Nashville<\/em> contains at least ten or twelve characters that all feel real, that all seem to have back stories and arcs, and none of whom steals the spotlight from the others.<\/p>\nThere’s the star vocalist recovering from a nervous breakdown, and maybe not quite ready to return to the stage, the waitress who wants to be a singer but doesn’t have the chops, the established trio whose interpersonal strife threatens the group, the gospel singer who feels more and more disconnected from her husband, the determined wannabe who overcomes all odds to get to the rally stage, the overeager reporter who’s equal parts naive enthusiasm and unwitting insensitivity, and several others – stereotypes in a way, perhaps, but they do not feel that way when you’re watching the movie. Everything just feels right and even though it is long, it’s perfectly paced and when the end credits rolled, I was actually sad the experience was over.<\/p>\n
McCabe and Mrs. Miller<\/h3>\n
![\"mccabe_and_mrs_miller.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/mccabe_and_mrs_miller.jpg\")
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This film snuck up on me while I was watching it. It takes a little while to get going, it’s a little low-key and quiet about getting there (reportedly there were sound problems on set that Altman never bothered to fix), and it’s tough at first to identify with anyone. But by the end, it got under my skin something fierce.<\/p>\n
It’s truly a revisionist western in the sense that the main character McCabe (Warren Beatty) isn’t a classic western white-hat hero, but he’s not even really a morally complicated hero or anti-hero; he’s almost an a-hero. This is a world in which heroism basically doesn’t exist. The major conflict is purely commercial, and the major shootout isn’t fought in the open streets with the town watching, but sneaking around deserted buildings and through barns while the town is totally unaware.<\/p>\n
It’s also not a typical love story, though McCabe and Mrs. Miller (the local brothel owner, played by Julie Christie) are one of those couples that are so clearly meant to be together and yet utterly not as well – they need each other, but for many reasons it wouldn’t work for them to be more to each other than they are. Their interactions with each other somehow carry the weight of tragedy. It’s a sad movie in many ways, but a great one that I can easily see myself revisiting over and over for years to come.<\/p>\n
The Long Goodbye<\/h3>\n
![\"long-goodbye.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/long-goodbye.jpg\")
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I’m pretty sure I saw at least some of this movie in an undergrad film course I took, and didn’t care too much for the part I saw. Clearly there was something wrong with me then, because when I watched\/rewatched it this year, I loved every bit of it. It’s a take on Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe character that somehow manages to be irreverent, unique, and poke fun at the hard-boiled detective genre while also being loving and true to it.<\/p>\n
The homages to classic detective films from the 1940s are peppered throughout, but with a sense of ironic world-weariness that is perfectly ’70s. Elliott Gould’s Marlow is a lackadaisical fellow whose catchphrase is “it’s okay with me,” a statement of bemused apathy that nonetheless is belied by his casual yet dogged pursuit of the truth about a friend of his accused of murder.<\/p>\n
The film contains recognizable references to specific classic noir films, but also the detached style of European cinema of the 1960s, making it a quintessential New Hollywood film and perfectly poised to hit all of my buttons, and so it did. This time around at least, it was perfection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[My list of favorite films released in 2010 will be going up on Row Three in mid-January, so I want to do something a bit different here. This series will include any films I saw for the first time this year and loved, regardless of release date. It may also include films from this year.] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[2054,2076,2075,1978,1977],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Altman-banner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25522,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/50dmc-19-a-movie-im-surprised-i-enjoyed\/","url_meta":{"origin":14537,"position":0},"title":"50DMC #19: A Movie I’m Surprised I Enjoyed","author":"Jandy","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions. Today's prompt: What's a movie you're surprised you enjoyed? There are quite a lot of these, actually, as I've been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Nashville.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36288,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-36-3-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":14537,"position":1},"title":"Challenge Week 36: 3 Women","author":"Jandy","date":"September 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, that was absolutely nothing like what I expected. Here's what I expected: a complex and realistic character study of three women with a complicated friendship. Like, I dunno, Interiors crossed with Frances Ha. Here's what the film is: a fever dream of shifting and merging identities, sometimes violently, always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tf-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3840,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/new-hollywood-the-long-goodbye-1973\/","url_meta":{"origin":14537,"position":2},"title":"New Hollywood: The Long Goodbye (1973)","author":"Jandy","date":"September 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Elliott Gould's Philip Marlowe is a mumbling, ambling fellow who's smarter than most everyone around him, but aloof enough not to bother pointing it out, except barely under his breath in a kind of on-going ironic mutter that feels more like an interior monologue than actual speech. He's bemused at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/longgoodbye.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":473,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/afis-100-years100-movies-2007-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":14537,"position":3},"title":"AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies — 2007 Edition","author":"Jandy","date":"June 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Film Institute released an updated version of their 100 Years...100 Movies list of greatest American movies. Apparently they're going to do that every ten years. I only saw the tail end of the special last night--did any one else catch it? I think I saw the top fifteen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33343,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/the-story-of-film-on-tcm-chapter-9\/","url_meta":{"origin":14537,"position":4},"title":"The Story of Film on TCM: Chapter 9","author":"Jandy","date":"November 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"[Turner Classic Movies is airing Mark Cousins' epic documentary The Story of Film, playing one episode a week accompanied by films discussed in that week's episode. I'm writing up my thoughts on each episode. I got behind four weeks ago, but rather than give up, I'm going to just post\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/The_Story_of_Film-9.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32838,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/top-ten-americana-films\/","url_meta":{"origin":14537,"position":5},"title":"Top Ten: Americana Films","author":"Jandy","date":"July 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Wikipedia defines \"Americana\" as \"artifacts related to the history, geography, folklore, and cultural heritage of the United States,\" with \"patriotism and nostalgia playing a defining role in the subject.\" Since we're coming up on the American Independence Day this week, I thought it would be a good time to look\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Fargo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Altman-banner.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Altman-banner.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"nashville.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/nashville1.jpg\")
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