Kate Burns

Max Tohline

Study of Film

May 13, 2015

Nashville: An American Parallel

Robert Altman’s Nashville is a film focusing on twenty-four different protagonists over a five day period in Nashville, Tennessee. This film follows their trials, tribulations, successes, and failures as they either continue their vibrant careers, try to find a career, or simply just keep on living. From the streets of suburbia to the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville attempts to encompass numerous aspects of life for these twenty four people, their families, and audiences. We see our protagonists in dumpsters, in trashed hotel rooms, breaking down, belting ballads on stage, cheating, running from their current situations, and all the while surrounded by a mysterious Hal Phillip Walker who is running for President. Nashville is a parallel to 1975 America as both the protagonists are facing an identity crisis such as the United States at this time.

The first instance that we start to see how these twenty four people have lives that parallel is when we see Haven Hamilton recording a patriotic song while becoming increasingly irritated and Linnea Reese recording a gospel song with a black choir. This scene sets the movie’s audience up to start identifying the connections between each character and in this particular scene, notice this almost rather awkward identity crisis occurring. When we think of a patriot, we would like to view them as an American hero, embodying this idea of bravery, just behavior, charisma, and a golden heart. Yet, with Haven Hamilton, we see an enraged narcissist who is just plain rude. Additionally, we have a white female in Linnea singing with a black gospel choir. Linnea just seems out of place in this role. Additionally placed into this scene is Opal who is an Englishwoman claiming to be doing a documentary for the BBC on Nashville. A British woman in a Nashville is just naturally out of place. I believe this parallels to the way America was at the time. Coming out of the Vietnam War, the United States was in this awkward place with the remainder of the world, and at a divided place with her people. The controversy surrounding this war overwhelmed the nation and public relations wise greatly hurt America’s image. Along with this, Watergate had just taken place and the faith in American leadership seemed tarnished. America as a superpower and a nation founded upon seeking justice was faded amidst controversy and corruption. Who was this new America and how were they going to recover? People were lost on who they should support, patriotism seemed like supporting children killers, and the nation was completely divided. This identity loss for such a previously strong country was awkward and America seemed out of place in the world of superpowers.

Another area, a little bit more general this time, where we see this identity crises deals with relationships throughout the film. We see the marriage of Bill and Mary seem like it is set, yet Mary is having an affair with Tom. This identity of a musical marriage that is set between Bill and Mary is getting lost as Mary begins to decide that she isn’t sure being a wife to Bill is what she wants and instead finds

herself in the arms of Tom professing her love. We see this again in the film when we believe the marriage between Del Reese and Linnea is happy and strong yet towards the end of the film we find Linnea spending the night with Tom. These women seemed so set in their roles as wives, yet they started to doubt their identities in this role and ventured into the bed of Tom. In this sense, we see these women who have been in a mold of wives in their relationships, yet are trying to defy their roles and seek out something new in an affair. In this way, they are unsure of their current identities and are debating the redefinition of themselves. After the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam War, and the division of the United States thanks to counter-culture, America was also facing an identity crisis. Taught to always trust the leadership and be a patriot, citizens of the US were in a state of distrust of their government leaders and questioning whether supporting a nation seen as baby killers in Vietnam was appropriate. Jimmy Carter was faced with a task of finding a new way to lead the country in a time where the current mold was being questioned, much like Linnea and Mary questioned their roles as wives.

Another aspect of identity that is found in the movie is the way music seems to create, or even destroy, the identities of the protagonists. Most of the music in the movie is found to be of country-western or gospel themed, but in general, using music as such a prominent subject in Nashville parallels to how there is no definitive musical genre occurring in the United States at this time. Music as an identity with the protagonists and music as an identity with America is highly connected. When looking at the decades before and after the nineteen seventies, we have the fifties with sock hop rock, the sixties with counter-culture rock, the eighties with hair metal bands, and the nineties were the era of grunge, yet when we ask someone how they would define the genre of seventies music, it is nearly impossible. The genres of music ranges from that of punk, hard rock, counter culture music, disco, funk, soul, reggae, experimental with synthesizers and whatnot, and the emergence of hip hop. At this point, one begins to see the parallelism between the lack of identity in the music and the lack of identity in the United States. Robert Altman may have noticed this parallel and, in that way, made the decision of using music as the focus and main component of the movie Nashville. In this movie, one can see every character falling into certain types of music, yet they still are struggling with who they are going to be in the Nashville music scene. In this way, one starts to wonder if they are being confined to only what they believe the Nashville music producers want and therefore ignoring their true self. When one tries to fit into a mold they are not designed to be a part of, inner turmoil arises and they seem to scramble for something to fit into. This further supports the idea that the protagonists are doing things completely outside their currently acquired roles in order to find something to identify with.

The fact that this movie also centers on a political campaign was actually extremely comical. Politicians are consistently fitting into the role that society wants because that’s what gets votes so it is a job that so commonly has those that pursue it finding molds they just plain don’t fit in, seek these said molds. The teams sent to aid in the election of this political figure and the people who surround them are tasked with telling them who to be and how to act. Additionally, those associated with these political figures are required to fit a mold or they could tarnish the reputation of the person they are associated with. What is most entertaining about the way this movie presents the political campaign of Hal Phillip Walker is that the viewer has an opinion formulated of who Hal is and what he stands for, yet the viewer

never meets him. This mysterious and unknown figure is placed into a mold and no one is even exposed to him. It is overwhelmingly interesting that even those who are unseen are placed into a mold, so of course those who are exposed to the viewer are forced into a mold from all who see them, and even more harshly for themselves.

Identity is such a struggle, even today, for people and the United States, yet in the seventies, the identity crisis was incredibly severe. Robert Altman’s Nashville takes the lack of a perfect identity fit for the United States into a two and a half hour long movie and places this strain on that of numerous protagonists to enable the viewer to really see the identity crisis on a smaller scale. The parallels between the people and actions and music in Nashville and the 1970’s United States is shockingly exposed within this movie.

Bibliography

Abrahams, Steven. “Buying Nashville”. Jump Cut: View of Contemporary Media (1975). Web. 21 April ______2015.

Altman, Rick. "24-Track Narrative? Robert Altman's Nashville." 24-Track Narrative? Robert Altman's ______Nashville. Erudit, 1991. Web. 3 May 2015.

Rollin, Roger B. “Robert Altman’s ‘Nashville’: Popular Film and the American Character”. South Atlantic _____Bulletin (1977). Web. 21 April 2015.

Self, Robert T. Robert Altman's subliminal reality. U of Minnesota Press, 2002.