Search - Nashville on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Humor, Profanity, Sexual Situations Movie Release: 1975 DVD Release: 08/15/2000 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 40 mins Studio: Paramount Members Wishing: 4 Genres: Drama, Americana, Musical Drama, Ensemble Film, Media Satire

Following 24 characters through 5 days in the country music capital, Robert Altman's 1975 epic presents a complexly textured portrayal (and critique) of American obsessions with celebrity and power. Among the various stars, aspirants, hangers-on, observers, and media folk are politically ambitious country icon Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) and his fragile star protegée Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley); Tom (Keith Carradine), a self-absorbed rock star who woos lonely married gospel singer Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin); Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles), a talentless waitress painfully humiliated at her first singing gig; Albuquerque (Barbara Harris), a runaway wife with dreams of stardom; nightclub owner Lady Pearl (Barbara Baxley), who reminisces about "those Kennedy boys"; single-minded groupie L.A. Joan (Shelley Duvall); vapid BBC commentator Opal (Geraldine Chaplin); and campaign guru John Triplette (Michael Murphy), who is trying to organize a concert rally for the unseen but always heard populist presidential candidate-cum-demagogue Hal Phillip Walker. Everything comes to a head during a climactic concert at Nashville's replica of the Parthenon temple, as the entertainment-hungry audience is momentarily woken out of its stupor by unexpected violence, only to be lulled into a restorative sing-along to "It Don't Worry Me." ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Henry Gibson - Haven Hamilton
Barbara Baxley - Lady Pearl
Ned Beatty - Delbert Reese
Karen Black - Connie White
Ronee Blakely - Barbara Jean
Lily Tomlin - Linnea Reese
Keith Carradine - Tom Frank
Geraldine Chaplin - Opal

Before Paul Thomas Anderson's ensemble cast epics Boogie Nights and Magnolia, there was Robert Altman's Nashville. Generally regarded as one of the seminal movies of the 1970s, the film further established Altman (M*A*S*H, The Player, Gosford Park) as an auteur to be reckoned with, honing his improvisatory and pseudo-documentary style, his maverick use of overlapping dialogue, and his overall disregard for standard cinematic conventions like, say, plot and structure. Ambitious and sprawling, Nashville revolves around the country music world during the course of several days (besides the intersecting lives of various singers and songwriters and Nashville denizens, there's also a political campaign for a Ross Perot-like third-party candidate). The Paramount Home Video DVD, with its remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track mix, nicely captures the musical sequences, which take up more than an hour of the 160-minute film. (The movie is, after all, a musical, as Altman says in the commentary.) Still, as in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, another much-anticipated DVD release from Altman's remarkable '70s oeuvre, it remains difficult to make out some of the dialogue. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer impresses the eye, and is especially strong considering the age of the film and the use of natural light; it far surpasses previous versions of the film available for home viewing. However, expect some occasional graininess and lack of detail, most notably in some of the darker scenes, such as when Keith Carradine performs his Oscar-winning song "I'm Easy" in a club. The features are threefold: a commentary by Altman, an interview with the director, and the theatrical trailer. Although the commentary is a must for Altman aficionados, you can get a condensed version of the remarks in the 12-minute interview because Altman basically repeats everything he says in the interview in the commentary as well, sometimes verbatim. Moreover, he disappears for long stretches during the commentary, particularly toward the end of the film. Yet there are some worthwhile tidbits and anecdotes along the way -- how the actors wrote and performed their own songs, how scenes were loosely shot as "events" ("We didn't do anything conventionally," Altman explains, "This was shot like a documentary"). Perhaps most interesting, Altman relates how a Washington Post reporter called him after John Lennon's assassination and asked if he felt responsible for the slain Beatle's death, since Nashville ends with the shooting of a celebrity. Not surprisingly, Altman denied any culpability and turned the tables on the reporter, asking if he felt responsible: "You might blame yourself for not listening to my warning," Altman told him. ~ Andrew Roe, All Movie Guide