justincward There's 'Lost Highway', which isn't actually a very good play at all, there's 'Your Cheatin' Heart' (an Elvis movie with no Elvis because Tom Parker wanted royalties) starring George Hamilton who does his best with a truly atrocious script, and there's this, which is the one to see. Sneezy Waters depicts Hank doing the best bar gig in the history of music anywhere, of any genre. It's atmospheric, authentic and well staged, and Sneezy's Hank impression is very good - though Sneezy's far too old and his voice, while he gets the yodels OK, is not strong in the lower end. You can hear him struggling at times, which makes the audience's constant ecstatic reaction a bit strange. But not many actors can sing and vice versa.I found the quality of the video on the Echo Bridge DVD to be barely acceptable - played on a MacBook, it looked like it had been videoed off a TV screen. The scenes in the car are only just watchable, and the audio is somewhat muffled. That said, in a way this helps with the authentic atmosphere.

Lechuguilla Strumming his guitar and singing the songs he made famous, Hank Williams (Sneezy Waters), together with his band, entertains an audience at a typical roadside bar in this fictional account of what might have been, if the night of December 31, 1952 had been a little different. On that night in real life, Williams traveled by car from Montgomery, Alabama to perform a show in Charleston, West Virginia. He died en route.Director David Acomba uses that cold, snowy nighttime road trip as a structural frame, with Williams in the backseat talking about his life, his problems, his dreams, and his regrets. These brief interludes punctuate the fantasy performance at the bar, wherein individual songs introduce new sequences, in lieu of standard script plot points.Aside from the terrific music, what's really striking is the excellent cinematography. My best guess is that the DP used 16mm, low saturation film stock, resulting in grainy visuals, combined with sepia-toned hues of mostly browns, tans, and grays. There's little variation in the color palette. The photography creates a melancholy, almost depressing mood, and implies a dreamlike journey back in time.The film's costumes and prod design reflect the reality that the Great Depression had not completely gone away. Threadbare clothes, a wooden floor, plain overhead lights and other props imply hard times. Even Williams' outfit, though countrified, is not flashy.One would be hard pressed to find a better actor than Sneezy Waters for the role of Williams. His looks and that Southern vocal delivery scream Hank Williams.Minor complaints include my understanding that the film was not shot in the American South. I think it should have been. Second, I could have done without the little monologues Williams imparts to the audience. And the film's ending is a tad too doleful for my taste.The early 1950s were tough for working folks. Hank Williams, with his heartfelt, down-home songs came along at just the right time with just the right music for the common man and woman. This film captures not only the Hank Williams persona but also an era that is gone forever.

zerobeat I could have given this 10/10 if the version I saw wasn't so dark (some of the scenes were virtually all blackened out). I recognize the older Canadian production values here, which reminds me of "Going Down The Road" and various other CBC or NFB productions. There's a kind of unglamorous and unadorned realism that makes it all so wonderfully poignant.If I didn't know any better, I could have assumed an actual live show was being filmed with multiple cameras if I only saw a few minutes here or a few minutes there. Sneezy Waters is absolutely brilliant, both as a musician and as an actor. Loved the old guy doing the cagean dancing!

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.