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IMDbPro

The Last Ride

  • 2011
  • PG-13
  • 1h 42m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
898
YOUR RATING
The Last Ride (2011)
A story centered on the final days of Hank Williams and the innocent young man hired to get him to an important concert.
Play trailer2:32
5 Videos
12 Photos
BiographyDramaMusic

At the end of 1952, with the best years of his career behind him, Hank Williams hires a local youth to drive him through the Appalachian countryside for a pair of New Year's Day shows in Wes... Read allAt the end of 1952, with the best years of his career behind him, Hank Williams hires a local youth to drive him through the Appalachian countryside for a pair of New Year's Day shows in West Virginia and Ohio.At the end of 1952, with the best years of his career behind him, Hank Williams hires a local youth to drive him through the Appalachian countryside for a pair of New Year's Day shows in West Virginia and Ohio.

  • Director
    • Harry Thomason
  • Writers
    • Howard Klausner
    • Dub Cornett
  • Stars
    • Henry Thomas
    • Jesse James
    • Fred Thompson
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.8/10
    898
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Harry Thomason
    • Writers
      • Howard Klausner
      • Dub Cornett
    • Stars
      • Henry Thomas
      • Jesse James
      • Fred Thompson
    • 18User reviews
    • 16Critic reviews
    • 45Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos5

    Theatrical Version
    Trailer 2:32
    Theatrical Version
    The Last Ride: Pass
    Clip 0:50
    The Last Ride: Pass
    The Last Ride: Pass
    Clip 0:50
    The Last Ride: Pass
    The Last Ride: Date
    Clip 0:57
    The Last Ride: Date
    The Last Ride: Dance
    Clip 1:24
    The Last Ride: Dance
    The Last Ride: Business
    Clip 1:07
    The Last Ride: Business

    Photos11

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    Top cast35

    Edit
    Henry Thomas
    Henry Thomas
    • Mr. Wells
    Jesse James
    Jesse James
    • Silas
    Fred Thompson
    Fred Thompson
    • O'Keefe
    • (as Fred Dalton Thompson)
    Kaley Cuoco
    Kaley Cuoco
    • Wanda
    Stephen Tobolowsky
    Stephen Tobolowsky
    • Ray
    Ray McKinnon
    Ray McKinnon
    • Stan
    Natalie Canerday
    Natalie Canerday
    • Nurse
    Danny Thomason
    • Dr. Stoneacre
    Lawrence Hamilton
    • Street Musician
    Graham Gordy
    Graham Gordy
    • Attendant
    Bill Butler
    • Bellman
    Mark Whitman Johnson
    • Trooper
    • (as Mark W. Johnson)
    James Hampton
    James Hampton
    • Judge Matheny
    Jeff Bailey
    Jeff Bailey
    • Maynard
    Dash Goff
    • Store Keeper
    Clint Albright
    • Old Man
    Matt Lindahl
    • Store Singer
    • (as Matthew Lindahl)
    Rick Dial
    • Dirty John
    • Director
      • Harry Thomason
    • Writers
      • Howard Klausner
      • Dub Cornett
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews18

    5.8898
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    Featured reviews

    4StevePulaski

    No matter how it struggles and strives, it never got out of its dullness alive

    Hank Williams is the one I cite as my favorite singer, period. I was exposed to the man's beautifully written, elegantly sung music several years ago, mostly from my grandfather - a connoisseur of classic country - and haven't stopped listening since. His songs possess a uniformed honesty and emotional resonance that is greatly lacking in every genre of music today, regardless of what you're a fan of. His music hits the warmest notes along with the coldest notes, turning every song-topic into a ballady, poetic work of incomparable and, for the time, subversive art. He is a singer that, in my opinion, contributed more to a genre in sixteen years than some artists do in a lifetime in the industry.

