I have learned throughout the course of The Art of Film II, that movies can be just as philosophical as books. I find philosophical art works to be arrogant as opposed to profound. Robert Altman has that issue in the film, Nashville. It is a movie with a poorly orchestrated plot and little to no entertainment value, much like the books that we are given to read in school. Also like the books that we read, Nashville is of the philosophical genre. I hate the philosophical genre. It is like political activism from somebody who speaks in metaphoric proverbs. I am more partial to similes like the previous sentence and this one.
In spite of my hate for the philosophical genre of art, Nashville was a great portrait of American culture. It was loosely connected series of events during the bicentennial of the USA. It portrayed a mixing of a little pop culture in an all-American setting. The setting truly was a good portrait of what America is like on average. The bars and public forums as well as the wide variety of characters were a great snapshot of our country. A snapshot of the USA is not complete without a political campaign. The presidential candidate in the film was campaigning on a generic platform that many senators and governors use even today.
I did not like the way it criticized show business and politics because the audience can not relate. If I were one of the hundred thousand famous people in this country of 300million people, then I guess I could relate to everything he was trying to convey, but I am not a corrupt politician yet.
Another issue that I have with Altman would be his boobs. It is hard to take a philosophical movie director seriously when he has boobs in his films. At least he did not write his own sex-scene (in the movies we saw), unlike Spike in Do the Right Thing. You could speculate that the producers made Altman have nudity in his films, but I would rather speculate that Altman had some creepy addiction.
I would like to say more but my parents want me to go read Leviticus 20:13 repeatedly after they read my last paragraph.
