---
title: "Nashville: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/nashville/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/nashville"
critics_score: 90
critics_reviews: 19
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Nashville (1975): what the critics said

Critics' score 90 from 19 reviews: 19 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative.

The consensus is emphatically positive: all 19 reviews praise Nashville, with agreement centring on Altman’s handling of the ensemble, overlapping dialogue and interwoven stories. Critics find a persuasive portrait of American ambition and self-deception in its country music scene, while repeatedly stressing the sympathy shown towards individual characters. The songs draw praise both as music and as occasions for revealing private feelings in public. Variety particularly singles out Ronee Blakley’s performances of ‘Tapedeck in His Tractor’ and ‘Dues’.

The differences concern emphasis and accessibility rather than fundamental objections. The AV Club stresses compassion over attack in its reading of the satire. Reservations are scattered: The New York Times finds a few sequences that mark time, Sight and Sound notes inaccuracies in songs and costumes, and Collider warns that the scope and style may overwhelm newcomers to Altman. Even the more restrained assessments remain firmly appreciative.

## Little White Lies — Glenn Heath Jr

Rating 5/5/5. 22 June 2021. 

The critic hails Altman’s masterpiece as a stunning epic layering of music and delusion in a 4K restoration, praising its relevant satire on America’s obsession with access and façades.

[Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/nashville-1975)

## Radio Times — Adrian Turner

Rating 5/5. 

It is Altman’s magnum opus, breathtaking in scope and ambition as a dazzling mosaic of two dozen characters reflecting America through music, comedy and tragedy.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-abe9m5/nashville/)

## The Times — Ed Potton

Rating ★★★★★. 1 February 2019. 

After 44 years the greatest of Altman’s sprawling ensemble movies is still captivating, with its huge cast, overlapping improvised dialogue, intertwining storylines and memorable tunes in the capital of country music. All of human life is here, along with the director’s hallmarks of subtle social commentary and non sequiturs.

[Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/nashville-1975-review-b9sczxmkj)

## The AV Club — Mike D'Angelo

Rating A. 18 December 2013. 

The review defends Nashville as a sympathetic portrait of the city's misfits, losers, and dreamers rather than an attack, highlighting Altman's virtuoso juggling of ensemble threads and emotional peaks in public performances. It praises the film's exploration of internal contradictions and the mix of ridiculous yet inspiring elements.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/robert-altman-s-nashville-is-no-attack-on-the-city-1798179036)

## Empire — Angie Errigo

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 

The BFI restoration highlights Altman's dazzling, innovative 1975 classic as one of the most accomplished and influential films of the 1970s. The critic praises its mosaic of interwoven characters and themes that define the 'Altmanesque' style.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/nashville-review/)

## Financial Times — Nigel Andrews

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 May 2021. 

In a retrospective on Altman’s radical oeuvre, Nashville (1975) stands as arguably his greatest work and the greatest ensemble drama in US film history, whose teeming large-cast energy prefigured later masterpieces. A restored version’s UK run is welcomed as part of rediscovering the director’s transforming artistry.

[Read the review](https://www.ft.com/content/8e66bcdb-d60c-4995-9d14-9f160a5aac4e)

## Los Angeles Times — Neal Gabler

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 5 June 2015. 

Gabler describes Nashville as one of the best and most influential movies of the last 40 years, an indelible masterpiece whose fragmented storytelling, improvisational approach, and understanding of American dreams broke rules and influenced others. He notes its polarizing reception at the time but affirms its lasting status as a classic.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-mn-nashville-robert-altman-20150607-story.html)

## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1975. 

Ebert calls it the best American movie since Bonnie and Clyde, praising how it creates a microcosm of 1970s America through two dozen characters and enlarges the viewer's experience of people and humanity. He singles out the film's closing sequence with Barbara Harris singing 'It Don't Worry Me' as unforgettable and heartbreaking.

[Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/nashville-1975)

## Slant Magazine — Chuck Bowen

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 29 November 2013. 