    It would seem that with TimeLife releasing many of Hank Williams' previously unreleased music and interviews and a film even being made on the man that Williams fans are still willing to pay hard-earned money for his work even though he has been dead for decades. I was always sort of mean-spirited to the thought that Johnny Cash could get a brilliantly-made biopic with A-list actors and accolades-galore but the real pioneer, Williams, couldn't so much as get an hour-long TV special about his impact and legacy on a genre.

    Well, now he at least has something; a film that details the infamous cross-country trip he took with an ill-prepared soul who wasn't even in store for the mental-strain and time-crunch it would take to get the singer to his shows in the briskest of weather, let alone his death in the backseat of the Cadillac they were driving in. Harry Thomason's The Last Ride proudly boasts its subject as "music's original bad boy" but gives him a film about as tame as a house-cat. This is a tired, by-the-numbers biopic that does little to emphasize the true beauty of Williams' as an artist and makes the young twenty-nine year old seem nothing more than a bitter codger whose achievements and accomplishments as nothing but accidental and a footnote in the creation of a huge, cultural genre.

    The plot: Silas (Jesse James), a young mechanic, is given the job as Hank Williams' (referred to as either "Luke" from his pen-name "Luke the Drifter" or "Mr. Wells," as directed by his old driver) driver in the late December month so that he can make his shows in West Virginia and Ohio, respectively. He is implored to prevent Williams, er, Wells from drinking and getting too rowdy, but this man, myth, and legend won't listen to some backwoods hillbilly who don't know nothing' about sorrow and woe. They set off in a bright blue Cadillac and attempt something of a mutual understanding.

    Williams is portrayed by Henry Thomas, who looks like 25% Hank Williams and 75% Brad Paisley. It's no bother, though, as he shows his competence for low-key material and humble dialog. However, writers Howard Klausner and Dub Cornett gives Thomas not much of a character. They somehow managed to turn Hank Williams, the godfather of country music and outlaw-isms, into a psychotic, shallow lunatic with a small giddiness for adventure and a caricature to house deep-rooted drug and alcohol problems.

    This is one of the strangest biopics in recent memory. It focuses on a huge man in one of his worst times with no indication or backstory on how he exactly got to the lows he is currently in, predicates itself off of an event that is interesting for a certain period of time before it becomes redundant, features a soundtrack of country songs not performed by the original artists, and bears only four songs even written by its subject that aren't even performed by him. The Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line at least found an actor who could sing Cash and sing him soulfully and majestically. The Hank Williams biopic barely even lets the subject's name be uttered at an audible level. What kind of loyalty and respect is that when you make a film about a singer but won't go as far as to let the audience hear one song by the man, let the actor portraying him to sing one song by the man, or even let his name be spoken? The southland is seen in a crisp, highly pictorial light, but it's all too much like a postcard, with little depth or interest in what made Williams truly embrace the culture and the atmosphere of it. The south and its norms played a significant part in Williams' songs and so did the topics of love and loss. Such themes are wholly absent here. I iterate the point that if the film began as a traditional biography, from the beginning to end of its subject life, it would be far more stable and less frazzled. Despite focusing on a specific point in the life of Williams, it still feels thin and unexploited.

    The fact that it at least has a potency in its southern visuals and solid direction is all well and good, but to what reward? A bigger Hank Williams fan than me I see soul-crushed and deeply hurt at the wasted opportunity here. A person looking simply for a biopic and a lesson on an extremely important musical and cultural figure will likely be letdown because of the film's lack of humanization or narrative depth. The Last Ride clocks in as one of the most disappointing films of the year. No matter how it struggles and strives, it never got out of its dullness alive.

