The Last Ride

This was quite an entertaining movie that I will definitely watch again when I just want to relax and see a 1950's period thought provoking movie based loosely on the last few days of the great(est) country singer Hank Williams. Most documented accounts of Hank Williams show him as a great musical talent with a rebellious streak and often in an inebriated state.

The Last Ride portrays Hank Williams as a very sickly and anemic but valuable musical commodity that needs to be chauffeured to his next music gig. Assigned the task of getting Hank (whose alias whilst travelling is Mr. Wells) to his next concert venue is a young man named Silas played by Jesse James. Silas however has no clue that he is going to be the chauffeur for the great Hank Williams because he has lived a very sheltered life through his early teens without access to any media including even a transistor radio.

Negotiating by telephone with Hank Williams' road manager named O'Keefe played by the seasoned and competent actor Fred Dalton Thomas, Silas tries his darnedest to keep alias Mr. Wells/Hank Williams on the straight and narrow but Mr. Williams notoriety precedes himself and he continues to drink, dance and fight along their road trip.

Silas also gets temporarily distracted by a cute gas station attendant named Wanda played by TV's Big Bang star Kaley Cuoco. Silas tries not to let his heart interfere with his current custodial and driving duties for Mr Williams, but Hank tells Silas that he can survive in a country bar for a few hours without him and Hank advises Silas to take the car and one of Hanks' crisp $100 bills and go out on a date with the young gas attendant and cutie-patootie Wanda, and live life for a few hours and feel true love.

Gradually the bond between Hank and Silas grows, and the movies theme of a music legends star fading slowly, and a young teen who has not experienced life before meeting Mr Williams getting brighter each day intertwine.

This is by no means a movie epic, but a simple heart warming look in to the last few days of music legend and rebel rouser Hank Williams as he comes to realize as he reflects on his unfulfilled life without any true friends.....except maybe, just maybe, his last chauffeur Silas, assigned to taking his new friend and confidant, Mr Williams for his last ride.

It's 1952, small town boy Silas (Jesse James) is hired to drive Hank Williams (Henry Thomas) to a couple of New Years shows. However snow and other incidents keep the couple from reaching the shows until it all ends sadly.

Jesse James is too weak. He's playing the character as if he's a child. Then there is Henry Thomas who is around 40 playing a 29 year old guy. I know Hank Williams is supposed to be wore out at that time. But the story is missing something when Williams looks like he's an old man instead of a wore out young man. There is a difference. Then there is the gorgeous Kaley Cuoco playing country girl running a filling station. She looks too good. She looks like a Hollywood starlet passing for a country girl.

Finally there is the story itself. It lacks any tension. The script is thin on any substance. It tries to ride along with Henry Thomas' posturing. There just isn't enough there to justify a whole movie. Only the ending is there anything dramatic.

Harry Thomason's The Last Ride made me very self and health conscious.

My mind wondered throughout most of its' transitions about my own health, as the driver Silas - played by Henry Thomas - throughout most of the ride there, gradually became less and less of a chronic cigarette smoker as a result of seeing his mysterious passenger in the backseat slowly coughing and struggling to death more and more for fresh air, a pack of smokes, or newer bottles of alcohol.

By the time they get to the last gas station, before The Last Ride's ultimate climax, I think Silas, unnoticeably quits smoking, before a girl at the pump tells him he is this gas stations last customer. The owner of it died last year of a black lung so this is the gas stations last night of being open for business.

The Last Ride starring – that's right – Jesse James as Hank Williams is about Hank Williams' last ride out, to a show somewhere in West Virginia. Two things I considered high brow about The Last Ride are as follows. One thing was The Last Ride, wasn't nearly as autobiographical as you could imagine any movie about a legendary country singer like, say Ray Charles, or Johnny Cash being, as much as it was more so about his last ride, in a literal sense, out to some gig he had in a random place and the relationship he developed with the young man, Silas, employed to get him out there safely.

