This movie is a joke. It is an early 1960's very sanitized version of a great American song writer and singer. Hanks deserves much better than this. George Williams is simply not convincing as the singer. Only in Hollywood would anyone think pretty boy Hamilton could play the role of a rough and tumble street wise singer like Williams.

This is an exceptional musical biography of one of the greatest singer-songwriters-entertainers of the 20th century. Single handedly this country boy from the backwoods of Alabama changed American country music and in the process crossed over and changed popular music as well. His influence is still felt today from the legacy of Ray Charles to the driving force of Hank Williams Jr. Surprisingly the lead role in the movie is done quite well by George Hamilton, usually seen as just another pretty face in those days. It is amazing that fourteen-year-old Hank Jr. does such a fantastic job dubbing his dad's music for Hamilton. In some ways his rendition of Hank Sr.'s most poetic song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," is better than the original. He almost captures all the pain and loneliness of his dad's magnificent voice.Though there are many liberties taken with Hank Sr.'s life story, the film keeps the spirit of the man and the legend alive and burning brightly. One reason for the biographical changes besides poetic license to make the film more dramatic was the forced reliance on the no-talent Miss Audrey, Hank Sr.'s ex, as adviser for the movie and mentor for Hank Jr. who sang for his father. This led to all kinds of omissions and changes such as no mention of Hank Sr.'s new bride to whom he was married just before his untimely passing.The latest findings on Hank Sr.'s death, that he died from mixing alcohol and pain killers of the early 50's variety, does not conflict all that much with the ending of the movie. He did die in the backseat of his Cadillac while being chauffeured to a New Year's show in Canton, Ohio.Undoubtedly he died New Year's Eve 1952 but was not pronounced dead until New Year's Day 1953. Hank therefore has the unenviable distinction of having died in two different calendar years. I was nine years old at the time and I remember that my family (poor country folks from the hills of Arkansas) took it as if it were a death in the family. That is how much of an icon he had become during his few short years of stardom.So even though the facts of Hank's life may be wrong from time to time in the movie, his spirit is captured making this a great tribute to the man and his music.

The sequence before the credits is beautifully acted and filmed. It's extremely rare that a child playing the younger version of a character is more impressive than the lead. But the boy playing little Hank Williams gives a more nuanced performance than George Hamilton.George Hamilton. He sure does seem like odd casting in this movie. The archetypal suave playboy playing a country and western singer. Hmm. And Susan Oliver as his wife. She's good, and Hamilton is not bad. But again: It seems like casting against type.Red Buttons and Arthur O'Connell, in the other hand, fit snugly into their supporting roles.Hamilton lip-syncs the brilliant Williams songs. He is kind of deadpan but maybe that's what the guy was like. I don't pretend to know.A couple decades later, Jessica Lange did something similar in "Sweet Dreams." She surely wouldn't sound like the great Patsy Cline when she sings but oh! Now there is a movie! This one lacks its warmth and humor. But it's filmed in a noble manner. It strays occasionally, when a Williams song is orchestrated with syrupy strings as background.All in all, though, it's definitely worth watching, if only to hear the fantastic songs.

While the movie itself has a good story and the performances are great; to me, George Hamilton really captured the essence of Hank Williams. The actual story of how Hank Williams became one of the greatest Country and Western stars of his day is decidedly lacking. I have read the book by Chet Fillipo that inspired this movie and it too seems to be as a gross misrepresentation of Hank Williams as this movie was. Though I admit that Hank had many problems in his life and his true story is a tragic one, this movie does not depict the actual Hank Williams. In fact, the only thing this movie really has in common with his life is that he wrote songs, he was from Alabama, he married a woman named Audry, and he died at a tragically young age. In truth Hank Williams didn't like hard liqour, he drank beer and the movie fails to show all the time that he actually spent on the wagon. It also portrays his relationship with his wife as one more like cat and mouse than hushband and wife. Interviews with those closest to them, including Audry's dauther Lucrecia, say that they rarely argued as horrificly as they did in the movie. The movie also glosses over the fact that Hank was on painkillers and that he and Audry divorced in 1952 and Hank married later that year to Billie Jean Eshellman. In my opinion, this movie bears all the markings of a movie that Joeseph Goebbels would have made about the life of Adolf Hitler, it shows all the good things in marked glorification and then chooses to omit all but the best known of the bad things. In other words, this movie was made by Miss Audry and she didn't want anyone to think bad of her Hank. But, then that too is a testament to the love they held for each other, to the ends of thier lives. And that is the only truth I saw in the movie, Hank and Audry's undying love for each other, just below the surface.