Honky-Tonk Man-The Times and Troubles of Hank Williams-I Saw The Light (2015)-A Film Review  

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

I Saw The Light, starring Tom Huddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, 2015  

I remember one time several years ago in reviewing a Hank William Golden Classic CD telling the story that although I was Northern born boy I had actually been down in the South while I was in my mother’s womb. Now that would not be of any particular note except somehow country music long suppressed was in my genes, made up my DNA since I did not find out until much later that my own father played in a country music band, did covers of Hank Williams’ songs so you can see where I have made a special exception when it comes to Hank. My late mother told me that my father would sing Cold, Cold Heart to me to quiet me down as a baby. So except for maybe an outlaw country minute in the early 1980s when country music was moving away from Nashville and the Grand Old Opry restraints Hank is the only member of that genre I give a bye to. And off of a viewing of the film under review, I Saw The Light, I made no mistake in that decision.    

Probably everybody knows a Hank Williams song, or a cover of it because almost everybody from pop to folk to rock and roll has tipped his or her hat to the man, one example no question being the elusive Bob Dylan who as shown in an old time documentary Don’t Look Back even in his most folky heyday was sitting up in his hotel room in some far off land singing The Lost Highway.  (You can see that segment on YouTube). I have chosen that particular song because Hank’s whirlwind live aptly fits the lyrics to the song. The film deals in passing with his young life starting out being escorted everywhere by a very demanding mother who had some sense that her son was a notch above the hokey stuff that was passing for country music back in the mid to late 1940s when Hank began to make his mark. Deals as well with the usual musician’s dilemma of getting a hearing from some record company who will take a chance on the performer.

The heart of the film though deals with the other stuff besides the music. First off his stormy love-hate relationship with his first wife Audrey who drove him crazy (and he she) and which created the ups and downs of his life. Then there was the drinking and drugs (the drug part as usual with all performers then keep hidden by a wall sealed with seven seals). The physical medical problems too some of which contributed to his early death. And the other women, including wife number two, which gave him his reputation as a honky-tonk man as per the title of this entry. 

But in the end you really do have to go back the music, the incredible number of songs that he wrote and that were serious hits in that short six year span when he was the king-hell-king of the hill in country music. More than that though the effect of music can be summed up in the scene in the film where he was being interviewed by a reporter who asked him why he was so popular. Answer: his songs made the average listener forget about their woes. That was a heavy burden to carry, in the end too heavy. See this well-done film with great covers of Hanks’s songs done in his style and with his energy.