MovieChat Forums > Nashville Discussion > Hidden Moments of Genius

Hidden Moments of Genius

posted 17 years ago by ljcostello_22
32 replies | jump to latest

Those things that are hilarious but otherwise not so noticeable to the average viewer:

+At 1:53:55 -- the scene where Tom calls Linnea to invite her to the Exit/In.
Linnea is staring at the camera and just as Tom tells her who it is, you hear the cuckoo clock go off in the background.

+At the racetrace -- One car has Haven Hamilton's elaborate logo on the hood while another has "Tommy Brown" just stenciled in a small area.
+Haven handing Tommy some watermelon.

+ When Barbara Jean is in the hospital, on her bedside table is a small framed photo of Haven. As if sending multiple flower bouquets in the shape of his "HH" logo weren't enough.

+ The characterture drawing Kenny taped to the outside of his violin case. He actually had that drawn out at Opryland.

+ When Albuquerque wakes up in the back of the car -- Tricycle Man and drives by a gas station where the Hal Philip Walker van is filling up and checking under the hood.

Others??

"No wonder we often know how to make a watch, but we don't know the time of day." -- H.P. Walker

[–] shroomn 17 years ago

During the first studio take, when the son blows a bubble of gum and the father supposedly tells him to stop. Meanwhile he chews VERY pronounced behind him.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] choochooman7 17 years ago

Oooh. Clever!

[–] ljcostello_22 17 years ago

I suppose we can't really expect some people to truly appreciate a classic "film".
Especially when there aren't a ton of special effects or overzealous marketing behind it... let alone that it didn't start out as a comic book or something having to do with computer games.

That was so cute that you ventured over here to the grown-up film boards tho.

"No wonder we often know how to make a watch, but we don't know the time of day." -- H.P. Walker

[–] Loomis_Orange 17 years ago

Close the beginning of the film when the cars were driving up when that acoustic song about "America" is being sung... A loud voice can be heard saying/warning "You're goin' the wrong way! You're going the wrong way!" These were the Watergate years when this movie was being made.

[–] sockmonkey-3 17 years ago

The marching band playing "One I Love You" at the Airport always cracks me up.

[–] reservoirdogqt92 17 years ago

To me probably the most beautiful thing in the film is simply when we see people watching the concert with "It Don't Worry Me" playing. Such a simple decision to film people, and it turned into cinematic greatness.

[–] johnsmoothie02 16 years ago

H P Walker's policies

willing to battle vast oil companies,
eliminate subsidies to farmers,
tax churches,
abolish the electoral college,
change the national anthem
and remove lawyers from government,
especially from Congress.

Full bit below;

Little more than a year ago,

a man named Hal Phillip Walker...

excited a group of college students
with some questions:

Have you stood
on a high and windy hill...

and heard the acorns drop and roll?

Have you walked in the valley
beside the brook,

walked alone and remembered?

Does Christmas
smell like oranges to you?

In a commencement speech such
questions were fitting, perhaps,

but hardly the material with which
to launch a presidential campaign.

Even those who pay
close attention to politics...

probably saw Hal Phillip Walker
and his Replacement Party...

as a bit of frost
on the hillside...

summer, if not late spring,
would surely do away with all that.

Well, now that summer,

along with presidential primaries,
is heavy upon us...

and the frost is still there,

perhaps we should take
a closer look.

Hal Phillip Walker is,
in a way, a mystery man.

Out of nowhere, with a handful
of students and scarcely any pros,

he's managed to win
three presidential primaries...

and is given a fighting chance
to take a fourth... Tennessee.

A win in that state would
take on added significance,

for only once in the last years
has Tennessee failed to vote...

for the winning
presidential candidate.

No doubt many Americans,
especially party liners,

wish that Hal Phillip Walker
would go away,

disappear like the natural frost...

and come again at
some more convenient season.

