mcmason-72160 This movie is a joke. It is an early 1960's very sanitized version of a great American song writer and singer. Hanks deserves much better than this. George Williams is simply not convincing as the singer. Only in Hollywood would anyone think pretty boy Hamilton could play the role of a rough and tumble street wise singer like Williams.

johnshinnick For its time, this movie was pretty good and somewhat gritty. It's black and white in an era when color was being used, so there was a sort of deliberately artsy quality about the effort. A lot of the movie, however, is plagued by melodrama, which cursed many of the films of the Sixties, Fifties and Forties. Today, the result doesn't wash. George Hamilton over- acts, but I suspect it's not entirely his fault. I blame the direction, the camera work (mostly the product of cumbersome technology at use in its day) and the editing. It was a good attempt, though, and a better than average effort for George Hamilton and for the film industry of its day. The music is good but the selections included in the film are too clipped, you hear a few bars of this and a few bars of that, but not the entire songs. This story needs to be retold with the quality of music as in the Johnny Cash story and the Ray Charles story, two fine biopics of recent vintage. If you are interested in Hank Williams and his prolific musical output, a better movie is "Hank Williams, The Concert He Never Gave." Now that's gritty, the acting, editing and storytelling are better, the music is superb.

krorie This is an exceptional musical biography of one of the greatest singer-songwriters-entertainers of the 20th century. Single handedly this country boy from the backwoods of Alabama changed American country music and in the process crossed over and changed popular music as well. His influence is still felt today from the legacy of Ray Charles to the driving force of Hank Williams Jr. Surprisingly the lead role in the movie is done quite well by George Hamilton, usually seen as just another pretty face in those days. It is amazing that fourteen-year-old Hank Jr. does such a fantastic job dubbing his dad's music for Hamilton. In some ways his rendition of Hank Sr.'s most poetic song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," is better than the original. He almost captures all the pain and loneliness of his dad's magnificent voice.Though there are many liberties taken with Hank Sr.'s life story, the film keeps the spirit of the man and the legend alive and burning brightly. One reason for the biographical changes besides poetic license to make the film more dramatic was the forced reliance on the no-talent Miss Audrey, Hank Sr.'s ex, as adviser for the movie and mentor for Hank Jr. who sang for his father. This led to all kinds of omissions and changes such as no mention of Hank Sr.'s new bride to whom he was married just before his untimely passing.The latest findings on Hank Sr.'s death, that he died from mixing alcohol and pain killers of the early 50's variety, does not conflict all that much with the ending of the movie. He did die in the backseat of his Cadillac while being chauffeured to a New Year's show in Canton, Ohio.Undoubtedly he died New Year's Eve 1952 but was not pronounced dead until New Year's Day 1953. Hank therefore has the unenviable distinction of having died in two different calendar years. I was nine years old at the time and I remember that my family (poor country folks from the hills of Arkansas) took it as if it were a death in the family. That is how much of an icon he had become during his few short years of stardom.So even though the facts of Hank's life may be wrong from time to time in the movie, his spirit is captured making this a great tribute to the man and his music.

bob wisener Anyone who believes this movie is a true depiction of Hank Williams' life must know nothing about the man's life or walked into the wrong movie. At age 10, after seeing this movie twice at my small town's theater, I almost had a fight with my best friend and next-door neighbor about the account of Williams' death, which anyone who knows the true story will find ludicrous. Meaning no disrespect to the actress or the person on this board who considers her a great actress, but Susan Oliver's on-screen appeal escapes detection. And asking George Hamilton to portray one of the most charismatic performers of the 20th Century is simply laughable. Red Buttons gives it the old college try and Arthur O'Connell is OK as Fred Rose. In the right hands, a film version of Hank Williams' life story might be compelling entertainment. This isn't it.