Robert Altman's Nashville (1975/Paramount/ABC/Criterion Blu-ray w/DVD)

Picture: B+ & C+ Sound: B & C+ Extras: B+ Film: A

It is too easily forgotten how great and important a filmmaker Robert Altman was, making films about something every time out, gaining more and more power as a filmmaker and artist and being on the cutting edge as much as Scorsese, Coppola, Arthur Penn, Stanley Kubrick and the other great filmmakers of the time. Starting with M*A*S*H in 1970, Altman had made seven remarkable films that had his style, personal stamp and mature ideas on them, some dramas and some satires. Robert Altman's Nashville (1975) would be one of the cinema's greatest satires since Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1965) and also make some of the most important statements about the United States ever put to film along with Polanski's Chinatown (1974) in what many would call the peak of his filmmaking career.

Using the capital of country music (at the time) as a microcosm of show business (Altman likened it to Hollywood's vapid side in many ways, possibly all vapid to him) and the American Dream decimated with smiles on the faces of those doing the destroying (how prolific!) the complex screenplay by Joan Tewkesbury follows no less than 24 characters (on the implied verge of the upcoming Bi-Centennial the year after this film as the country celebrates in the fresh shadow of Watergate and Vietnam) and their lives that will eventually intersect (think of it as Crash for grown adults with an edge and important points) as they all try to make it in the town of the title.

It is an amazing script, directed with joyful, energetic delirium without getting stupid or silly, but the points made are actually more relevant than ever as an election and political campaign draped in symbols of Americana and trying to hijack the excitement of the town go on at the same time. We also have one of the greatest cast films of this epic scale ever made including Lily Tomlin is a gospel singer who has to deal with a stressful career, Ned Beatty as her husband and take care of deaf relatives, Karen Black and Ronee Blakely are star singers, Keith Carradine is an up and coming singer/songwriter (in the Kris Kristofferson mode), Geraldine Chaplin as a BBC reporter trying to cover the madness, Henry Gibson is brilliant as an anti-George Jones country megastar singer still popular after all these years and other great roles with great performances by Barbara Baxley, Allen Garfield, Robert DoQui, Bert Remsen, Barbara Harris, Michael Murphy, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Shelley Duvall, Keenan Wynn and turns by Julie Christie and Elliott Gould as themselves.

Nashville is not just another film or epic, but a pure cinematic experience that has been lost in the shuffle of empty hits and a regressive Hollywood, so it is great to have it finally getting the respect it deserves as the cinematic masterwork it is and thanks to Criterion, all serious film, fans will get to see and appreciate it in ways it deserves to be. Don't miss one of the most important reissues of the year!

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer of this film shot in real 35mm anamorphic Panavision starts on purpose with a scratchy black and white image of the Paramount logo of the time, then becomes a parody of the fast talking TV ads in color that used to sell hit compilations on vinyl records at the time and actually does a pretty good job of it. Then the regular, natural image that we will see kicks in and we see how deep and palpable a scope view of this world becomes thanks to the approach by Altman and Director of Photography Paul Lohmann (Coffy, High Anxiety, Time After Time, Mommy Dearest) not only using the very widescreen frame to its fullest extent, but giving it a look that feels intimate no matter how distant we are. We are partly eavesdroppers in a slightly quirky exaggerated way, overlapping dialogue and all, not to mention the world of music portrayed.

The film has looked shabby for decades on video, et al, but this new 2K transfer for the Blu-ray from a 35mm interpositive properly represents the MetroColor enhanced by TVC's Chemtone process and is pretty consistent throughout including fine depth intended. Finally, you can see how great looking the film is, was intended to be and how thoroughly it works visually. The great character of capturing the slight gaudiness of the town, the music (before Country got worse sometime in the 1980s!) and the many people. The anamorphically enhanced DVD version is not bad, but cannot being to capture the sometimes demo-quality image the Blu-ray delivers.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is also a nice restoration and upgrade from the previously weak video releases, the film was issued in 4-track magnetic sound with traveling dialogue and sound effects in most of the better 35mm showings, but a few actually got to show off the more complex 8-track discrete sound mix and the 5.1 gets to draw on some of that here to fine effect. Criterion and Paramount skipped a 7.1 mix as the sound is towards the front channels, but it shows how ahead of the curve Altman was on movie sound for a time and the result offers a character with narrative ties most of the smash, bang, loud 5.1, 7.1 and 11.1 mixes we have now lack in their pure genericness, much like their generic scripts. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD is not bad, but a little weaker than expected and no match for the DTS-MA on the Blu-ray.

Extras in this Dual Format slipcase packaging include a DigiPak holding 3 discs (one Blu-ray, 2 DVD) with a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and an essay by the great Molly Haskell (America Sings) worth reading after seeing the film, then both formats add a great vintage feature length audio commentary track by Altman from 2000, archival Behind The Scenes footage, a new Making Of documentary on the film, the Original Theatrical Trailer, three archival interviews with Altman and audio demos of Carradine rehearsing his songs for the film with and for Altman set to stills.

- Nicholas Sheffo