.
.
Associate Press Newsfeatures/via Wikimedia Commons
The filmmaker Robert Altman in 1983
.
___
.
.
Nashville, After 50 Years
In Robert Altman’s masterpiece, an epic & sprawling panorama,
a political operative (Michael Murphy) is recruiting Nashville talent
for the rally of a mysterious third-party Presidential candidate.
We see a Nashville obsessed with fame, politics as celebrity.
All the Altman trademarks: improvisation, overlapping dialog,
quickly sketched characters: The bespangled Haven Hamilton
(Henry Gibson) sings a patriotic anthem, ‘We must be doing
something right to last 200 years,’ that thrills the crowd.
The doomed Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) willowy & fragile
exploited by her manager/husband & barely holding on.
Altman, who nearly died at 19 in a plane crash, was fearless
& loved the film-making chaos, even battles with the ‘suits.’
Over a scorching summer on a 60-day shoot, he pulled back
from both farce or melodrama. Screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury
visited Nashville & some scenes spring right from her journal.
In ’75, for me, the pivotal character was Linnea (Lily Tomlin),
a Gospel singer, wife & mother drawn to the womanizing
folk-rock singer Tom Frank (Keith Carradine), while a roving
campaign van blasts cornpone populism. These days
I’m more focused on the lyrics scorchingly sung in a coda
by the runaway housewife/Country wannabe (Barbara Harris):
‘You may say that I ain’t free, but it don’t worry me.’
In ‘75 after the Vietnam, after Watergate, we thought
we’d banished the bad guys. But Altman knew better.
He gives us a preposterously large Amercian flag waving
in the final scenes, both ominous & hopeful.
.
.
___
.
.
The original lobby card for Robert Altman’s 1975 Paramount Pictures film Nashville
.
.
___
.
.
Photo by Ruth Ella Hendricks
Joan E. Bauer is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Fig Season (Turning Point, 2023), The Camera Artist (Turning Point, 2021), and The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008). For some years, she was a teacher and counselor and now divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-curates the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins. (www.hemingwayspoetryseries.blogspot.com)
.
.
Watch a film clip from Nashville that features Barbara Harris singing the Keith Carradine composition “It Don’t Worry Me”
.
.
___
.
.
Click for:
A Letter From the Editor: On “The Weary Blues: Celebrating Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance”
Information about the book Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry, Vol. II (featuring women poets)
“21 jazz poems on the 21st” collections
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
“Where the Music Wasn’t Allowed,” Jane McCarthy’s winning story in the 71st Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician
Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
Subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter
Helping to support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)
.
___
.
.
Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced since 1999
.
.
.