But wherever he may be going,

it seems sure Hal Phillip Walker
is not going away,

for there is genuine appeal...

and it must be related
to the raw courage of this man...

running for president, willing
to battle vast oil companies,

eliminate subsidies to farmers,

tax churches,
abolish the electoral college,

change the national anthem...

and remove lawyers from government,
especially from Congress.

At this point it'd be wise to say
most of us don't know the answer...

to Hal Phillip Walker,

but to answer
one of his questions,

as a matter of fact, Christmas has
always smelled like oranges to me.

[–] marjuhartley 16 years ago

After many years, I saw the movie again last night and the excerpts you cited hit home vis a vis the recent election. Clearly, 35 years later, the parallels with the appeal of Obama are striking.

[–] Krustallos 16 years ago

Except of course that Obama is a lawyer and is a million miles away from doing any of those other things. But all the same, point taken...

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

[–] Zando777 14 years ago

Not really a lawyer (just an affirmative action law school admit), but yeah, no real convictions to do anything positive.

[–] Hairy_Lime 14 years ago

Also, an instructor in Constitutional law at the University of Chicago. And the law school you claim, on the basis of no evidence, he was an affirmative action admittee to was Harvard. And whatever went on in his admission - Harvard does not need to reach to admit African Americans, the best and brightest from all schools apply there, and given the way the admission process works he was probably more helped by his service as a community organizer than his race - he was named Editor in Chief of Harvard Law Review. Being named to Law Review is an honor which anyone with even a surface familiarity with law schools can tell you comes only to the people at the very, very top of the class. Becoming editor in chief is even more prestigious. Which means he was at the very top of his class in the most prestigious law school in the country. So, suck on it, hater.

I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man: which of us is possessed?

[–] Zando777 14 years ago

Yeah, bobama was also a moronic fraud who makes no sense.

[–] Hairy_Lime 14 years ago

REally? I realize the date of your posts, but HPW is the Tea Party foreseen. And before that, Perot. Very little of Obama in him. But I suppose a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest, as they say.

I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man: which of us is possessed?

[–] Krustallos 13 years ago

Tea Party?

battle vast oil companies,
eliminate subsidies to farmers,
tax churches,
abolish the electoral college,
change the national anthem...
and remove lawyers from government

Are you sure about that?

I got the distinct impression the Tea Party were pretty fond of churches. I'm not sure of their policy on farm subsidies but in general the Right's opposition to government spending seems only to be when they think it's going into the pockets of black people in the inner cities. And anyone who thinks a Santorum-type government would battle the oil companies surely has little grasp of reality. The Tea Party is owned and operated by the extremely wealthy, solely in their own interests, only their followers are too flat-out stupid to realise it.

Perhaps Ralph Nader is a little closer than most real-life candidates to the programme above, but no mainstream US politician has even suggested one of those policies as far as I'm aware.

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

[–] information_police 14 years ago

Far from hidden but brilliant -

the ditzy Brittish reporter missing the biggest story of her career at the end.

The hugh flag ripple on the side of the Parthenon behind Barbara Jean's final song is the most majestic thing I've ever seen.

Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate.

[–] cookiela2001 9 years ago

The huge flag ripple on the side of the Parthenon behind Barbara Jean's final song is the most majestic thing I've ever seen,

And the flag has a huge, divisive crease in it, to the Right...

.

[–] hdsc-9-390947 14 years ago

Tom (Carradine) always plays his own music (probably) during, but definitely after, having sex?

[–] Hairy_Lime 14 years ago

I'll give you four genius moments of a movie chock full of them:

1. Haven Hamilton, when Opal interrupts him talking with Elliot Gould:

"I'll not tolerate rudeness in the presence of a star." (sidelong glance at Gould) "Two stars."

2. The dissolve from Mr. Green's sob on hearing of his wife's death to the laughter of Opal and Triplette.

3. "It was kinda... hot and wet."

4. Gwen Welles, leaning against the pillar, unable to realize her big break is not coming.

I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man: which of us is possessed?

