Critic Reviews

After I saw it I felt more alive, I felt I understood more about people, I felt somehow wiser. It's that good a movie.

Altman's great kaleidoscopic ensemble comedy-drama about a frenzied few days in country music's capital, with an unlikely, quirky, explosive crowd of musicians, hangers-on and politicos all converging on a fateful concert crossroads.

There is so much in this film that it cannot all be absorbed in one viewing. Nashville demands to be seen repeatedly, if only so that the movie-goer can recognize previously missed elements. This repeatability is one of the traits of a masterpiece, and, regardless of the criteria applied, Nashville surely must be considered as a modern classic – a motion picture whose scope and influence extend far beyond what is displayed on screen during its 160-minute running time.

A masterpiece.

With its astonishing display of directorial control and rich thematic textures, Nashville is an undisputed masterpiece. Add to that the biting comedy and knockout musical sequences and it’s certainly tempting to make the claim for Altman’s all-star gem being the best American film of the 1970s.

Spacious, shrewdly detailed and conceived with compassion and wit, it unfurls at an unhurried walking pace, spreading itself across a very American urban landscape.

The funniest epic vision of America ever to reach the screen.

Robert Altman tore up the filmmaking rulebook in the mid-'70s with this satire on the American country and western scene, for which the cast composed their own songs. It juggles the fortunes of two dozen characters and presciently explores how politics has become another form of showbusiness.

Sprawling over two and one-half hours and never flagging, it successfully introduces and exposes 24 different characters, brilliantly critiquing the country music industry as a microcosm of American society.

It’s at once ridiculous and genuinely inspiring—Robert Altman in a nutshell.