A Masterpiece!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A fairly touching film about a man that I knew very little about, and whom quite frankly I had only heard a few tunes from my boyhood in the rural part of the United States. It was another HBO afternoon airing that caught my attention for this film. I gave it a chance because it seemed to be of some quality.It's a bit of a sleeper that also has some fire in it. We see summation of a man's life in a performance that is fictional, but brings to both audience and characters the reflections of ups and downs of life's challenges. Hank Williams, as brilliant as he was as a musician, musical orator, and musical philosopher, was, after all, merely mortal-- as are we all.But it's Hank Williams that we're interested in. He seems to know more about life than we do, and gives us messages on how to live better, or, when down, how to slug through the mire of life's toughs by telling us how he knows that life can be cruel, but that we're not the only ones by virtue of his singing. The film itself has a kind of raw cinema veritae, almost documentary like quality to it. It's classic film making from the late 70s, on the cusp of the 80s. Who or what was Hank Williams? He was a man with a physical ailment that perhaps put him in tune a little better than most people with the pain that infects everyone. Sneazy Waters may not strictly resemble Hank Williams, but he does give us a good mimicry of Hank Williams energy in performances that Williams would have been proud of.A Canadian film touching on an American icon, and telling of American ideals, the independent quality, as has been mentioned in other reviews, is something that actually helps deliver the film's story. Even so it doesn't quite translate to DVD, as the print seems to be somewhat battered.Yet the film itself shines. Waters' performance is superb, the supporting cast do a fine job, even if the technical merits are a little on the rough side. A fresh print from an original negative would be welcome, but that may have to wait for another generation to rediscover this film.If you can forgive the technical marks of the DVD, then you should be able to enjoy a touching character study of a brilliant mind with a heart.Give it a whirl.

Like the other reviewer stated watching this movie is gut wrenching. It goes so deep. You can feel some of the pain this man Hank Williams was tormented with. He won the Pulitzer Prize this year because his songs went that deep. That deep dark space in our hearts where we hide stuff. The void space where we keep the darkness at bay. It seems with Hank he could not keep the blackness isolated it tormented him, it was painful for him. No one seemed to reach him, maybe it is better said no one seen him for what and who he was. The movie is excellent if you listen you can hear it, you will be moved by it. I highly recommend this movie but I don't know if I want my sister who suffers from depression to see it. Tea McCormick

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!

I've loved the songs and the singing of Hank Williams for many years. When I saw this film I felt as though I were watching Hank himself. The actor who portrays him is excellent, the songs wonderful. My only criticism is that the film could have been an hour or two longer, with a lot more songs. Any Hank Williams fan would have to love this movie.