Rating: 
Summary: Adult and contemporary film at its finest.
Review: This is a fine hybrid of a movie that defies definition because inherently its purpose is to defy the concept of what a good movie has to be. This film is great because of the ideas, music,actors,direction all coming together to expose America and to celebrate its triumphs and its deficiencies in an adult and thought-provoking way. Every scene has meaning, comedy or music that relates to the human condition---it is a shame that after the 1970's movies abandoned individuality and risk taking. Creating a movie just to be different can be sniffed a mile away, but one that is different, intelligent and understands how people may act is a rare find indeed like this one.
Rating:
Summary: I can only agree with everyone else.
Review: If you haven't seen this, you need to. And then you need to watch it again. I just watched Nashville for the second time, and I loved it even more than the first. If you are unfamiliar with Robert Altman, as I was on first viewing, it takes a little while to get a feel for this film. Once you do though, it's great; don't be frightened by country music-I'm not a country fan either-but it is used appropriately and the songs generally are pretty great. The diverse characters of this film create a wonderful panoramic snapshot of Nashville at the time, and of American culture as a whole. Everyone else reviewing this film has said the same things as I have, and have done it better, but I just wanted to put in my two cents. For anyone interested in a movie that you need to become involved in and not just sit back and watch mindlessly, Nashville is the movie for you.
Rating:
Summary: an American masterpiece as it deserves to be seen
Review: At last! After years of watching the disgraceful video edition of this with more or less half of the picture missing, Altman fans everywhere can rejoice in this DVD release. It's the movie that finally made me buy a DVD player for it truly demands to be viewed in widescreen. Much of the action takes place within the margins of the frame; likewise, the dialogue is sometimes spoken by characters at the frame's edge and counterpoints the image entirely. Spatially, there's no way this movie is intelligible in anything but widescreen which I believe is one of the reasons it's been neglected since its release; the minute it left theaters, it never translated its brilliant mixture of comedy and tragedy as well again (it would be completely destroyed on commercial TV). "Nashville" is one of the most democratic movies this country has ever produced. Altman weighs every aspect of it equally and every actor comes through just as strongly as the next. It's a career-high for most of them: Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Lily Tomlin, Karen Black, Barbara Harris, Ronee Blakley, Allen Garfield, and Henry Gibson have never been given material this rich again (not coincidentally, many of the performers worked up their own material and some wrote their own songs). Most American movies are centered around the idea that situations and/or objects are only worthy of the camera's attention. This movie declaratively states that it's really people who are endlessly fascinating once you stop and listen long enough to what they have to say. I sincerely hope there is enough interest in this release to warrant future Altman movies on DVD. My list of nominees: California Split, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 3 Women, Buffalo Bill and the Indians and A Wedding. Many of Altman films from the 1970s are shamefully unavailable in this country. DVD to the rescue!
Rating:
Summary: Finally! One of the all-time greats on DVD
Review: I forgot to preorder Nashville when I heard that it was being released on DVD, so today, the day it was released, I made a trip to the local video store to buy a copy. When I got there I was dismayed to discover that the store didn't order any copies of Nashville, but they received countless copies of The Cider House Rules and other, um, less worthy new releases. The clerk had never heard of Nashville, and was only vaguely familiar with Robert Altman. I included this anecdote in my review to show how Robert Altman and most of his great movies have been forgotten by the general public, which says quite a bit about the decline in the quality of mass entertainment. Finally, I found a copy in another store and got to watch the film in all its widescreen glory and it was as good, if not better, than I remembered it being. The characters are so real, and their interactions so genuine, that it just looks effortless, and it makes you wonder why more movies don't get it right. I especially like the way the movie is open to many different interpretations. I haven't had a chance to listen to Altman's commentary yet, but I'm sure it will be interesting. If you haven't seen this movie, seek it out and watch it at least twice, or better yet, many more times than that, and then you will be enlightened.
Rating: 
Summary: 5 Star Movie with less than 1 Star DVD quality
Review: I agree with all the 5 star reviews given this movie. It was one of the few movies I saw twice during its initial theatrical release. However, the DVD is the worst of the many I own. The video quality is deplorable. The DVD is dark and blurry. You can make out no detail when the DVD is focusing on a distant character. You can make out no detail in low light scenes. You get laughably poor detail in closeup views. The DVD looks as if it were transferred direct from a second generation videotape. I should have waited another 6-9 months when a remastered version is (probably) released. You will be very disappointed if you buy this DVD now, as I did. Do not buy this DVD in its current incarnation -- unless you want to buy mine. :-)
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Terrible DVD
Review: I loved Nashville when it was first released in theaters. I even saw it twice, a rarity for me.I couldn't wait to pop the DVD into my player, but I immediately became suspicious when the opening credits were blurry. Unfortunately, that foretold the extremely poor video quality of this DVD. The picture is very blurry. Distant shots are awful. Even closeups look out of focus. Shots not brightly lit contain little, if any, detail. It looks as if it were transferred from a poor videotape instead of film. Nothing has been done to clean up the picture. I am truly disappointed in this DVD. I won't even watch the extras. If you love the movie, wait 6-12 months; perhaps a visually enhanced version will be released by then, but save your money and avoid the current release (unless you want to buy my copy).
