This is the deep probe into the American malaise, the film that should be required viewing before we consider "celebration" of a bicentennial. Almost incidentally, it is one of the great American movies.

| Feb 27, 2025

Astronauts see God on the moon. Nixon sees pinkos under his bed. The New York film critics see genius in Robert Altman. Is the world going mad, or is it just me?

| Feb 27, 2025

It is a special motion picture, its excellence has a lot to say about other films, and it does deserve your attention. But not your reverence. Whatever else it is, Nashville also happens to be a very funny movie.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 27, 2025

As I sit here at my Globe typewriter, spiralling in my enjoyment of Nashville and acutely conscious of its burgeoning reputation among critics, as well as the ticket-buying public, I wonder if it's enough to say that it is an absolutely wonderful movie.

| Feb 27, 2025

How to describe Nashville, except to say that it is exhilarating. It is so glowingly alive, so joyous in its appreciation of life and humanity that just watching it is enough to give one an emotional high.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 27, 2025

Much of what Altman has discovered in the making of earlier films comes together in Nashville, a complex, exquisitely orchestrated, kaleidoscopic examination of an American city with its unique culture.

| Feb 27, 2025

This movie is Altman's set of stereotypes, of Nashville and of America. But whether they are right or wrong, there is no question that his vehicle for presenting them is an exciting, fascinating film.

| Feb 27, 2025

There are no fewer than 24 principal characters in Nashville. And, true to the Altman tradition, no one is less than memorable.

| Feb 27, 2025

The invention is amazingly varied, which is also to say uneven, though not troublingly so. Nashville is undoubtedly the best and most assured film Altman has yet made.

| Feb 27, 2025

Joan Tewkesbury's complex screenplay develops characters by allowing the paths of divergent singers, groupies, politicians and others to criss-cross as the long film unwinds. It's up to the viewer to make connections, but it's worth the effort.

| Feb 27, 2025

Mostly an exhilarating experience -- funny, deadly satire, rich in pieces of character the feeling of immediacy. I have seldom gone all the way with the off-beat Robert Altman. But I accept this juggled jigsaw as a splendidly original statement.

| Feb 27, 2025

Neither Altman or [Ragtime author] Doctorow are even for a moment implicated in the stories they tell, the lessons they draw, or the actions of their characters. When Gatsby lost, it is clear, so did Fitzgerald.

| Feb 27, 2025

The production as a whole strikes me as a hollow, irresponsible and vicious "I hate America" diatribe... Not only that, but it's a sloppy movie, cluttered and messy.

| Feb 27, 2025

One proceeds through this constant play between organisation and chaos as though in a mystery, picking out threads that may be either loose ends or clues to future events -- and aspect that makes Nashville well worth repeated visits.

| Feb 27, 2025

Nashville is as unstructured as life itself. You are never sure what you are watching -- whether it's supposed to be funny or sad -- until it is over, or until you get a different perspective. Meaning depends upon context.

| Feb 27, 2025

Nashville isn't the U.S.A. Altman has done a populous and deservedly popular fresco, a group song in which the parts add up to an enjoyable comment on an industry and a lifestyle. But don't let him think he has created a national anthem.

| Feb 26, 2025

The great achievement of Nashville is that Altman has worked with his cast to produce a many-layered film in which patterns overlap, repeat, merge. It's the sheer richness of the film that makes it remarkable.

| Feb 26, 2025

The rock world is strange to me. See the film, anyway. It baffles, amuses and saddens.

| Feb 26, 2025

Not every characters makes his mark, but enough of the comedies come off to make the gains of this deadpan, take-it-or-leave-it style seem, at least to me, far to outweigh the losses.

| Feb 26, 2025

If Nashville in fact has not much to say, it says it at great length, and entertainingly. It all sails along, stopping and starting, maintaining its hold on us by Altman's appreciation of all the oddity of the American scene and its people.

| Feb 26, 2025