Movies - Nashville

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Nashville is a 1975 film which mixes themes of U.S. presidential politics with those of the country music and gospel music businesses in Nashville, Tennessee. The large ensemble cast features David Arkin, Barbara Baxley, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, David Hayward, Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles and Keenan Wynn.

The movie was written by Joan Tewkesbury and directed by Robert Altman. It has the trademark Altman overlapping dialogue and huge casts. The actors and actresses were required to write and perform their own songs live for the movie, as opposed to the usual "playback" method of performing songs on film.

It won an Oscar for Best Music, Song (Keith Carradine for "I'm Easy") and was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress (Ronee Blakley and Lily Tomlin), Best Director and Best Picture categories. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Carradine performed "I'm Easy" at the famed (and, as of 2005, still-extant) performance venue the "Exit/In". Most signficant for the film itself, however, is its theme piece, heard sporadically throughout, and then brought to a climax at the end: "It Don't Worry Me", the refrain of which is clearly the unifying theme of the movie itself: "It don't worry me, it don't worry me. You may say that I ain't free, but it don't worry me."

Many of the characters in the film are based on real country music figures: Henry Gibson's Haven Hamilton is based on Roy Acuff; Ronee Blakely's Barbara Jean is based on Loretta Lynn; the black country singer Tommy Brown (played by Timothy Brown) is based on Charley Pride; and the feuding folk trio is based on Peter, Paul and Mary. Keith Carradine's character is believed to be inspired by Kris Kristofferson and Karen Black's Connie strongly resembles Lynn Anderson. The 1992 presidential campaign of H. Ross Perot was felt by many to be eerily similar to the campaign of the "Replacement Party" and its candidate in this film, Hal Phillip Walker, the fictional candidate even having a voice remarkably similar to that of Perot's.

The movie was widely despised by the mainstream country-music community at the time, believing it was ridiculing their talent and sincerity. Since then, however, the songs (most of them composed by the film's actors themselves) have achieved a certain popularity in alternative-country circles, well away from the world of the music establishment. In 2002, a CD "Tribute to Robert Altman's Nashville" was released, featuring new interpretations of the movie's songs by the likes of such respected country figures as Carolyn Mark, Kelly Hogan, and Neko Case.

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Movies - Nashville

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