    Starring: Henry Thomas, Jesse James, and Fred Dalton Thompson. Directed by: Henry Thomason.
    7dderrick2007

    Loosely based on Hanks last ride

    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!
    trailersam

    Autoanomaly

    I've never seen "The Car Hank Died In" in Nashville, so I can't tell if it's accurate. But at one point in the film, Hank was extolling it's virtues as a "ElDorado". The first ElDorados were made in 1953. They made 503, a figure widely argued as plus or minus a couple. It's signature wrap around windshield, the first, was still an inexact science, as glass changes when it cools. The bodies were hand built to fit the windshields, and both were slightly unique. Good movie, though. Since I have to write ten lines I will add my appreciation for the curious relationship between Sir Hank and the Driver. I love Hank's music, and a contemporary reported his reading girls' dime novels and explaining that there was where his lyrics came from. Like..."Your Cheatin' Heart Will Tell On You.". Yes Sir, it will.
    vitaleralphlouis

    This you ought to know...........

    I am an absolute fan of Hank Williams Sr and have been ever since 1954. But something just does not smell right about this movie....

    About 15 years ago there was a made-for-Canadian-TV movie "Hank Williams, The Show He Never Gave" which was a filmed version of a live show, originating in London. The creator of that show/DVD was an inspired Hank Williams fan who knew and understood Hank's great power and he created a movie that still ranks as a gut-level emotional powerhouse. I've seen it 6 times so far.

    "Your Cheatin' Heart" was a planned movie at MGM for 10 years before finally being filmed. It did not do Hank justice. Now comes this new one which looks like a cash-in on Hank's memory, and an imitation of an A+ movie already available. Proceed with caution, because a rip-off movie about Hank will surely make you angry.
    8etmore-207-103401

    A movie with a heart that is neither cold nor cheating.

    "The Last Ride" portrays the last days of legendary country western artist Hank Williams who died on New Year's Day in 1952 while traveling to a concert in Canton, Ohio. There is none of the smarmy sentimentality of the 1964 biopic You're Cheatin' Heart starring George Hamilton. Henry Thomas' Williams never sings a line or strums a chord. Instead, we see him staring waxy- eyed from the back seat of his Cadillac as he slowly succumbs to both substance and alcohol abuse and the residual affects of childhood Spinal Bifida. Occasionally he directs a pointed barb toward his newly hired driver who is frantically trying to get his celebrated passenger (the driver never seems to be aware of who his passenger actually is) to the appointed destination. It is this serendipitous pairing and resulting relationship of these two men, one celebrity and the other a ne'er do well, that is the heart, indeed the only real focus, of the film. By fits and turns, what starts as a cold, cold heart towards most of the rest of the world warms to one of a genuine love and respect between two people who can, in the end, truly call each other friends. As far as I know, this film has only shown in Arkansas and Louisiana to date. It deserves a much wider release and more critical review. It is one of the best movies of 2011.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      On December 30, 1952, Hank Williams hired Charles Carr, a freshman at Auburn, to drive him in his 1952 powder-blue Cadillac from Montgomery, Alabama to shows in Charleston, West Virginia and Canton, Ohio. Snow fell most of the way. The afternoon of December 31, Williams learned that snow had canceled his flight to Charleston. They checked into a Knoxville hotel. The hotel porters had to carry Williams, under the influence of two shots of morphine, to the backseat of the limo when it was decided that they would drive to Canton. The next morning, in Oak Hill, West Virginia, Carr found Williams dead, lying in the same position in which the porters had placed him. Carr remained in Montgomery and worked in investment and real estate until he retired. He died in July 2013, at age 79.
    • Goofs
      After agreeing to hire him, Stan tells Silas: "Be at this address Monday at 8:00." When Silas picks up Mr. Wells, "December 30, 1952" is on the screen. December 30, 1952 was actually a Tuesday.
    • Soundtracks
      Hey, Good Looking
      Written by Hank Williams

      Performed by Jett Williams

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    FAQ

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • June 22, 2012 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Последняя поездка
    • Filming locations
      • Sherwood, Arkansas, USA(Roundtop Filling Station where Silas meets the female attendant who he asks for a date)
    • Production companies
      • Mozark Productions
      • Category One Entertainment Group
      • LiveBait Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $9,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $27,000
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $16,270
      • Oct 23, 2011
    • Gross worldwide
      • $27,000
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 42 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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