History Film / Nashville

* Barbara Jean (Creator/RoneeBlakley), the darling of the country music world. She is frail, lonely, and worn out both physically and emotionally, but [[StepfordSmiler tries to keep a smile on anyway]]. She is also responsible for more than a few of the film's best musical moments. Blakley's performance earned her an [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] nomination for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActressInASupportingRole Best Supporting Actress]].

* Tom Frank (Creator/KeithCarradine), the most famous third of the folk-rock trio Bill, Mary, and Tom. A self-loathing womanizer, he has several trysts over the course of the film. Carradine won the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestOriginalSong Best Original Song]] Oscar for "I'm Easy", which he performs as Tom in-universe.

* JustForPun: When Haven meets with John Triplette (Hal Phillip Walker's campaign manager) at his party, Lady Pearl, Haven's companion, tells Triplette Haven breeds Tennessee Walker horses, to which Haven says, "Mr. Triplette knows all about Walkers." [[ActuallyPrettyFunny Triplette chuckles at this]].

* John Triplette (Creator/MichaelMurphy), an operative for dark horse presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker whose slick, smooth-talking recruitment tactics to attract big-name singers for the concert stands in stark contrast to Walker's folksy, homespun image.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** Creator/RobertAltman directed several later films that clearly seemed like attempts to replicate the style and spirit of ''Nashville''. ''Film/ShortCuts'' (juggling a similar number of characters over a few days in Los Angeles) and ''Film/APrairieHomeCompanion'' (in some ways like a full-length version of the ''Nashville'' Grand Ole Opry sequence) were deemed the most successful (both films also feature Creator/LilyTomlin). ''A Wedding'', ''[=HealtH=]'', ''Film/{{Popeye}}'', ''O.C. & Stiggs'' (a SharedUniverse film, since Hal Phillip Walker is a character), ''Film/PretAPorter'' and ''Kansas City'' also could count, in varying degrees. ''Film/ThePlayer'' and ''Film/GosfordPark'' were more straightforward films that borrowed a bit of ''Nashville'''s approach.
** There's also Alan Rudolph's 1976 film ''Welcome to L.A.''. Rudolph was Altman's top protégé, was the assistant director on ''Nashville'', and Altman produced the film. It boasts a similar HyperlinkStory, music by Richard Baskin (who appears onscreen throughout), and shares three cast members with ''Nashville'' (Creator/KeithCarradine, Gerladine Chaplin, Allan Nicholls).

* PlayingGertrude:
** Keenan Wynn was 58 at the time of filming, but Mr. Green is clearly supposed to be at least a decade older than that and Wynn plays it convincingly.
** His age isn't stated, but Haven is clearly much older than 39 year old Henry Gibson, considering he has a son old enough to have graduated law school and passed the bar.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Haven is pretty supportive of his son. Also, his actions at the rally [[spoiler: after he and Barbara Jean are shot]] speak for themselves:

** His age isn't known, but Haven is clearly much older than 39 year old Henry Gibson.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: A frequent trope for Altman.