4-star movie: Nashville

[carbonel]

I'm embarking on the second half of the alphabet, and I thought I might try to keep some track of what I've been watching here on LJ. My insights, such as they are, are likely to either be fairly banal or based on my reading of professional reviews, but I'll do my best.

Nashville, 1975, directed by Robert Altman, is the story of 24 people during five days in Nashville, TN. There isn't a main character within that large cast, just a series of interlocking and overlapping stories. There isn't a plot in the beginning-middle-end sort of way, either, just a series of events. There is a finale, in that the movie ends with a literal bang.

The movie could be considered a musical; a full hour of the 2:40 length is spent in singing. Almost all of the songs were written by people acting in the movie. And some of them are pretty damned catchy; I've spent the day being earwormed by two of them. That doesn't actually make them good songs, but they clearly have something.

Roger Ebert considers this the best American movie since Bonnie and Clyde, and I can see why. It's not a particularly enjoyable movie, but it is a remarkable and worthwhile one.

Comments

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me that I always meant to watch Nashville but never got around to it. I added it to my Netflix queue. Netflix helpfully suggested some other movies that I would probably like because they are so much like Nashville. Any guesses on what makes ANY of these movies "like Nashville?" Well, okay, 3 of them are directed by Altman. But ... Deliverance??? Seriously?

Lion in Winter
Deliverance
Mash
Young Frankenstein
The Long Goodbye
Easy Rider
Secret Honor
Sunset Boulevard
Religulous
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[carbonel]

The only connection I can see between Nashville and Deliverance is that they both take place in the US South and have some catchy music.

Lion in Winter totally defeats me for finding comparison.