Williams was an alcoholic and chronic cigarette smoker too so it was the drivers' responsibility to get out there sober, while Silas is already worried about getting him out there alive. Another thing was how obvious Thomason didn't make the identity of Williams as a legendary country singer. I had to get out my laptop for research on the last ride to figure out who the mysterious passenger was because I don't think they ever tell you throughout this picture.

Altogether I would say the last ride is about Hank William's posthumous fame.

Silas doesn't listen to the radio so all he knows about his mysterious passenger the whole way there is that he is an alcoholic musician that carries a gun and won't stop being incredibly mean to him, while scolding him all of the time for calling him sir. But the funnier thing about that is Williams won't give Silas any other name to refer to him as.

I think Silas learns of his passenger's traveling name by accident through a long distance phone call he has with an employer who is supposedly his employer, played by some guy whose been a senator for Tennessee for a couple of years and he didn't even mean to give Silas that information. Silas wasn't even supposed to have this guy's number because he is not in fact who originally hired this driver. It's just a weird movie, whose overall story structure run on a lot of obscure Lynchian fuel that you may have seen in either Lost Highway or Refn' latest nominated Drive, starring Ryan Gosling.

The aesthetic liberties taken with the mechanics of The Last Ride's story structure is what I think makes up for all that it lacks in cinematography. You can tell they had a budget during the filming of The Last Ride. Altogether in retrospect I see The Last Ride as a hood classic whose mystery comes from what the film doesn't tell you throughout its' duration, about what is actually taking place.

Audiences shouldn't go into the last ride knowing who that mysterious musician alcoholic passenger is. Aside from all of the mystery, movies like that about people with fighting chances that they can't stop blowing are usually touching to general audiences because the premise of them is normally in regards to their last chance and the main character of every movie like that never knows how close he is to that last breath, much like each and every one of us.

The conservative nature of The Last Ride's scheme is what I think keeps it from venturing too far into anything sentimental or philosophical so its' a lot more chill and a lot less bias than most autobiographical films usually are.

I give it 7 stars because I really enjoy this story which I consider to be "loosely" based on Hank Williams final road trip. I know this movie has accuracy problems and the cgi snow is pretty unbelievable. I find it hard to accept Arkansas as the primary location for filming but glad to see the old mill from Gone With The Wind make an appearance! I recommend this movie but don't be looking for an exact telling of Hanks final hours. Just watch and enjoy!

When done right some of the best films out there are those dealing with real life people, especially those that have become icons in the entertainment industry. For some reason some get the big budget treatment and others seem to be left to the straight to video or limited run route. The latest is The Last Ride focusing on Hank Williams senior, but takes an interesting direction with the tale, but does it deliver?

The Last Ride follows the end of 1952, with the best years of Hank Williams's career behind him, he hires a local kid to drive him through the Appalachian countryside for a pair of New Year's shows in West Virginia and Ohio. This is one of those films that is a bit hit and miss depending on how you look at it. On one side it is pretty intriguing the direction and time period that they chose to go with to tell this story of Hank Williams. While entertaining it is almost a bit of a letdown as this isn't really a Hank Williams story at all, but still is. This film plays more of a character study that relies mostly on the performances and the direction in hopes to tell this story in a way that is different than most of its kind. Through most of the film the lead character has no idea who he is driving around, which in turn makes it engaging waiting for that big reveal moment when he knows, but sadly that point never comes. There is no doubt he realizes, but it isn't played up as much as you might think and will probably be anticipating. On the flip side the performances are all pretty well executed keeping what could have been a slow boring film engaging and worth the time spent. There are some strange choices regarding green screen at times for some driving moments, but also seems to give it an old film feeling that kind of works with the time period.

This isn't a perfect film by any means, but is interesting on a few levels. The choice of what time they chose to make the focal point and lack of ever using any of him performing in the movie or even the soundtrack makes it a big risk but does manage to payoff. The overall film plays out more like a well-made TV movie, but these days is not necessarily a bad thing. Filled with a great cast and easily one of Henry Thomas' best performances in some time The Last Ride manages to keep your attention and take you on a trip worth riding along for, especially for those that are fans of Williams. Just know going into this film it is not the story of Williams struggle in the music industry, but his struggles in life when it was probably time to hang up his hat.