[–] captain-elguapo 13 years ago

1. Haven Hamilton, when Opal interrupts him talking with Elliot Gould:

"I'll not tolerate rudeness in the presence of a star." (sidelong glance at Gould) "Two stars."

Yep comic genius. Was watching Nashville the other night and Im still laughing thinking about that scene. Haven is so self important, but he ultimately shows himself to be a good man.
Right before that scene though was an equally funny moment when Haven's son is serenading the British reporter and she looks like shes digging it when all of a sudden she breaks off and screams: OH MY GOD ITS ELLIOT GOULD!!!!

[–] Hairy_Lime 13 years ago

Yes, another great moment. It's Buddy's (Whose dreams of music success are squashed by his father) one moment to try to get someone to listen to his music. And she won't listen either. Funny as hell. And so sad.

I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man: which of us is possessed?

[–] Cultfilmfeverforever 13 years ago

The ending was prophetic. One seizes another's misfortune to become infamous. Another seizes another's misfortune to become famous. One event created two divergent paths to celebrity.

[–] cookiela2001 9 years ago

4. Gwen Welles, leaning against the pillar, unable to realize her big break is not coming.

And the way Sueleen's lips are moving as the camera pans by her while Barbara Jean sings My Idaho Home, like she's quietly singing this song she knows well along with her.

This is someone who learns someone else's songs by listening to the radio, not by rehearsing their own.

.

[–] Acceler8 13 years ago

I finally found a post I made just before NASHVILLE was finally released on DVD. I'll reproduce it here as my contribution to great, favorite, or memorable moments:

Well, just one more week till the long-awaited, twice postponed DVD of NASHVILLE is released. I thought I would have to live with my taped-from-TV, pan-and-scan version for infamy, but now it's only one more week until once again we...

listen to Haven Hamilton's views on Bicentennial America in song, setting the scene and reminding us of the time when the movie came out.

hear Barbara Jean greeted at the airport by all the little cheerleaders and that excessively ornamented National Anthem.

watch the highway pileup, and Opal mistaking Tommy Brown and his wife for the people who work for him.

follow all the overlapping conversations, while Jeff Goldblum goes through the whole movie wordlessly.

experience the political campaign, with the ubiquitous Hal Phillip Walker speech truck, Haven buttered up to be governor, and of course Lady Pearl.

hear four people nicknamed after animals. (Do you remember them?)

see the high-stomping dancers at the Opry Belle and the two violinists plucking their strings to the right behind the singing Barbara Jean (great test of the theatre's stereo system!).

realize that every woman in the club thinks Keith Carradine is singing "I'm Easy" to her.

sample all the different church services, and Opal waxing philosophical in the junkyard.

enjoy all the great songs, many written and performed by the actors themselves.

and finally, witness the events at the Parthenon and wonder yet again, "Why did ----- do it?" [I was very spoiler conscious, even so long after the movie came out. In fact, I remember resenting that Roger Ebert spoiled it on his show when he reviewed the DVD.]

Anybody have any other favorite moments?

[–] gittes98 10 years ago

Anybody have any other favorite moments? Yes, from the opening b&w Paramount logo to the chorus singing It Don't Worry Me 157 minutes later.

[–] vimoxyclean 10 years ago

I don't know why I found this tiny detail as funny as I did, but at Haven Hamilton's little shin-dig in that log cabin in the woods: A point is made to show 30+ freakin bottles of Jack Daniels on every table, and whiskey in ever glass-- but Haven Hamilton himself is drinking a highball of milk.

[–] matt72582 10 years ago

When the chaffeur (can't remember the "help's" name) comes into Tom's room and takes his guitar, plays a little, and notices it's out of tune... I think it shows looks have a lot to do with it. Even if the "help" is a very talented guitar player, he'll never reach above a chauffeur because he doesn't look like Tom, the long blonde hair, etc.

[–] 10 years ago

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