdown and is teetering on the edge of another. The festival has attracted singers from all over the country, each hoping to have a moment in the sun, be discovered, and take a place in the pantheon of pickin' and grinnin'. Tom Frank (Keith Carradine) is one of a trio of folk singers. He's nothing more than skin stretched over lechery and is currently sleeping with the wife Mary (Cristina Raines) of his partner Bill (Allan Nicholls). That doesn't stop him from spreading his favors with Delbert's wife Linnea Calvert (Lily Tomlin) and a BBC correspondent Opal (Geraldine Chaplin) who is covering the festival for the listeners in the British Isles.

Barbara Jean's first concert is a flop because she can't handle appearing in front of a crowd after such a long layoff. Her husband-manager Goorwitz (Allen Garfield) tells the annoyed assemblage that she will give them all a free concert in a couple of days to make up for this one. Barbara Jean's character seems to have been based on the life of Loretta Lynn. Delbert comes to Barbara Jean and Goorwitz and asks her to appear for Walker at the rally, and she agrees. Delbert and John stage a small fundraising stag party and hire waitress Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles) to sing. She has a great figure but a voice that only flirts with the melody she attempts, so when her performance becomes embarrassing, the men at the party scream for her to "take it off." When Delbert tells her he'll let her sing at the rally, she does just that—thereby giving the movie an "R" rating for the brief look at her breasts. (Note: The leering men at the stag were actually played by some members of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce who were totally convincing.) After she finishes, Delbert vainly attempts to bed Sueleen.

On the day of the rally, Kenny Fraiser (David Hayward), whom we've seen flit in and out of the film carrying a violin case, comes to the stage and shoots Haven and Barbara Jean after they give show-stopping performances. Barbara Jean is carried off by medical aides, and unknown Albuquerque (Barbara Harris), who's been waiting patiently to get her break, races to the microphone and sings to calm down the crowd while Sueleen stands in the wings for the chance that will not be given.

That's the basic plot, but the other characters involved are all worth a mention. Connie White (Karen Black) is one of those second-line singers who open for Johnny Cash; she has never had a record that went higher than number 32 on the country-western charts. Lady Pearl (Barbara Baxley) is impressive as the bar owner who is cynical until she lets her hair down and talks of her love for the slain Kennedys. Mr. Green (Keenan Wynn) and LA Joan (Shelley Duvall) appear briefly, but tellingly, as a rich southerner and his groupie girlfriend. Tommy Brown (Timothy Brown) (playing a character not unlike Charlie Pride) is the black singer who has crossed over to become a success in the white world. Pfc. Glenn Kelly (Scott Glenn) is the faithful puppy dog serviceman who is entranced by Barbara Jean, Tricycle Man (Jeff Goldblum) is the local hippie, Norman, Chauffeur (David Arkin) is a chauffeur who has seen it all, and Bud Hamilton (David Peel) is Haven's son, a boy who does whatever his father asks and hates every minute of it. On top of all that, (Elliott Gould) and (Julie Christie) appear in cameos as themselves, two movie stars tub-thumping a new project.

Critique: It isn't easy to single out performances because every actor has his or her moment to strut on stage, and each one scores. Although apparently a melange of sights and sounds, everything miraculously comes together at the conclusion, and we sit at the finale, limp from having been pushed, dragged, uplifted, and wrung out by Altman's direction and Joan Tewkesbury's script (although she and Altman were quite willing to allow the actors to alter the script if they could improve it, and the actors spent a great deal of time improvising on her theme, contributing much of the dialogue). If we had to pick out the film's brightest stars, they'd be Barbara Harris, as a quirky tyro; Allen Garfield as the greedy, grasping husband of Ronee Blakley; Lily Tomlin as Ned Beatty's wife, in a carefully controlled dramatic performance; and, most of all, Henry Gibson, as the man who holds it all together. Gibson's career soared when he created the meek poet character that put him on TV's "Laugh-In," but he is an actor of enormous range and does a wonderful job here. Susan Anspach was supposed to be in the film, but because of some trouble about her contract Altman decided instead to hire Blakley, Anspach's vocal coach.,

Amazingly, this movie was shot for about $2 million in less than 45 days. To do that, all the stars accepted a clause that they would receive the same amount of money for their roles. With no economic jealousy, they worked closely with each other and, when not called before the cameras, spent their off-hours honing their scenes and getting prepared for the snappy shooting schedule. Made on location in Nashville, the final concert scenes used many cameras and were shot in one day. On the final morning of shooting a rainstorm moved over the area, but legend has it that Altman stepped outside, looked up at the gray skies, and shouted "Stop!" and it did. This was an ambitious project, a bold idea, and a perfect realization of Altman's dream.

Awards: Carradine's tune, "I'm Easy," won an Oscar, and the movie, Altman, Tomlin, and Blakley were nominated as well, but the Academy must have had a hard time deciding who was a leading performer and who was a supporter in a movie in which everyone was a star who supported the others. Music The film includes some fine songs, many of which were written by the actors themselves. Composer Richard Baskin teamed with several to do the bulk of the material. Songs include "Two Hundred Years," "Keep A' Goin'" (Richard Baskin, Henry Gibson), "One, I Love You," "Let Me Be the One" (Baskin), "The Day I Looked Jesus in the Eye" (Baskin, Robert Altman), "For the Sake of the Children" (Baskin, Richard Reicheg), "I Never Get Enough" (Baskin, Ben Raleigh), "It Don't Worry Me," "I'm Easy," "Honey" (Keith Carradine), "Down to the River," "Tapedeck in His Tractor (the Cowboy Song)," "Bluebird," "My Idaho Home," "Dues" (Ronee Blakley), "Sing a Song" (Joe Raposo), "The Heart of a Gentle Woman" (David Peel), "Rose's Cafe" (Allan Nicholls), "Old Man Mississippi" (Juan Grizzle), "Since You've Gone" (Gary Busey), "Trouble in the USA" (Arlene Barnett), "My Baby's Cookin' in Another Man's Pan" (Jonnie Barnett), "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (traditional, arranged by Millie Clements), "Yes, I Do" (Baskin, Lily Tomlin), "Memphis," "I Don't Know If I Found It in You," and "Rolling Stone" (Karen Black). Jonnie Barnett, Sue Barton, Vassar Clements and the Misty Mountain Boys also appeared as themselves.

PERFORMER, CHARACTER

David Arkin, Norman Chauffeur

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, LA

Henry Gibson, Haven Hamilton

Scott Glenn, Pfc. Glenn Kelly

Jeff Goldblum, Tricycle Man

Barbara Harris, Albuquerque

David Hayward, Kenny Fraiser

Michael Murphy, John Triplette

David Peel, Bud Hamilton

Lily Tomlin, Linnea Reese

Gwen Welles, Sueleen Gay

Keenan Wynn, Mr. Green

James Dan, Calvert Jimmy Reese

Donna Denton, Donna Reese

Elliott Gould and Julie Christie, Themselves

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Produce,r Robert Altman

Directo,r Robert Altman

Screenwriter, Joan Tewkesbury

Editors, Sidney Levin and Dennis M. Hill

Cinematographer, Paul Lohmann

Music Director, Richard Baskin