Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Fella_shibby HONKYTONK MAN, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, screenplay by Clancy Carlile, cinematography by Bruce Surtees, edited by Ferris Webster, Michael Kelly and Joel Cox, music by Steve Dorff. Its a road movie, it features an interesting boy character who learns the harsh realities of life. The movies depiction of the depression is outstanding and the songs are good. Watch for Marty Robbins. One of Clint Eastwoods unusual films. The songs played are very soothing to the ear and the movie is very tragic. The movie is also bittersweet with the relationship between Eastwood and his nephew. This is a change for Clint Eastwood. He drops his tough guy persona and turns it into a completely different character. Clint and his son Kyle Eastwood shine together in this warmhearted adventure.

blazesnakes9 Clint Eastwood has been known for playing macho tough guy roles in the late 60's and 70's. His roles ranged from playing a lone gunfighter in the spaghetti western trilogy directed by Sergio Leone, to playing the street-wise police detective Harry Callahan. Now, he plays a different kind of role. One that is more softer and more touching than ever before. Eastwood stars and directs in Honkytonk Man. Honkytonk Man tells the story of a down and out Depression country singer, who's wounds up taking his nephew on a cross-country road trip to the Grand Ole Opry, where Eastwood wants to try to get a record. Along for the ride is the little boy's grandfather, played by John McIntire. When the trio go on their trek across the country, they stumbles into different kinds of misadventures that teaches Eastwood's nephew lessons along the way. Lessons that include life and death. Even love in that matter. The nephew, by the way, is played by Eastwood real-life son, Kyle. He gives a very fine as Whit. There is a lot of times in this movie that really press gently on the Eastwood persona. This is something that surprises me and any other movie goer who follows Clint Eastwood's movies. Honkytonk Man was the second Eastwood movie to be released. The first was Firefox, in which he plays a air pilot, who hijacks a Soviet spy plane. And, when Eastwood sings in this movie, he really does try to put in a lot of effort when he is performing on stage with the audience. The movie is also bittersweet with the relationship between Eastwood and his nephew. Like I said before, this is a change for Clint Eastwood. He drops his tough guy persona and turns it into a completely character. This may compared to his other film he did called Bronco Billy, in which he plays a rodeo cowboy. That film and this brings back some of those elements that Bronco Billy had and is inserted into Honkytonk Man. One more thing, I was disappointed that this movie didn't get a lot of attention. This film was a box-office flop, compared to his other film, Firefox, which grossed more money than this movie. There are a lot of fine performances in Honkytonk Man coming from Eastwood, Eastwood's son and also McIntire. ★★★ 3 stars.

James Dylan This movie has an okay story, a bit in the road-trip theme, and Eastwood's son, Kyle, is an okay actor, but the other actors don't impress me much. Eastwood didn't seem to care much about making the movie an authentic "period piece", and you will often see details in the background from modern times, as well as the haircuts, which are obviously from the early 80's. Several times he shows musicians and they seemed to put the least amount of effort into looking authentic. At the Grand 'Ol Opry, the female singer who is on after Eastwood is singing in a modern style, and anyone who listens to music from the 1930's knows that doesn't fit. Even the music the bands are playing has a 70's/80's sound to it. Maybe they should have got T-Bone Burnett as musical director! They could have had a band on in the vein of the Carter Family, instead. I guess they had a limited budget and it shows, but it could have been a much better movie than it turned out to be. Other things I noticed were, the cement curbs in the really luxurious looking cemetery in the film with all the green grass and trees...excuse me, this is in the 1930's, and as far as I can tell, most graveyards didn't look that maintained, as there was little money. Little things like that that kind of ruin the illusion of a rough period in the US. Even the cars sitting outside the Ryman Theater are highly polished and obviously collector pieces rented for the film and the owners didn't want to get any dust on them. With all the detail Eastwood put into his later masterpiece films, I am a little disappointed, but it is still a decent movie, I gave it a 6 out of 10.

Lechuguilla Set in Depression era Oklahoma, this film tells the story of a dirt poor, alcoholic singer named Red Stovall (Clint Eastwood), who heads out for Nashville, in hopes of making it big as a country singer. The story begins on a dilapidated farm composed mostly of dust, where Red's sister hesitatingly allows her son Whit (Kyle Eastwood) to go with Red to Nashville. The kid's Grandpa (John McIntire) also wants to go, to return to his native Tennessee. The film's beginning is dreary and depressing, but wonderfully realistic of the dust bowl days of the 1930s.Much of the plot takes place on the road, as the three travelers encounter an assortment of characters and problems along the way. The most important character they meet is a young girl named Marlene (the late Alexa Kenin), who yearns to be a country singer. It's one of many plot contrivances, but at least this contrivance offers some humor, especially when Marlene ... "sings". Other plot contrivances include a jailbreak, an angry bull, an aborted robbery, and an incident involving a chicken coop.If the film's weakness is excess contrivances, the film's strength is the portrayal of Red as an interestingly complex character. He coughs a lot, a symptom of tuberculosis. And the TB is getting worse. The question is ... will Red be able to reach the promise land before the disease affects his ability to sing? And, in a long monologue aimed at Whit, Red talks about his long-ago love affair with Mary Sims.The film's acting is credible, if not outstanding. Kyle Eastwood does a nice job as Whit. The film also features cameos by several then-current country singers. At the end, there's some sad real-life irony as Marty Robbins helps Red."Honkytonk Man" has some good atmosphere. Arguably, the best segment is at the Top Hat Club on Beale Street in Memphis, where the great Linda Hopkins belts out a blues number. If the film's writer had ditched some of those hokey "on the road" contrivances, and focused the plot more in smoky old bar rooms with low light levels and mournful music, the film would have been a lot better. As is, "Honkytonk Man" is still worth a look, if for no other reason than to see a low-key character study, in contrast to the brash and gaudy big ticket films of that cinematic era, like "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" and "Star Wars".