"I Saw The Light"

[kev]

Went to see "I Saw The Light" yesterday, massive crowd of 7 people in the cinema! I know the film has had quite a bit of stick on line and not had particularly good reviews, but I was pretty impressed. I thought all the major players were excellent and really enjoyed the musical scenes. My only criticisms are, like the Johnny Cash film, the emphasis put on the doom-and-gloom drink and drugs life style rather than the music making, and, for a film about a musician, the shortage of actual musical scenes. I think I'd rather have seen half the film taken up with performances rather than the soap-opera relationship stuff!

[Smudger]

Thanks for that Kev. I'm planning to go and see it at the end of the month.
Country music fans will always want more music in a film like this but I suppose it has to appeal to a wider audience. I wonder how many of the other 6 punters were country fans........?

[Moshe]

the last country music-based movie I saw in a cinema was "Country Strong". I think there were about 7 or 8 people there at the time. Incredible ending

[kev]

Thanks for that Kev. I'm planning to go and see it at the end of the month.
Country music fans will always want more music in a film like this but I suppose it has to appeal to a wider audience. I wonder how many of the other 6 punters were country fans........?

Mrs Kev was there .... I think she enjoyed it more than I did! It was a film I thought I HAD to see being a Hank fan for many years but it's not a film I would recommend to anyone who isn't a country music fan.

All that said, Tom Hiddleston is very good. Watch out particularly for the first musical number: it's a real shivers up the spine moment!

[PeterJD]

As a Johnny Cash fan I found Walk the line appalling, struggled to finish it, took 3 attempts. I have heard Tom Hiddleston do a Hank song and he isnt a bad singer, but he doesnt sound like Hank. I will be watching it this weekend and hoping that I am not picking holes in his accent.

[kev]

As a Johnny Cash fan I found Walk the line appalling, struggled to finish it, took 3 attempts. I have heard Tom Hiddleston do a Hank song and he isnt a bad singer, but he doesnt sound like Hank. I will be watching it this weekend and hoping that I am not picking holes in his accent.

No, I didn't like "Walk The Line" either, though I thought Reese Witherspoon was wonderful as June Carter. I found this one easier to watch but did remark as we were travelling home that I would probably have turned it off after about 30 minutes if I had been watching it on DVD. As for the actors, I suppose it was easier for me cos I didn't (consciously) know Tom Hiddleston from anything else and probably wouldn't have guessed he was English if I hadn't already known.

[Smudger]

Although very dated now, "Your Cheatin' Heart", the black and white movie with George Hamilton as Hank, was not bad - and Hank Jr did the vocals.

[livewirer]

Went to see "I Saw The Light" yesterday, massive crowd of 7 people in the cinema!

the last country music-based movie I saw in a cinema was "Country Strong". I think there were about 7 or 8 people there at the time.

There were queues at C2C for Cine World but not much interest for Hank in this UK "Country boom" (?)/ renaissance era.
Some of the UK Country media hierarchy were invited to a special showing and found themselves sitting near Graham Norton
Tom Hiddleston was a guest on Graham Norton show presumably to plug the movie.

[kev]

So, did anyone else go and see it? I'd be interested in knowing what you thought.

[Moshe]

I was intending going to see it, but it has not been showing locally.
If I don't see it at the cinema I will probably watch it on line when it becomes available.

[Smudger]

Finally got to see it this weekend.
Mrs S enjoyed it more than I did, but I thought Hiddleston acted and sang well. He‘s no Hank impersonator but then I wasn’t expecting him to be. For me there was too much focus on the relationships (especially with Audrey) rather than the music. The story seemed to stick to the facts though, most of which are well documented, but I would have liked the movie to have started earlier in his life – mentioning how he learned to play the guitar and stuff like that. I don’t think it was as bad a film as some reviews said it was, but it would have been better with more music and less soap opera.