Honkytonk Man (1982)

HONKYTONK MAN, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, screenplay by Clancy Carlile, cinematography by Bruce Surtees, edited by Ferris Webster, Michael Kelly and Joel Cox, music by Steve Dorff. Its a road movie, it features an interesting boy character who learns the harsh realities of life. The movies depiction of the depression is outstanding and the songs are good. Watch for Marty Robbins. One of Clint Eastwoods unusual films. The songs played are very soothing to the ear and the movie is very tragic. The movie is also bittersweet with the relationship between Eastwood and his nephew. This is a change for Clint Eastwood. He drops his tough guy persona and turns it into a completely different character. Clint and his son Kyle Eastwood shine together in this warmhearted adventure.

"Honkytonk Man" is like a dust sandwich... it's like being sucker-punched by a theme-park cowboy in Pioneer Town and lying on the ground while he pours Luke-warm Dr. Pepper on your face... it's like having to listen to a toothless old man with a guitar ramble on about days gone by, telling bold-faced lies and forgetting the lyrics to popular songs...Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little, but not by much. Clint Eastwood stars in and directs this coma-paced country/western daydream without any sense of plot, or urgency, or tension. Or humor.Clint plays Red Stovall, a country singer stricken with tuberculosis, except as usual, Clint is really just playing Clint, only this time he has a guitar. The movie floats from one vague encounter to another without any highs or lows or emotional significance. Clint plays a bad ass, then a balladeer, then a good ol' boy, then a bandit, without ever connecting any of the dots. The movie looks like it's stitched together from deleted scenes from Clint's other movies. That's not a compliment.The movie is a long, dry, musty road trip through the Depresson-Era dust bowl. And guess what?!? Grandpa's coming along for the ride! (That should liven things up.) I can't remember any movie ever seeming more LONELY... none of the actors elicit any kind of emotional response. Verna Bloom pops up to alert us that she's still lactating in her mid-forties, and Alexa Kenin is the bangable pubescent we'd all love to find in the trunk of our car.Other than that there's nothing going on here. I can't imagine what drove Clint to make this film, or how he could possibly justify its two hour-plus runtime. I'd prefer the sucker punch and Dr. Pepper.GRADE: D+

This movie has an okay story, a bit in the road-trip theme, and Eastwood's son, Kyle, is an okay actor, but the other actors don't impress me much. Eastwood didn't seem to care much about making the movie an authentic "period piece", and you will often see details in the background from modern times, as well as the haircuts, which are obviously from the early 80's. Several times he shows musicians and they seemed to put the least amount of effort into looking authentic. At the Grand 'Ol Opry, the female singer who is on after Eastwood is singing in a modern style, and anyone who listens to music from the 1930's knows that doesn't fit. Even the music the bands are playing has a 70's/80's sound to it. Maybe they should have got T-Bone Burnett as musical director! They could have had a band on in the vein of the Carter Family, instead. I guess they had a limited budget and it shows, but it could have been a much better movie than it turned out to be. Other things I noticed were, the cement curbs in the really luxurious looking cemetery in the film with all the green grass and trees...excuse me, this is in the 1930's, and as far as I can tell, most graveyards didn't look that maintained, as there was little money. Little things like that that kind of ruin the illusion of a rough period in the US. Even the cars sitting outside the Ryman Theater are highly polished and obviously collector pieces rented for the film and the owners didn't want to get any dust on them. With all the detail Eastwood put into his later masterpiece films, I am a little disappointed, but it is still a decent movie, I gave it a 6 out of 10.

As soon as I saw this movie I knew that the critics wouldn't like it. The characters are too real and don't have issues like creating great art. Instead they are all slightly offbeat in an ordinary sort of way.What appealed to me was how they survived in the Depression. There is a mental toughness in the characters that I couldn't help but admire. They don't have any sophistication but above all they come across as very real.The film has a real sensitivity and shows the ups and downs of ordinary people.For me it was a real winner.