"Nashville" (1975) - RE-WATCH

Rank on the AFI List: #59

 Synopsis (according to imdb.com)

Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated individuals prepare for a political convention as secrets and lies are surfaced and revealed.

LET ME EXPLAIN...

I had to watch this in my American Film class in college, and I hated it.  With 20+ "main" characters and a ton of country music, I hated my life for 2 hours and 40 minutes.  So why did I decide to put myself through this again?  Well, I wanted to give it a second chance, particularly since I was impacted by the ending of it when I first saw it.  Perhaps I'd appreciate the rest of it knowing how it ends?

Nope.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I actually found myself not completely hating my life through the bulk of the movie, all because I thought about how it might relate to the ending.  My wife, on the other hand, was hating her life.

Then the ending came, and I was underwhelmed.  I remembered it to be a total shock the first time.  Maybe that was because I was so bored and depressed that I simply wasn't paying much attention, so I WAS shocked because I didn't see it coming.  But this time, I noticed way too many tells regarding what was about to happen.  My wife even made a comment about what was going to happen (with complete disinterest in her voice, I might add).  And that ruined the whole thing for me, though it wasn't exactly up on a pedestal at that point, anyway.

What makes this a "Top 100" Movie?

This is a very unique movie, considering all the plotlines and main characters being interwoven together.  That's all I can think of, but if you ask me, it's a horrible, terrible, poor version of Crash in that respect.  "Nashville" was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, winning one for Best Song ("I'm Easy", which I've attached below in case you want to hear it).

Complaints:

1) The country music.

2) The wandering of the story (or no story, one could argue).

3) The country music.

4) The lack of depth into any of the characters or their stories.  You simply don't have enough time to get to know them well enough since they have to share time with a lot of other characters and their stories.

5) Did I mention the country music?

LET ME SUM UP...

Unique in the sense that it has countless characters and stories, "Nashville" doesn't really hold any sort of value beyond that.  If you were into politics in the 1970s, or you like old country music, you might want to give this a try.  Anyone else, I'm doing you a favor by imploring you not to waste your time......like I did......twice.

MY RATING: 1/10 (1 lower from my previous rating)