Out In The1970s Film Night-Robert Altman’ Slice of Americana Nashville

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

The late Robert Altman was the past master of weaving a simple plot line and existential characters in order to form very interesting slices of the life in the American experience, with a wry sense of humor about that experience to boot. Shortly before his death he had produced Prairie Home Companion, essentially a Midwestern version of the presently reviewed film Nashville. He had an ear and an eye for the sometimes absurd characters that are part of the American landscape and those senses do not fail him here, although there is just a touch of datedness in the story line of the film.

Of course, the subject here, given away by the title, is a look at country music, as least how it looked in 1975, intertwined with a indeterminate but assumingly populist presidential campaign by a third party candidate. The mix of politics and music is an interesting choice although whether the electoral campaign could stand in for that of ex-Alabama Governor George Wallace on the right or an insurgent Eugene McCarthy-type campaign on the left is far from clear, probably purposefully so. All the characters one would expect when one’s only sense of the Nashville country music scene is the Grand Old Opry are here; the mainstream male and female country singers modeled on George Jones and Loretta Lynn; the country folk ‘crashers’ trying to cash in on the popularity of genre; the wannabes working the open mikes off the main street in order to get a break; and, the truly talentless all striving to get ahead in the dog eat dog but lucrative world of country music. All looking for the main chance. All driven to be on a stage somewhere in front of some audience even if it is that of an eccentric presidential candidate. The sub-plot, which in the end holds the action together, is the random violence afoot then, as now, that is seemingly an endemic part of the American Way.

There are several outstanding musical performances highlighted by the film’s Loretta Lynn character, Ronee Blaklee. Her rendition of Dues still sounds good after over 30years. Try to find her work. The late Vassar Clements on the fiddle also should receive kudos.