Blaze

I remember when Blaze Foley died. As an Austin resident, his murder and funeral were covered in the local newspaper. It was a bit of a big deal. He was only 39.

In this film, Blaze (born Michael David Fuller in Malvern, Arkansas) is portrayed by fellow Arkansan, musician-actor Ben Dickey, from Little Rock. Dickey represents Blaze and his music to perfection.

Charlie Sexton, older brother to Will, both local guitar legends, plays Blaze's late friend, Townes Van Zandt, and also serves as principal narrator of Blaze's life in the years of Blaze's professional life covered by the film.

Also herein, 'Blaze' and 'Townes' perform the worst duet of Townes's most famous song, "Pancho and Lefty," that I've ever heard as they're both drunk on stage in a bar.

On a bright side, director Ethan Hawke did a superb job of capturing the mood and atmosphere of Austin and Texas in those days as I remember them.

Blaze's ex/widow, Sybil Rosen, is portrayed in the movie by Alia Shawkat. There's a photo of them both together at an event for the movie in IMDb's photo collection for this entry.

I mean it's a little slow, you can pause this and have dinner, come back and finish it up, but I don't think it's a bad thing. You don't rush through a beautiful poem and then toss it aside! And this is a beautiful film. The songs are very well crafted and Ben Dickey and Alia Shawkat give compelling performances. Hawke is an adept film maker, his use of imagery was interesting and I felt he captured the laconic atmosphere of singer songwriter movement in the south during the seventies and eighties. I bet Hawke could make a decent western, no problem. If you have the time to invest and a interest in music this movie will reward you.

The music is good in the film, but I just don't feel it. The non linear narrative confuses me a lot, and I don't quite understand the story. It doesn't quite help that I find it quite boring due to the slow pace.

Blaze is an affectionately told story of songwriter Blaze Foley from the perspective of his wife, who wrote a memoir about him and co-wrote the screenplay with Ethan Hawke. As a result it is very personal, intimate and delicate, especially the love that Blaze and Sybil share. Their time together in the treehouse in the forest, when Blaze begins to write songs, when he conceives his public name, is very much about the opening of two human hearts and though Blaze talks about wanting to be a legend, there are no legends being depicted here just genuine feeling beings learning to express the delicate and precious parts of themselves. Sybil encourages Blaze to share his songs with the world and so they venture out of their intimate paradise.

The world is a bit harder and meaner and Blaze and his crew of singer-songwriters, including Townes Van Sandt, drink excessively. The film certainly does not take a moralistic view of this, but the damage it does to them and their interaction with the world is obvious. Ben Dickey as Blaze is an extremely nuanced and heartfelt performance. He loves with all of himself and he even hides his gifts with the same passion.

There are not many recordings of Blaze in existence, and it is the love of his friends that allows anything of the man's music to have survived. If the film communicates anything above the very moving and involving human drama, it suggests patience, respect and compassion for those on stage trying to communicate something with us that is complex, delicate and precious. Our world would be unliveable if people like Blaze did not risk their vulnerability to share their most gentle delicate parts with us. The attempted record company execs who tried to build a label around him didn't get it, though they must have recognised his talent. The audience didn't seem to get it, reacting to his anger and his defensiveness more than his music, but his friends did, and his lover certainly did. And so have the filmmakers, who offer us this delicate portrait in a way that can't be misunderstood, only felt.

As far as modern movie musicals of 2018 go, this is the best one of the year. It's quite slow at times but never lags, because of its great editing, jumping between different temporal narratives.

We are told the true life story of folk singer Blaze Foley, who is played magnificently by Ben Dickey. Blaze is as charming as he is obnoxious, but sings like an angel who's had one whisky and a pack of smokes too many, and at times he let's us glance at his emotional core which makes one forgive him all his many, many character flaws.

A good film worth watching. Recommended.