Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave

Damn son! You done it! Whoever's responsible for this movie, you done it! I been drinking and listening to Hank for 50 years. And this is the real deal. Forget all them hats you hear on the radio today. They ain't. That's all I'll say about that. They just ain't. My mama listened to Hank on a battery powered radio cause they didn't have no electricity. But he pulled more heart and more soul out of that $10 radio than all these wannabes today who spend $10K on the clothes they wear onstage trying to make you believe they're country. Like hell. If they don't got an Academy Award for getting the most out of an audience, they ought to. And the interplay between 'Hank' and the audience in this film speaks volumes about a time and a place and a people that are just about gone. This is real country. Give it a look-see.

I've loved the songs and the singing of Hank Williams for many years. When I saw this film I felt as though I were watching Hank himself. The actor who portrays him is excellent, the songs wonderful. My only criticism is that the film could have been an hour or two longer, with a lot more songs. Any Hank Williams fan would have to love this movie.

I saw this film on the Finnish TV in the late 1980´s and haven´t seen it since. Sneezy Waters don´t look much like Hank Williams, but when the film was over, I almost believed, that I had seen Hank himself acting and singing (and not just play back). The story begins as Hank sleeps in the back seat of his Cadillac on the way to Canton, Ohio, and dreams of a gig that would be perfect for the audience and for himself. That dream reflects his severe problems in real life. Sadly, that gig never came true. Hank died that night, on New Year´s Eve 1953. This little film is a beautiful tribute to the Late Great Hank Williams.

I saw this about a decade ago, at Christmas, on HBO. I don't follow country music, but I knew of Williams from my sister. The story is almost a "Twilight Zone" tale; even as Williams, dying in his alcoholic haze, imagined an ideal concert, his fantasy is plagued by the demons that haunted his real life. The demons include the casual racism of country music of that time (although black music and country were intertwined), the celebrity-hungry fan who wants to seduce a famous person, and (as I recall) the basic despair of the audience, who have no other way to spend Christmas than to go to a bar and get drunk. The end of the fantasy, with Williams's haunting song about being deserted even by God, was devastating. I knew country music was nearly always sad, but I never thought it could approach existential despair. An unforgettable character portrait.

This is a movie that should be in the Smithsonian. It's a profound reflection of a time period that produced some of the best American music ever. I was very surprised to read at the end of the film that Hank Williams was only 29 when he died and that he had written over 700 songs many of them classic. I was born in '48 so he was not of my generation but after the 60's rock and roll died I came to appreciate the greats of the past like Hank and Bill Monroe. I think Sneezy Waters did an incredible job of acting. The writing was right on target for humor and the soulful journey that Williams must have experienced. He seems to be searching for a peace that eludes him. I didn't know he had written "I saw the light", which he sings here.