Please don't spend money on this.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I just watched this movie again the other day, after not having seen it since it came out in 1964. But I'm not sure if one of my favorite scenes in this movie ever happened! When Hank and Audrey go to meet Fred Rose in his Nashville office in 1946, he asks Hank to write a song about seeing an old love, and then takes Audrey out to coffee meanwhile. They return later, and Hank has come up with a few verses of "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)" right to Rose's specification. I thought this was a great event, but according to some biographers from his band, Hank wrote that famous tune in the back of the touring car. He didn't record it until 1951, so I doubt he wrote it in 1946. In one online article about Rose and Williams, this event is said to be factual; but I suspect the author got it from this movie. - Am I wrong on this? - Of course, his last wife is absent from the film. His morphine addiction is missing. That, with his alcohol abuse, maybe was due to pain from a congenital missing disc in his back. And he died lying in the back seat of his car with a bottle of booze, having had a few morphine shots earlier, during a long drive. I don't imagine he did any singing in a roadside bar during that car trip. However, the beautiful scene at the end, with the audience singing to mourn him, did happen, I am happy to find out. So, as many reviewers here say, this film is apparently not accurate, but it is still a fun movie. Apparently, Hank's first wife, Audrey, wrangled with MGM for 10 years over the plot, delaying the movie.But I am looking forward to the Tom Hiddleston portrayal of Hank in "I Saw the Light", coming out in November 2015. I hope they get all the details of his all too short, gritty life right this time ! There's a clip on the web now.Like Janis Joplin, only the cool die young.

Ultimately Unsatisfying and Tepid Biography of Hank Williams Sr. It Suffers from a Low-Budget Look but Remains Interesting and inspirational Mainly because of the Mythological Implications and the Genius of the Singer/Songwriters Legacy. Justifiably Considered one of the Best and Influential Recording Artists of the Twentieth Century Williams Combined Blues and Hillbilly into a Template of Rustic Simplification of White Poor Folks Woes that was to Become the Nucleus of Country Music as it is Known Today.The Movie without Doubt leaves a lot to be Desired. George Hamilton gives it a Yeoman's Effort to bring a Pop Cultural God down to Earth but the Task was Beyond His Abilities. But it is not Awful and while Pedestrian is Substantial Enough to just be Passable. Historians are Quick to Point Out that the Film is Whitewashed and Almost Insignificant. Most Blame is put on Hank's First Wife Audrey who took Control of the Film's Production much like She did with Williams's Career. The Result, they Maintain, was almost Blasphemous in its Manipulation and Myth Making.In the End it is not a Worthless Movie. it can Inspire, mostly due to the Great Songs, to Invite the Uninitiated to the Man's Music and Talent. A Teen-Aged Hank Williams Jr. Provides the Vocals with Renditions of His Father's Most Famous Songs and Jr does a Fine and Heartfelt Labor of Love. Worth a Watch because of the Songwriting Creativity of the Artist and because there is Scant Little Else to Represent the Storytellers Life on Screen. That Needs to be Corrected ASAP.

The approximate story of country music and songwriting legend Hank Williams, filtered through his first-wife's narrow viewpoint (Hank actually had a bossy mother and second wife but you wouldn't know it from this), 1960's Hollywood's fear of authenticity, and the whole thing put together by a sort of Elvis Presley movie second unit. It's not a great movie, and it's an excessively loose telling of Hank's life, but George Hamilton's performance makes it work as a dated fantasy biopic, like one of those Jimmy Cagney or Victor Mature musicals from the 40's or 50's. Incidental ragtime music during a fight sequence, anyone? It's the South, Jim, but not as we know it.There's a lot wrong with the story, the casting and the production values but it's all forgivable EXCEPT the addition of a backing vocals quartet and cocktail-lounge piano to the arrangements of Hank Williams' great songs. That stinks. And no fiddle? No pedal steel guitar? No FIDDLE? Everything that people who don't know country music would identify with its schmaltziest aspects, but amazingly the songs stand up to the abuse.You will learn nothing about Hank Williams from this apart from the odd catchphrase, and you will get a lot of wrong information. But it's all there is, apart from 'The Show He Never Gave' and 'Lost Highway'. As others have said here, a 'Walk The Line' or 'Ray' type biopic of the man who paved the way for Elvis, wrote many more great songs than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones put together, and died before his 30th birthday is long overdue. Just needs somebody tall and skinny who can lip-sync.

If you are a songwriter or have ever written a song, you must marvel at the work of Hank Williams, and this movie shows us the magic of songwriting. Where do the greatest songs come from? And if we happen to write one, is it our responsibility to let the world hear it?Unlike so many other movies based on the lives of legendary musicians, this one is fun to watch (and not just listen). George Hamilton is great as Hank Williams, and it's his performance that saves the biopic from turning to a tiresome melodrama somewhere in the middle. You see, he doesn't seem to be all that serious even when the script calls him to be, and that my friend, however strange it may seem, is the key to success. So many biopics based on the stories of bitter ex wives and rivals suggest that our favorite artists never had a sense of humor.All the actors do a good job. Beautiful Susan Oliver plays a credible nag, and although the script doesn't put the blame on anyone (which is good), the performance allows us to question her motives from the get go.All the songs heard in this movie are classics. We hear two different versions of I saw the light, and the later one makes otherwise a sad ending the perfect ending.