Thursday, April 17, 2008
Nashville
I am, for this post, going to take a risky position. I am going to defend (to the highest of my abilities) Nashville. The lack of a coherent plot is often point for disdain, so is the ubiquity of country music (this latter point I must concede). The beauty of the film, however, lies in the fact that it imparted its themes and ideas in the absence of complex story lines. Like Altman's later film Short Cuts, it is a sum of its parts. In fact, these ideas reflect Altman's improvisitional style. Once it is established that there are more characters than a bakers' dozen, try taking in the film without trying to make sense of it all. Resign yourself to confusion. Only with that clear state of mind can a member of the audience begin to see Nashville for its wisdom.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I also liked how the themes were presented in the absence of a plot. However, I grew a bit tired of the country music (and people), and could hardly stay awake during the incredibly uneventful first half of the movie.
People like to watch other people, but only when they're doing something more entertaining than what they have available to them. The problem I had with Nashville is that I could think of 100 other things more entertaining than watching that movie. I think you did a great job defending the movie and I particularly liked your part about the movie being a sum of it's parts (it's helping me appreciate it). But in this case I'm just struggling to see the difference between art and a couple of people rocking out (I'm referring to the first half of the movie for the most part, the second part had meaning)
For me, this movie would have been good had it not been for the horrible music. I had a hard time focusing on any kind of theme, other than the fact that humans are horrible people and will do whatever it takes to get noticed, because I was too busy tuning out the terrible excuse for a song that is everything labeled as "country." Basically I just couldn't focus because the music sucked so much. Other than that I see what you mean about how Altman is able to instill these themes without any sort of discernible plot. That's pretty cool.
~Preston
Post a Comment