What Can a Film Made During the Bicentennial Teach Us Today?

The United States of Robert Altman’s Nashville feels familiar.

From Nashville / Alamy

“WE MUST BE doin’ somethin’ right to last 200 years,” proclaims the opening song of Robert Altman’s 1975 magnum opus Nashville. Over a dizzying five days, a cast of dozens of characters, all of whom feel true to life, stagger to put together a concert in support of a populist third-party presidential candidate. But the film’s plot is ultimately beside the point; what matters is the spirit Altman captures.

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