Can't believe I've taken this long to reply re: Nashville. It is simply the movie that has had the biggest influence on my life since I first had the honor of viewing it one hot August day in Seattle in 1975. Leaving the theatre dazed, numbed and shattered, in a way only a truly great work of art is able to accomplish, at having seen something so unique and so powerful it helped this then 21 year old Canadian see life and the possibility of film in an entirely different light. That's a pretty lofty thing for a movie to do, but Nashville is the most defining movie of my lifetime, the one that all others were judged by or compared to. Over the years I have viewed this movie countless times in second-run, revival houses, and even on television where it's impact is of course diluted by commercials and indifferent presentations It was the first movie I bought on DVD, even before I owned a player and have scoured newspapers, books and magazines long before the access of the internet to read everything available on this film. Unfortunately, Nashville's reputation suffered during the dark years of the 1980-90s (the complete exclusion from the AFI's list of 100 greatest films of all time was especially vexing but rallied a bit with its availability on DVD. True, it is a love it or hate it movie, most great works of art do bring out these strong emotions and I have experienced both during the close to 30 years since the movie's release, but for those of us who love it, there are very few others that compare.
