garfield-09613 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.

vitaleralphlouis People who know Hank Williams know that he wasn't just the greatest star of country music who ever lived, he was the greatest who ever will live. With license on personal loan from God himself, Hank reached into the hearts of many of us when we were in a dark corner of our lives and helped pull us back. This miraculous film originated in London as a stage play and now comes to us as a video from Canada. The entire action takes place within a two hour time frame on the New Years Eve when Hank died. It envisions his going into a smoky bar and playing a show for the folks. The story is told through his songs and remarks. Important to know is that the show's creator fully understood Hank's legacy and thereby touches all the right buttons. This is the most emotional movie I've ever seen and I'm personally on a diet allowing no more than one screening every two years for the emotional drain of watching it. On the other hand, I've seen people watch it and simply enjoy the ample good music, with no trace of the buckets of tears that one might observe if they watched with me.

Thomas E. Reed 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.

pekka.hallikainen 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.