The critic calls Nashville one of the most revealing portraits of America ever made, celebrating its vast canvas of irreverent and destructive elements, empathetic scenes, and transcendence through music and characters. It notes the film's enduring stature as an ageless time capsule and uniquely American work, even if not Altman's absolute best.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/nashville/)

## The Hollywood Reporter — Arthur Knight

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 June 2015. 

The critic hails Altman's film as a vast, innovative masterwork exploring the appearances versus realities of the American scene through overlapping stories and characters in Nashville's music and political worlds. It praises the memorable ensemble, dense visuals and soundtrack, and calls it the most epochal American cinema event since Citizen Kane.

[Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/nashville-thrs-1975-review-802038/)

## The Independent — J. Romney

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 January 2005. 

Altman's re-released Nashville remains a bracingly unruly, manic pageant and radical experiment in open-form cinema. The critic singles out the overlapping dialogue and ensemble performances for creating a complex portrait of showbusiness and American denial.

[Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/nashville-15-15104.html)

## The New York Times — Vincent Canby

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 June 1975. 

Canby hails Nashville as the movie sensation against which all other 1975 American films will be measured, praising its enormous feeling, original and high-spirited qualities, and the way it showcases performers at career highs. He notes some weak spots like a few sequences that mark time but finds it the most provocative film Altman has made.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/12/archives/nashville-lively-film-of-many-parts.html)

## Time Out — GA

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. 

The critic calls it a landmark American film and masterpiece, lauding its influence, narrative style, overlapping dialogue and portrait of a society abandoning ideals for fame and expediency.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/nashville)

## Variety — Owen Gleiberman

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 July 2025. 

Gleiberman calls it a teeming, sprawling, exultant, tragic, transporting masterpiece that reshaped his view of America as fractured and atomized, with its form mirroring the randomness of life and everyone talking past each other. He singles out Ronee Blakley's performance of 'Tapedeck in His Tractor' and 'Dues' as one of the most transcendent sequences in cinema history.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/2025/film/columns/50-years-ago-robert-altmans-nashville-told-the-story-of-what-america-would-become-1236465293/)

## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 25 June 2021. 

The re-released 1975 ensemble epic remains a unique state-of-the-nation portrait whose continuous country soundtrack and overlapping stories capture the troubled mid-70s American zeitgeist with compassion and wit. Altman’s control of the sprawling material is wonderful, though the complex, non-mocking attitude to country music stands out as particularly striking.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jun/25/nashville-review-robert-altman)

## Sight and Sound

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 25 June 2021. 

The critic lauds Altman’s sprawling, kaleidoscopic portrayal of Nashville society as authentic and engaging, highlighting the music, faces and complex character interactions while noting some inaccuracies in songs and costumes.

[Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/nashville-1975-crams-music-city-into-bustling-slice-cinema)

## The Playlist — Jessica Kiang

Rating A+. 31 May 2016. 

The critic views the film as a snapshot of America through its country music scene, portraying a tangled web of strivers and characters in a bustling ensemble piece with overlapping dialogue and a rebellious sensibility. It praises the memorable, multifaceted characters and first-class soundtrack while noting its influence on later directors like Paul Thomas Anderson.

[Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/robert-altman-best-essentials-20160531/4/)

## Collider — Matt Goldberg

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 31 August 2021. 

The critic calls Nashville Altman's opus and praises its enduring relevance as an insightful look at American culture, obsessions, politics, and the entertainment industry that has not dated. They note its sprawling ensemble and technical achievements but caution that its scope and style may overwhelm first-time viewers of Altman's work.

[Read the review](https://collider.com/nashville-blu-ray-review/)

## The Skinny — Jamie Dunn

Rating ★★★★. 13 June 2014. 

The critic calls Nashville a masterpiece full of contradictions, an epic built from small personal dramas that forms a compelling state-of-the-nation address. They single out the fully formed characters and first-rate tunes for particular praise.

[Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/nashville)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/nashville.md