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Summary: Too Much Country Music!
Review: Here in Texas, we got our share a country & western music and, sometimes, I's plum sick of it. That's what's nice bout this picture: these folks make country look like a big, old game. A course, I think Nashville was easier to spoof back then (the hair was bigger and those costumes). Today, you might have to go to Branson, MO to make the same joke. (Boxcar Willie has his own theater!) Unique movie ... watch it a million times ...never gets old.
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Summary: A masterful view of America in the 1970's
Review: Robert Altman's "Nashville" remains by far my favorite film of all time. It was the first cinema experience that I totally got lost inside, losing track of time and place. The performances are infused with brilliance, and though most people justifiably focus on Ronee Blakley and Lily Tomlin, the powerful touches in the works of the two Barbaras (Harris and Baxley) make watching this film seem more like eavesdropping on someone's private conversations. The film captures the essence of American life in the 1970's, not hesitating to touch on political corruption, the grasp for fame, racial problems, and the spirit of letting everybody do what they want. I have been waiting for years for the news that "Nashville" would finally be available on DVD, as I want to see the film in it's original widescreen glory. From the opening credits flashing by as a record commercial, to the powerful conclusion where voices raise to the Heavens in song, "Nashville" is one in a million.
Rating:
Summary: No better criticism of life.
Review: Altman's masterpiece is a testimony to the power of cinema to expose the unexamined life and to reveal us to ourselves. Nashville is not only the film's setting but a metaphoric microsm of the American dream with all of its attendant illusions and problems. But the film also manages to convey deep sympathy toward the 20 plus characters, each of whom is likely to become inscribed in the perceptive viewer's memory. It was the summer of 1975, and moviegoers were lining up for "Jaws," but "Nashville" was the film that made the more powerful immediate impact and deeper lasting one. Nothing since--by Altman or any other director--has come close to matching the power of this film, an experience for the spectator that probably cannot be captured by video or digital technology. Although critics such as Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert were quick to understand the film's significance, most viewers were unable to "get" the film. But for those who did, just mention Ronee Blakley's performance of "Dues," or the final shot--a Gatsby-like tilt from the American flag to the open sky--and the memories return, along with the spinetingling thrill of the movie itself. (Even some "Nashville" admirers missed the posters in the assassin's car, which indicate that his original target was the George Wallace-type candidate, not the country diva who suddenly becomes the scapegoat of his displaced rage and sense of betrayal.) In brief, "Nashville" is more than a film. It's a richly resonant world to be entered into and revisited numerous times--as much if not moreso than "Citizen Kane," "The Great Gatsby," and "Death of a Salesman."
Rating:
Summary: Exhilirating, one-of-a-kind classic.....
Review: While it might take several viewings to catch all the subtleties and connections, in the end, few films provide such rich rewards. Altman has enough confidence in the material and the actors to allow a "free form" style to take place, thereby allowing for a more realistic, spontaneous feel. Ambiguous enough to allow for multiple interpretations yet focused and brimming with the sheer joy of filmmaking. What does it all mean? Take your pick, but remember, such a film as this does not lend itself to quick answers: fame, the American Dream, the cult of personality, loneliness, passivity, the bankruptcy of American culture......they all apply equally. For me, the best bet remains the general and widespread despair (which translates into passivity) that defines American life (and certainly resonated more in the 1970s post-Watergate environment). In an intellectual vacuum where celebrities become the ruling class by sheer virtue of their ubiquity and the politics of oversimplification create hollow, yet appealing candidates, the population at large cede control over their own lives to the gatekeepers of pop, that is "banal," culture. Our emotions deadened and predictable, our minds enslaved to dogma and superstition, and our hearts defined by passionless sex and forced connection, we are tragically set in perpetual motion to find meaning...any meaning that prevents a quick glance into the abyss. Altman recognizes this all too well. Using music to convey character and overlapping dialogue to suggest how little we really listen to each other (and comprehend since the very meaning of words is often in doubt). By the end, when the stunned crowd sheepishly sings along to the lyrics "You may say that I ain't free, but it don't worry me," we realize what Altman has been pushing us towards: the unsentimental and unavoidable conclusion that freedom, for many of us, will always remain an abstraction and we are more than willing to let others define it for us. Not knowing what it means, or ever could mean, we foolishly cling to our artificial independence which is nothing more than a vast accumulation of useless products and mass-produced goods. Freedom, therefore, is seen solely in terms of economics, while our creativity (which is intellectually based and is also related to the artistic, expressive impulse) is ground beneath the feet of homogenization, commodification, and distortion. What does this all mean? Quite simply, "Nashville" elicits these thoughts because of its complexity. No one meaning is correct and all viewers will bring something new to the table. At the very least, the film stimulates higher thought, challenging the notion that film is a passive entertainment. Unlike the characters in the film, we can bring a willingness to move beyond the commonplace to our viewing experience. How many films can do all this?
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