It was never really about the country music. I suppose that is why I, a general country music hater, still enjoys it so immensely. The music is the colour, its industry is the texture, but it is not the fabric. That is something far bigger and more definitive, something bolder and revealing still several decades removed. Robert Altman's Nashville , which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this summer (one of several great movies of that year, I may touch on another), is perhaps the most American movie ever made. It's very intentional on the surface -the film is draped all over in the American flag and obvious symbols and motifs of American national and cultural identity (Uncle Sam and the like); a strain of jingoism was already present in the industry it represents, and Altman was of course very conscious of the impending bicentennial the very next year -doubtless the country itself was in something of a fever for it. The movie is brazen with its American city title, the stars...
Criticism, Essays, and Ramblings from Another Online Film Critic. Support me on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/JordanBosch, follow me on BlueSky at https://bsky.app/profile/jordanbosch.bsky.social and jbosch on Letterboxd