Nashville (1975)

Everyone is chasing something, and it's easy to forget how many others are chasing it right beside you. Robert Altman's "Nashville" weaves together 24 characters over five days in the country music capital, all leading up to a political rally for an unseen third-party presidential candidate, Hal Phillip Walker, whose campaign van roams the streets broadcasting his folksy slogans. Local lawyer Delbert Reese (Ned Beatty) is organizing the event while his marriage to gospel singer Linnea (Lily Tomlin) quietly frays. Fragile country star Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) and her rival Connie White (Karen Black) compete for the spotlight, while pompous Grand Ole Opry veteran Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) holds court. A womanizing folk singer, Tom (Keith Carradine), seduces several women, a BBC reporter named Opal (Geraldine Chaplin) roams around recording her pretentious observations and an aspiring singer (Barbara Harris) waits for her big break. Many of the actors wrote and performed their own songs, and Carradine's "I'm Easy" won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Altman's overlapping dialogue and freewheeling style capture the sprawling chaos of American life in the post-Watergate era, and the story builds to a shocking climax at the city's replica of the Parthenon. You'll feel like you've lived in the city by the time it's over.